Ruixin Xue
Thalassophile
Super Yacht
2022 2025(Refine)
Thalassophile originated as a personal design exploration during the pandemic — a concept yacht created to spark curiosity and care for the ocean. Back then, I developed the core vision, exterior form, and spatial layout, but my skills and tools at the time limited how fully I could express the interior world I imagined.
Years later, with significant growth in my design practice and the emergence of advanced AI imaging technologies, I decided to return to the project on my own. I revisited the concept from the ground up, refining the interior architecture and atmosphere and re-visualizing the experience of life aboard the vessel.
Over roughly 20 hours of renewed design work, I transformed the project into a fully realized narrative that more accurately represents the vision I had always hoped to achieve.
To protect what we love, we must first let people see its beauty.
Thalassophile is a 61-meter marine research vessel designed to bridge science and society.
Every winter, it carries 12 scientists into the deep ocean; during the rest of the year, it transforms into a public ocean education space docked in Los Angeles.
Vessel Dimensions & Overview
Length: 70 m Beam: 15 m Guests: 12 Crew: 5
While at sea, Thalassophile functions as a living laboratory — collecting biological samples, mapping underwater ecosystems, and using AI-assisted holographic imaging to study bioluminescent species in their natural habitats.
When it returns to shore, the vessel’s transparent decks and modular interior transform into interactive galleries, where children can walk through glowing projections of real ocean data, touch digital recreations of marine creatures, and see science come alive through light and movement.
Beneath Thalassophile’s hull lies an autonomous submersible powered by clean hydrogen energy. It dives thousands of meters into the deep, mapping marine ecosystems and uncovering the beauty and mystery of life below — from bioluminescent creatures to forgotten shipwrecks. Designed without a human pilot, the submarine explores silently, leaving no trace but knowledge.
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Equipped with next-generation spectral scanners, volumetric 3D mapping, and bio-luminescence tracking systems, the team studies how deep-sea organisms adapt, communicate, and evolve under extreme conditions.
Using soft robotic sampling arms and AI-assisted reconstruction, they can model fragile ecosystems without disturbing them — turning every discovery into a living digital archive of the ocean’s unseen world.
Thalassophile was commissioned by a private owner whose passion for the ocean goes far beyond leisure. Though it embodies the refinement of a luxury yacht, every curve and space is guided by intention — to merge beauty with purpose.
Its spatial organization balances scientific precision and human comfort, integrating laboratories, living quarters, and exhibition spaces within a single fluid structure. It is both a personal sanctuary and a vessel for discovery, designed to enjoy the sea while giving back to it.
