Designing ships around multispecies crews

Have you read David Brin's Startide Rising, and what do you think of its multispecies ship design?

The novel itself is not assessed. The broader answer favours designing ships for compatible body plans and providing different arrangements for aquatic crews.

Alex Clarke has not read David Brin's Startide Rising, so the novel's ship receives no direct assessment. The broader discussion concerns how crew anatomy and environmental needs shape a vessel. Star Trek supplies a disputed example: attention to ergonomics varies between episodes, while another panellist points out that Starfleet ships often have mostly one species aboard. Grouping compatible bipeds together and designing separate arrangements for aquatic crews is suggested as a practical alternative. A nominally multispecies force therefore need not make every individual ship suitable for every species.