SEOUL — Investors led by a US firm placed an order with a South Korean shipbuilder for a $1.1 billion ship conceived as a floating luxury residence that will cruise the world visiting events like the Cannes Film Festival, the Sydney New Year's Eve celebration and Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.

The order, announced last week by Utopia Residences Co., of Beverly Hills, Calif., marks the first time a cruise ship will be built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world's second-largest shipbuilder by order value after Hyundai Heavy Industries Inc. It will be just the third passenger ship built by Samsung Heavy and is a sign that South Korea's shipbuilding firms — which have dominated the business of major ocean-going container ships, bulk carriers and energy platforms for a decade — are now moving into construction of more complex ships that have long been made by European builders.

The 105,000-ton ship, to be called Utopia, will have 200 private residences, a 204-room hotel, a casino, spa, theater, night club, swimming pools and restaurants. Samsung Heavy will begin the building process in 2012, with a delivery target in 2013.

The ship is roughly half the 225,282-ton volume of the world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s Oasis of the Seas, which began its maiden voyage this weekend. While that ship will stick to weeklong cruises from Florida, the Utopia will be on a "perpetual tour," principally to ports in Asia, Europe and South America.

"The ship will attend the world's greatest cultural and sports events," David Robb, chairman of Utopia, said in a phone interview. He listed annual events like the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and others like the Olympics as likely destinations.

The investors in the ship are led by Frontier Group, a St. Louis-based private-equity firm that Mr. Robb helped start with Sanford McDonnell, former chief executive of McDonnell Douglas Co., and Frank C. Carlucci, former US defense secretary. The firm built a showroom in Beverly Hills with full-scale interiors of the residences that will be built on Utopia, which range in size from 130 to 613 square meters.

For Samsung Heavy, the order is likely to be the highlight of one of the worst years in the shipbuilding industry.