CALACATTA BORGHINI COUNTER

Brief

The client wanted to have a main feature piece for the RAW on 5 sushi bar on the new celebrity edge.

The brief was that it needed to look like it was dragged out of the side of a mountain and it was imperative that it’s appearance looked as though it was a single piece of marble.

The counter was seven metres long and 900mm high. The calacatta cladding needed to be fixed to a metal substrate. The surface was Quarella Blanco Sal with USPH fillets and cut outs for hot plates.

As this was being fixed to metal substrate there was zero tolerance allowed on the measurements

The Challenges

CHALLENGES (Celebrity Edge)

The challenges here was initially ensuring we procured the right block from Cararra, as there was very little room for error or cracks mid way through the block.

Apart from that, the only other main challenge was hiding the joints. We brought one of our team in from the Features Division to come up with a method of hiding the joints, ensuring they are not visible to the naked eye. We achieved this through a method, which will remain an in-house technique.

CHALLENGES (Celebrity BEYOND)

This ship will not be built until 2022, so the reason why this counter was produced was it was originally for the Celebrity Apex, as a back-up, due to minor issues with existing counter.

Our challenge was to complete within 20 days. The original counter we produced for Celebrity Edge was completed in 10 weeks, so this presented us with a significant challenge, which we overcame by bringing retired stone craftsmen back out of retirement temporarily.

It was one of the most tense periods in our history, but we achieved completion on time.

However, the global lockdown happened on day 16 and a decision was then made to allocate this counter to the Celebrity Beyond.

Apart from that, the only other main challenge was hiding the joints, as previously overcome, which was achieved in the same manner as the Celebrity Edge.