From the Design of the New to the Design of the Existing: Comparison Between Practical and Theoretical Aspects

As in other sectors, in naval and nautical contexts design has expanded its area of interest considering the end of life of boats in perfect harmony with the new LCA trends. In fact, as far as conceived in smart optics, each project has a more or less defined specific life cycle: knowing how to control it means to be able to write the future, defining from the early stages the strategies that will allow, over time, to manage the end life of the boat. This now consolidated practice is the result of an approach recently constituted. What has been designed and built in the past in a more consumer-friendly logic of "disposable", has over the years brought a large number of boats to be dismissed because no longer in sailing conditions or considered “old”. As a result, naval and nautical designers operate today in two different scenarios: the first is the Design of the New, a design that starts from the white sheet and comes to the realization of a new object; the second is the Design of the Existing, which, through various facets ranging from restoration to refitting, deals with an object whose history has been partly lived and must therefore be considered in the design itself. In both these fields of nautical design, technological developments and innovations are becoming more and more important to achieve interesting and avantgarde results. However, too often, the cognitive dimension of the design process is forgotten, and its impact on the final results is not considered. Being able to connect technical and conceptual aspects allows to get a complete and far-sighted product, the outcome of the deepening and the expanding of the concept of design itself.