A cruise liner concept design introduced recently by Fincantieri, the Italian shipbuilder, aims to offer a better layout for public spaces and optimize weight distribution of a cruise liner.

Called Project Mille, the ship features engine rooms that are located midships, forward of the two thirds aft location that is commonplace in virtually all cruise liner designs of today. By moving heavy items, such as the engines and tanks forward, the design offers optimal weight distribution, Fincantieri said in a statement.

This layout means that engine rooms will be symmetrical, which is optimal from the point of view of Safe Return to Port rules. Lifeboats are located further down than in most contemporary designs, which again means simpler and safer evacuation in an emergency.

From the point of view of public area, the design offers a better layout between “destination areas”, such as restaurants and theatres, and “walk through areas,” such as shopping arcades and it helps to integrate outdoor areas with indoor ones, Fincantieri said.

An interlocked layout of cabins means that the number of balcony cabins can be increased by 10% in comparison with an existing ship, while open deck areas will increase by 10% too due to innovative layout design. The ship will also be 10% more efficient than existing vessels thanks to its sophisticated hull design, the shipbuilder says.

 The concept design has been introduced in three size categories: a 60,000 gross ton 1,500 passenger variant being the smallest one, while the next step up is a 100,000 gross ton ship of 2,600 passengers. The largest variant is of 150,000 gross tons that can accommodate 4,000 passengers, Fincantieri said.

It has been customary to place the engine rooms of major passenger vessels about two thirds aft since the late 1960s, although a few large ships were built in the 1950s that featured engines even further aft. The logic was that by moving the engines and their uptakes away from midships location, more space could be freed there to public rooms.

In some vessels, such as P&O’s Canberra of 1961, placing engine and boiler rooms closer to the stern than what became the norm later in the decade led to problems with trim as the heavy machinery depressed the stern and lifted the bow, a situation that needed to be replaced by placing additional ballast in the bow.