Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2007/January 2008 | Page 50

life

FEATURE

Photo above and right p51: The latest concept drawings from the BJD studio, 95-metre
Maverick. The concept is being promoted to potential clients and will in time pave the way for
a customised design, developed in close consultation with clients and naval architects.

Björn's making waves in the
elite world of superyachts

Photo: Bjorn Johansson.

Article by: Diane Coppell

A

s a child, Björn Johansson
loved to draw – constantly,
and always boats or wildlife.
Watching boats was a passion he
indulged during hours spent at the ocean’s
edge as a retreat from the restrictions
of boarding school life in Kenya.
His fascination is clear: “It didn’t
matter what they were, a dhow or a
superyacht, they all have their own
qualities. Looking at them on waves is
like staring at the flames in a fire – they
do beautiful things. They roll and flow,
there is flare and sheer and stunning
shapes emerge from any angle.”
Today, at the Bembridge studio which
he established six years ago, 33-year-old
Björn is still drawing boats. Though now,
as an emerging force in an elite field of
international superyacht designers, the
voyage begins in his rich imagination and

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culminates in breathtakingly impressive
yachts, created for top-drawer clients.
A gathering ritual precedes his
move to the drawing board. “I fill
my head with images of all kinds
and from countless sources – planes,
houses, marine life, textures, sounds,
colours. Anywhere and everywhere I
go becomes like shopping for ideas.”
He allows these ideas to ferment,
undisturbed, for a couple of days
before setting to work on drawings
which are subsequently transformed,
by the technological wizards he
has brought together in his team,
into stunningly realistic animations
based on precise specifications.
Growing up in Kenya - where his
Swedish father ran his own borehole
drilling company - exposed Björn to
an abundance of sights, sounds and

experiences which stimulated and fed
his unerring fascination with the world
around him. Life there yielded many
benefits – fluency in Swahili among them
– and continues to influence his designs.
“I consider myself lucky to have
grown up in Africa. The people I met
there showed me that there is never just
one way of doing something – there
are, for instance, many ways to sit,
cook, eat, travel around and build.
“That influences what I do now.
I might incorporate features which
people don’t expect to find in a boat,
such as a waterfall. If they seem
surprised, my answer is that you can
have whatever you choose, you don’t
have to be confined by expectations.”
Limitations seldom feature in the
vocabulary of the super-rich clients
whose dreams he now embodies in

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