Quinette Gallay equips the largest cruise ship in the world built by STX

Quinette Gallay equips the grand theatre and the skating ring

The STX Group was established in 1976 in Korea, and is now a front-line player in the industry. In 2008 the group becomes a shareholder of Aker Yards and takes over the famous shipyards of Saint-Nazaire by creating its subsidiary STX Europe.

Building the world’s largest cruise ship

STX Europe works with the leading cruise companies and has confirmed orders ensuring full production capacity for the next 10 years. Among these, the construction of the largest cruise ships in the world on behalf of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL).

The history of the RCCL began in 1968, when it was founded by the leaders of three Norwegian shipping companies: Anders Wilhelmsen & Company, I. M. Skauge & Company and Gotaas Larsen. In 1970 the company inaugurated its first cruise ship, the Song of Norway. Ever since, the RCCL fleet keeps growing with ever more impressive and innovative ships.

STX Europe has started the construction of Harmony of the Seas, which is scheduled to sail in May 2016. This giant with 13 passenger decks and 2,747 cabins will accommodate 5479 passengers in an environment endowed with the latest technology, designed and developed by the company.

Quinette Gallay equips the grand theatre and the skating ring with its seats

Harmony of the Seas will include a 1,300 seats theatre as well as 656 seats for the area dedicated to ice shows. STX and architect Wilson Butler – hired by RCCL – chose Quinette Gallay to design, manufacture and mount the chairs of these two venues.

Quinette Gallay was able to meet very specific requests. The theatre on the Harmony is arched and has lot of curves, creating a challenging environment both in terms of seating layout and installation due to the many seat widths. In addition, Quinette Gallay had to integrate at design stage the necessity to meet the requirement of weight management as on a ship, each item is studied to be reduced in weight to its maximum. This required that we offered a very luxurious bespoke model made of natural materials, while optimizing its weight and taking closely into account the room lines.

Quinette Gallay designed its chair, eponymously called Harmony. Dressed in the shining velvet fabrics from the famous German designer Schoepf, with tailored die-cast seat & back shells lined with a US Architex vinyl. The combination of these materials creates a harmony available in 3 different colors tones expressing a specific universe for each area of the theatre.

The installation is now complete at the ice ring and well underway in the theatre, in view of the inauguration of the Harmony of the Seas scheduled early May.