Floating Instrument Platform - GIF

[mklotz]

Designing such a device is a fascinating problem. I did a bit of internet searching and below are some quotes from various sources as well as two videos that show details of the ship's interior...

The ship has specially designed interiors. Some fixtures, such as the toilet seats, can flip 90°. The lights are on the ceiling and also on a wall that becomes the ceiling after the flip. Also, the shower heads are curved 90°.

Most rooms on FLIP have two doors: one to use when horizontal and the other for when FLIP is vertical. Bunk beds, toilets and stoves are built on swivels and gimbals, so they turn with the buoy, but things that would not rotate so well, like sinks, are built both horizontally and vertically in each room.

The steel hull platform of FLIP provides accommodation for 11 researchers and five crew members for up to 30 days. During the flip, everyone has to stand on deck while the deck below gradually becomes a bulkhead, before stepping onto a deck that was the bulkhead just minutes before.

There are two heads (bathrooms) on-board, two showers, but only one that can be used in the vertical and one that can be used in the horizontal position.