Genoa Design Week 2025 hosted the second edition of CONTAINER 02, a visionary project that transforms containers – global symbols of movement and logistics – into places of storytelling, identity and experimentation. Curated by Simona Finessi, director of the international magazine Platform, the project selected 20 designers who interpreted the theme through 13 unique installations. Among them was Archventil, which signed container number 8 with the project Beyond the Container.
A strategic cultural event in the heart of Genoa’s Old Port
The new event venue, nestled between the historic Metellino and Galata buildings, covers 10,000 square meters in Genoa’s Porto Vecchio, along the waterfront of the historic center. A symbolic place that, after centuries of transformation, now houses such realities as the Museum of the Sea and the Faculty of Economics. Thanks to urban reconversion, this area has become an ideal stage for cultural events and design projects such as CONTAINER 02.
The Archventil concept: Beyond the container
When Simona Finessi invited Archventil to participate, the intensity of Milan Design Week left little room for new projects. But we don’t like limits. So Beyond the Container was born, an installation that plays precisely with the idea of overcoming limits, both physical and conceptual.
We decided to open the container. To dissolve its boundaries. To make the interior external.
– A wall disappears into the mirror, multiplying the space.
– The ceiling is painted cosmic black, while the surfaces recall the symbolic color of the pre-Renaissance sky:ochre.
– Aromatic plants and surreal music evoke a garden suspended between reality and dreams.
– A geometrically designed ceramic bench introduces an architectural theme.
– The light, soft and circular, recalls the shape of infinity.
In the center: a metaphysical picnic scene. Lots of fabrics, flowers, a steel sink-sculpture, and a heater that looks like a planet descending to warm space.
The container was conceived not as a simple interior design project, but as an invitation to experiment, to cross boundaries – spatial, temporal, material and disciplinary. A renaissance gesture, in an age when technology needs, once again, minds capable of creative contamination.
A collective installation, between sky and sea
Set up in the inner courtyard of the Galata Museum, the CONTAINER 02 project is presented as an open-air exhibition, accessible through a scenic pathway over the sea. Each container is a microcosm, a journey. In our case, a journey beyond.
We would like to thank:
– Simona Finessi for her vision and generous invitation.
– Massimiliano Dalle Sasse, creator of the event and founder of DLA Design Lab.
– Di.De. – Genoa Design District , tireless promoter of Genoa Design Week.
– Platform Architecture and Design, media partner.
Container sponsor Archventil
– Abitzai – Geometric ceramic bench
– Lampex Italiana – Table lamp and hanging circle
– Bang & Olufsen – Outdoor Sound System
– Bonomi Skates – Coatings
– Rapsel – Sculptural steel washbasin
– JAB – Fabrics
– Bromic – Suspension Heater
A project that confirms Genoa as an international crossroads of design culture. And which reminds us, once again, that design can – and must – go further.
