The Golden Sea Turkey Award

The Golden Sea Turkey Award for 2009 goes to WHY - the 58x38m (190’x125’) luxury yacht concept from Wally-Hermès Yachts. Breathtaking in size and scope, WHY is nothing less than a synthetic private island.

The architecture of the whole project fits perfectly in the environment - there are no excesses, nothing is superfluous, the impact on the sea is minimum.—Luca Antivari

Wally Yachts is justifiably famous for their modern and minimalist style, and infamous for their line of fast yachts that guzzle diesel like cheap Chianti - the brand has become synonymous with stylish over consumption on a grand scale. Ironically, the style we call “modern”, characterized by an absence of applied decoration, was developed in the early 20th century by Socialist leaning architects - “German worker housing” - as Tom Wolfe famously derided it. Like Marie Antoinette dressing up in a peasant’s smock, WHY takes on a proletariat style, even though, for all intents and purposes, it is a floating Versailles.

The logic of calling such a beast “minimalist” is perhaps only graspable by those lounging on the third story owner’s terrace. “Let them eat imitation crab cake”.