DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 248
When the world
shut down
In 2019, Michael Nykjær was looking ahead with confidence, predicting that, on the basis of enquiries received,
2020 appeared as though it was going to be ‘absolutely the
best ever year with many orders.’ It was anticipated that
DAMPA’s turnover would grow to 150 million kroner. As
events would unfold, the situation was very different in ways
that could not have been imagined beforehand.
The pandemic also brought building construction to an
abrupt halt and the consequent uncertainty about the future
resulted in planned projects being suspended or abandoned. Fortunately, by the end of 2020, the world’s population began to receive vaccinations and so by the early
summer of 2021, life started to return to a semblance of normality.
248
SH Diana, Swan Hellenic Cruises, Tilberg Design of Sweden, 2022
Photo: Marine Interior Images, Alexander Rudolph, 2023
In February 2020, Europe was engulfed by the Covid-19
pandemic. Denmark was put into lockdown from 13 March
and, all over the country, industrial production came to a
standstill. A significant proportion of DAMPA’s pending
orders were for cruise ships but, as the cruise industry suffered an immediate collapse in bookings with a general loss
of economic confidence, almost 70 per cent of these were
cancelled. Of around 25 orders that were in the pipeline,
only one was actually placed.
