In issue 8 of Cercle magazine, Erick van Egeraat discusses new territories, luxury and the meaning of ‘Effortless Everywhere’

After years of speculation, Rolls-Royce announced that it is working on a 4X4 SUV model to expand its line-up. This decision will obviously re-fuel the discussion between those in favour and those against such an institute of tradition and exclusivity, differentiating itself into entirely new concepts and market segments.

Personally, I am not at all against such blunt moves into new territories; to the contrary, I find these new combinations, also beyond those of the car industry, very, very fascinating. And this statement is not based on my stylistic expectations. Whether or not this new Rolls-Royce is styled well or not, or if Aston Martin will do better with its new Lagonda SUV; for me personally these are neither really relevant nor interesting questions to dwell upon.

They are as irrelevant as the question if a Rolls-Royce can also be an SUV. It is like stating that the new music album of the Islandic artist Bjork cannot be considered an actual Bjork album. She made the album herself…, she did and that is it, period.

Consider them superfluous concerns; like the question whether or not an SUV made by Rolls-Royce is even necessary. Look at nature’s marvellous diversity. No-one wonders if the decorative feathers of a peacock are really necessary. No-one debates if these feathers increase the ability of the peacock to fly.

No, for me the real fascination in this announcement is something else altogether. What I find fascinating is the phrase with which the upcoming new product was introduced: ‘Effortless Everywhere’

Effort and value

As an architect and designer with more than 35 years of practice, this phrase drew my immediate attention.
It also confused me, why? Well, one can hardly state that creating or building a Rolls-Royce goes effortless, or that Rolls-Royce stands for something we think of as uncomplicated or easy. Are we generally not of the opinion that value is created, only when it results from some form of exceptional effort? And is, not all that we consider good or valuable, hard to find?

‘Effortless Everywhere’ has indeed many complementing connotations.
For me however, it summarizes what I aim the results of my work to be: fascinating, tantalizing, positively overwhelming, but also completely self-explanatory, comfortable on every imaginable level, and never a nuisance to its user.

To design and build such a sophisticated product as a high end luxury car is an incredibly complex process with many overlapping disciplines. The margin for error is enormous, yet no error can be tolerated. The marketing power phrase ‘Effortless Everywhere’ is, I have to assume, that this effort is (and never should be) of any concern to the person experiencing or driving the car. And yes, evidently it suggests that this meticulous machine can bring you everywhere.

Architecture

In architecture, the oldest form of intelligent creative work of mankind, one would perhaps expect the same meticulousness to exist. That after thousands of years we would have evolved into design- methods and construction techniques which would allow us to surpass any expectation easily.

But the differences are in fact enormous. In the building industry the margins for error are anticipated on, and technologies used are very often very far behind on any other industry. The building industry develops exceptionally slow and sometimes even in retrograde.
There are some world famous architects who consider it no problem whatsoever to state that such things as serious leakages, or repetitive breaking of glass surfaces simply comes with occupying their signature designs. It is an industry that very often is able to get away with all sorts of shortcomings that we deplore if they occur in other categories such as our food, clothes, cars, cell phones and other high-end digital hardware. Ten thousand years after the first outstanding structures where erected, hundreds of years after great master like Palladio or Borromini, we still find it difficult to handover our crafted architectural structures in an immaculate and flawless state.

Incredible, is it not? Clearly there have been areas where we have made serious progress. Our interiors for example, are being produced with level of care and attention to detail which could start to be compared with these very high-end products we are all so well familiar with. But to the extent that they can be compared with a present day Rolls-Royce and what it stands for?

Private residences

To achieve this kind of quality, more, much more has to happen. For the private residences I work on, my team and myself have decided to start taking care of all the details, from overall design to façade-technology and -engineering, to all the intricacies of personalized home automation, garden landscaping, up to full furniture, glass and china ware, bedlinen and decoration selection. We have started to consider it our job to take full control, to leave no subject out of sight. All with the ambition for the total ensemble to make perfect sense. But even at that point it still remains a challenge to get to the same level of completeness and perfection. The industry that surrounds real estate simply does not deliver that level of quality.

Superyachts

The yachting industry is well-known for achieving high-end results in design and detailing; but they too have their fair share of snags and hitches. The majority of naval designs and realizations are far from up to date; regularly falling back to styles of past generations. More importantly they generally do not achieve any of the obvious perfection, we take for granted as a given in the high-end products which surround us.

Recently I have had my own experience in the field of Superyacht design. We have freshly delivered my first ship MySky; a Superyacht of 55 meters that received the 2015 World Superyacht Award in May of this year. The team from the Dutch shipbuilder Heesen Yachts that built the ship, provided us with a starting point for finesse and craftsmanship that is quite rare to find in, say, real estate.

That was a great help, but this was not enough. Achieving the desired result was anything but effortless. In fact, we had to push all the very qualified people we had to levels of ambition that were also new to them. Everybody concerned had to push themselves to the limit, but all rose to the challenge and ended up achieving what we specified. I tell you it was far from easy!

The result is not only a ship that conforms to the specifications laid down by the owner but, as importantly, we’ve attempted to provide yet further dimensions of comfort.

So in the end, this ship has been transformed into ‘full floating comfort’ giving a result that follows the maxim: being ‘effortless everywhere’.

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