By
Laura Hyde |
Industry experts championed sustainability in maritime interiors at the Cruise Ship Interiors Design Expo Europe (CSIE), which took place in Hamburg, Germany, for the first time in early December 2025. The two-day event at the Former Mains Customs Office included a programme of conference sessions, networking opportunities, an award show and over 300 exhibitors, 100 of which were exhibiting at the event for the first time.
Conference sessions took place on exhibiting supplier stands with host suppliers including Oceancircle, Herculan, CITA Design Studio, Harmony Marine Solutions, Robos Contract Furniture and LIND DNA. Brands such as Riverside Luxury Cruises, Swan Hellenic, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, MSC Cruises, Cruise Saudi, TUI Cruises, Hurtigruten, COLUMBIA, Allstars Design and more shared their insights.
The ‘Delivering premium cruising on smaller vessels’ keynote, which was moderated by Marco De Jorio of De Jorio Design, featured insights from Alejandra Obregon, senior director of architecture and hotel design at The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection; Gabi Haupt, director of cruise experience at Riverside Luxury Cruises; and Hans Heger, vice president of operations at Swan Hellenic Cruises. Obregon discussed anticipating needs of guests with the rise of artificial intelligence. She said it was important to include infrastructure in the design that allows for flexibility to integrate technology that may not exist yet, while keeping it intuitive for guests to use in the design without overcomplicating things.
(from left) Alejandra Obregon of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Gabi Haupt of Riverside Luxury Cruises and Hans Heger of Swan Hellenic Cruises at the keynote session moderated by Marco De Jorio of De Jorio Design (far right)
The sessions on the second day were dedicated almost entirely to shipbuilding, with CSIE’s first shipyard-focused panel discussion – titled ‘Building on the brief: How shipyards and cruise lines co-create next-gen spaces’ – and two focused Meet the Brand Q&As. Speakers from Lloyd Werft, Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku joined to discuss the innovations and progression in cruise shipbuilding.
In the CSI+ Lounge, Barbara Wiethoff, partner at JOI-Design, joined Stefanie Jentz, design project manager at TUI Cruises, to discuss the cruise line’s latest vessel, Mein Schiff Relax. Jentz gave an insight into how they approached sustainability on the project. He believes 80 per cent of the sustainability handling is in the early stage of design when selecting materials, with every material chosen requiring subsequent testing to ensure it meets the exact needs and not only looks great but holds up to use.
The Sustainable Design Summit held its most interactive session to date with over 130 people gathering to exchange their experience within the industry. Together, the session leads Mike Lambourn, design lead at PriestmanGoode, and Zoe Li, senior sustainability manager at Archer Hotel Capital, and participants interrogated the environmental, social and governance goals in their regular workflow, how they handle roadblocks in their sustainability processes and what developments they forecast for the future.
Over 1,000 meetings took place across the two days at several speed networking events
Notable exhibitors included Zenko HF Interiors, Marine Interiors (part of Fincantieri Group), Crivellari Divani & Poltrone, Harmony Marine Solutions, Ekornes, Tuuci, Pooky and MEYER.
Sustainable material company Oceancircle hosted bracelet making on its stand, using recovered ocean waste to create stylish closed-loop accessories, while Holland America Line (led by Willie Traeger) and OSK Design (led by Emilie Ørgård Posniak Hansen) collaborated on ‘The Wishing Tree’ exhibit on stand G60. The exhibit invited visitors to share their ideas and wishes for making materials, products, interior spaces and processes more sustainable.
Read more: A wish for the future of ship sustainability
Holland America Line’s Willie Traeger and OSK Design’s Emilie Ørgård Posniak Hansen collaborated on ‘The Wishing Tree’ exhibit
In addition, over 1,000 meetings took place across several speed networking events.
The event culminated with the 2025 Cruise Ship Interiors Awards ceremony in which multiple awards were handed out. Cruise & Ferry’s Shelly Palmer presented the award for Sustainable Product of the Year to Stefan Bez and Julian Cubero Garcia of Oceancircle for the firm’s Green Guard Underlay, which turns discarded carpets and textiles into high-quality carpet underlay for cruise ships and passenger ferries.
Cruise & Ferry’s Shelly Palmer (second left) with Stefan Bez (far right) and Julian Cubero Garcia (third from left) of Oceancircle
Other award winners included AIDA Cruises, Walt Disney Imagineering for Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, SMC Design, Viken Group, Bath Fitter Commercial for its PermaFit Solutions, and many more.
See the full list of award winners on the CSIE Awards website.
CSIE will return to the Hamburg Messe + Congress in Germany from 2-3 December 2026.