Crown Princess, Regal Princess
Visions on the ocean
CROWN PRINCESS & REGAL PRINCESS The Crown Princess, the most beautiful and prestigious cruise liner in the world, is the first of twins (the sister ship is the Regal Princess), built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste for the British line P&O. The design of the Crown Princess was developed by the Mercantile Costructions Division of Fincantieri, with the design of the external form and the upper decks by Architect Renzo Piano, giving the ship its distinctive dolphin shape. The Crown Princess takes 1680 passengers (with 650 crew), has a gross registered tonnage of 70 thousand t., a length of 245 m, and a width of 32,25 m.; the hull is 53 m. high.Credits
Architect: Renzo Piano RPBW
Photographer: G.Basilico/ G.Berengo Gardin/ G. Crozzoli
The tecnology
Bent structural curtain walling Strutural curtain walling Special frames
An exceptional feature of this ship is the use of light alloy for the internal and external framework and for the bulwarks with glass structures on the upper decks. These components were produced by FOCCHI SPA, who worked alongside with the design team in selecting the materials and devising the structural design. The use of this system has led to a considerable saving in the weight of the framework, with the use of aluminium instead of the traditional brass and stainless steel; in this context, as well as the glass structures and bulwarks, the dome in the observation lounge (60 m long by 30 m wide) is also made entirely from aluminium. The Focchi Research and Development Dept., together with Renzo Piano B.W. Studio, dealt with the visual aspect of the glass structures by working out the ideal shape of aluminium framework for the vertical and horizontal curved elements. The machining was done at the Focchi factory, using a specially designed machine for curving profile, extruded to F state (i.e. not hardened and tempered and thus more pliable). The profile was then put through the necessary machining processes, including hardening, tempering and appropriate surface anodizing treatment.
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