Sunday, August 1, 2010

"Oliver Design" at Basque Television (Euskal Telebista)

Euskal Telebista (ETB), the Basque TV society, has issued on July 31 and August 1, within his channels ETB1 and ETB2, in Euskera and Spanish respectively, as a part of his Kresala program, a report about the ship design firm  "Oliver Design", of my friend and colleague Jaime Oliver.



The program, sponsored by the Basque Maritime Forum, was interesting but very short, especially the version on the second day, which left me with mixed feelings, thinking that any viewer who did not know Jaime and his career is impossible to have captured, from this ETB report, the ideas and achievements of Jaime Oliver and his team in the field of naval architectural design.


So, I apologize in advance for the brevity and low representation of this post, based on what ETB program showed and some pictures I took directly from my TV screen, which are of very poor quality. Luckily "Oliver Design" has got a web page (see here), where the interested reader can learn about the history and production of the company.


In the ETB program Jaime Oliver stressed that the core guide of his business is to seek and obtain differentiated products, distinguishing it from others in a field essentially as creative as ship design. Before "Oliver Design" Jaime Oliver founded a series of companies related to the various aspects about ship design and construction, complete or just their habitable zones, until in 1990 he created "Oliver Design", which has expanded its field of activity up to, for example, collaborating on projects with Spanish Navy, through Navantia society, emphasizing the design of crew accommodations in submarines, optimizing space and achieving a level of comfort previously considered unreachable. In my visit to his yard in Alto Maliaño (Cantabria), I could check "in situ" a model of the berth specifically designed by Jaime Oliver for submarines, within his strategy to improve their living confort.

Jaime Oliver mentioned his current efforts in improving the quality of life aboard merchant ships, of traditionally austere living spaces, with designs that seek to make the crew feel a bit "as at home", with facilities such as swimming pool, spa, green area with a small huerta etc.

Jaime also mentioned one of his key ideas I've often heard to him, the need for the designer to take notes and make sketches by hand and consider that computers are an aid to creativity but never a substitute.

I hope that ETB has an opportunity to expand his report on "Oliver Design" ,that is truly pioneering in the Basque Country and a reference in Spain.

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