HIVE began with an idea borrowed from the oldest cooperative architecture on Earth. Many of the thoughts that shaped her emerged through the Young Designer of the Year programme, a partnership between Feadship and Boat International, in which finalists worked alongside the Studio De Voogt team led by Senior Designer Jan Schaffers. Their conversations kept returning to one thought: a central place where people come together, then move naturally towards their own pursuits.

A second influence came from the salons of 1930s Paris, where artists and thinkers gathered to exchange ideas. The hive provided the logic for how different activities coexist within one structure. The salon inspired a place for conversation.

Forward on the upper deck, a circular glass-walled library opens onto a secluded garden, a quieter counterpart to the social spaces elsewhere on board. Folding glass doors let interior and exterior flow together. From the aft dining area, the view runs along the centreline all the way to the garden, almost 100 metres away.

Below the waterline, an expansive underwater window gives the underwater lounge an ever-changing view of the marine world: a place for discovery, observation and quiet fascination. Like the kayak launch room, it grew from ideas developed with the Young Designer of the Year finalists.