Monday, January 17, 2011

Oasis of the Seas Cruise Ship's Superstructure and Central Park

As the largest and the most innovative cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas attracts the attention of thousands of naval architects and marine engineers. The superstructure of the ship that has a middle hollow area for central park is really seen as totally new approach in ship design. Most of the cruise ships tend to have superstructures whose cabins and other rooms were layered to a form similar to a pyramid. The higher the structure the smaller and the closer it will be to the center line of the ship.
source: oasisoftheseas.com
The central park of the Oasis of the Seas cruise ship has been designed with green trees that make the deck really look like a park on land. With translucent roof installed in the middle of the park, naval architects who designed the ship have provided smart solution for the day lighting of the lower deck. The space at the lower deck will look brighter but consumes less electrical energy. Layers of cabins on both sides (port and starboard) of the central park receive more light during the day when the ship is cruising in the middle of the sea. This approach makes this wide ship becomes more stable but without any dark rooms in the middle of the superstructure. We all know that wider ships are more stable but most often they have rooms in the middle closer to the centerline of the ship that do not receive direct sunlight.
source: http://www.oasisoftheseas.com/galleries2/27/lowres/zip%20line%20final.jpg 
Many traditional passenger ships whose width are bigger than 20 meters will have rooms in the middle of the superstructure and below the main deck that need more electrical energy for lighting. Personally, I see that Oasis of the Seas ship has better stability due to her wider hull but has better and cheap lighting power that comes from the Sun. Sunlight penetrates the translucent roofs and gives light to lower deck and at the same time gives light via hollow area to Oasis of the Seas rooms on both sides of the ship on port and starboard sides of the ship - such a brilliant design! This is a simple way of using solar energy without the need of installing photovoltaic panels.
source: http://www.oasisoftheseas.com/galleries2/27/lowres/CloseUpofCarousel_Night.jpg
Perhaps this is the  most popular cruise ship which the Royal Caribbean International has ever had. Her innovative design, her luxury and her stability properties will continue to be the focus of attention among naval architects who are now dreaming of their own ship or boat designs in the future. The conventional monohull ship with pyramid superstructure will not be as conservative as it was when Oasis of the Seas had not been constructed. We can expect to see the future cruise or passenger or even ferry ship has various new on board elements that are inspired by the design of the Oasis of the Seas. by Charles Roring





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