Plenty of architects design buildings that reach for the sky. But here’s a guy who’s designing something that flies clear through it. Come next spring, folks booking on Peach, a new, low-cost Japanese air carrier, will board planes gussied up by Neil Denari, the L.A. starchitect behind the futuristic HL23 tower on the High Line.
The airline’s name was chosen because peaches are “a well-known and much loved fruit that symbolizes longevity, energy and happiness across Asian countries” to quote press materials. Denari wrapped the plane’s body in a swirl of pink and fuchsia -- peach, apparently, would’ve been too literal -- then stenciled “Peach” on the tail in lettering reminiscent of the text on a fruit box. More details from The Architect’s Newspaper:
Inside the planes will have purple and grey seats, purple strips on overhead bins, grey rugs with purple specks and purple partitions.
Geez. Will the flight attendants be purple, too? It’s an aesthetic that falls somewhere between Virgin's sexy, clubby cabins and a box of Pocky sticks, which was roughly the point. Peach is conceived of to appeal to twenty- and thirtysomethings who want to make quick, cheap flights between the airline's base in Osaka and other airports in Japan, China, Korea, and elsewhere in Asia. As Denari told The Architect’s Newspaper, “it needed to be cool and cute, but not Hello Kitty cute.”
Mission accomplished. Mostly, though, it's just nice to see an airline (and a low-cost airline in particular) invest in slick design. Flying is so dreadful that anything carriers do to make the experience less horrific can go a long way toward luring passengers and keeping them loyal to boot -- so long as Peach doesn’t adopt some of the less savory aspects of starchitecture.
[Images courtesy of Neil M. Denari Architects]
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