The theme of Microliving
The container, a universal symbol of travel, exchange and connection, becomes a space for design, storytelling and experimentation. Back with a new vision is Container 03, one of the most anticipated events of Genoa Design Week 2026, scheduled June 3-7, 2026 and curated by Simona Finessi. For its third edition, the project evolves and moves to the heart of Genoa’s Porto Antico, at Calata Mandraccio: a change of scale and perspective that strengthens the dialogue between contemporary design, urban landscape and the public, bringing the installation to one of the city’s most iconic and busy areas.
From a tool of excellence for freight transport to a place of design experimentation, the container is decontextualized and reinterpreted, transforming itself into a habitable environment and contemporary refuge. The project was created with the aim of overturning the functional imaginary of this object and making it a cultural device capable of activating relationships, narratives and new visions of living.
The theme of the 2026 edition is Microliving, a reflection on the quality of space in an era marked by social, environmental and economic transformations. Living in compact spaces is no longer a limitation, but an opportunity to experiment with flexible, sustainable and innovative solutions.
The ten studios involved are called to transform each container into an immersive microcosm: narrative environments capable of telling a design vision and a new approach to living, in dialogue with the urban context and the community.
Monumentalization of Genoa’s “The Washing Machines”: from housing brutalism to experiential museum
This is the setting for PEGLI 3, an immersive installation by Tanzi Architecture that reflects on the relationship between architecture, urban memory and collective identity, reinterpreting one of the most iconic and controversial buildings in the Genoese landscape: the Le Lavatrici residential complex.
The choice of the container as exhibition space dialogues deeply with the city’s history and the architectural language of the intervention. A symbol of the port and the Genoese industrial identity, the container here becomes a real perceptive chamber dedicated to the monumentalization of urban Brutalism. Just as The Washing Machines represent a monumental housing machine suspended between utopia and infrastructure, the container is also transformed into a microarchitecture capable of containing memory, visions and spatial relations.
The intervention restores new aesthetic and symbolic dignity to an architecture often perceived as extreme and divisive. The goal is not simply to celebrate brutalism, but to reinterpret it as the city’s emotional and cultural heritage, highlighting its scenic strength, geometric complexity, and identity value.
The fulcrum of the installation is the reinterpretation of Le Lavatrici‘s iconic porthole, monumentalized through light, matter, and perspective depth. The circular opening becomes a metaphysical portal to design and, at the same time, an urban telescope facing Genoa. The visitor is invited to observe the city through a new lens, capable of transforming an everyday architectural sign into a contemplative element.
Circular geometry runs through the entire project as a visual and symbolic archetype: memory, observation, continuity, but also a direct reference to naval portholes and the Genoese port imagery. Interior and exterior, architecture and landscape, matter and light thus enter into constant dialogue.
Inside the container, the characteristic X-shape of the staircase body is deconstructed and reinterpreted through a suspended three-dimensional texture that filters the gaze and amplifies the perception of space. The composition generates continuous effects of transparency, shadow and depth, evoking the visual complexity of the original building and transforming the visitor into an integral part of the work.
Platforms, tactile surfaces and archetypal volumes accompany the exhibition route, transforming the container into a contemporary urban vitrine dedicated to the monumentalization of Genoese Brutalism. The space thus becomes a place of crossing and contemplation, in which design dialogues with radical architecture and the city’s collective memory.
The role of ceramic material
The ceramic material contributes greatly to the construction of the installation atmosphere. The soft, luminous tones of CIR Forever Color Bubble Ivory and the volume made from the same surface dialogue with the intense materiality of the Cerasarda Porto Rotondo collections, featured in the Cuoio andglazed Cognac variants.
The Bubble decoration expands compositional possibilities through soft geometries, textural contrasts and tactile vibrations that intertwine with the surfaces of the Porto Rotondo collection . The backgrounds, obtained from scans of textures inspired by the world of luxury fashion, transform ceramics into a true “architectural skin”: interwoven, deep, textural surfaces that evoke the softness and refinement of sartorial workmanship. The result is a sophisticated dialogue between design, fashion and contemporary architecture, in which the ceramic material transcends the decorative dimension to become a sensory and narrative element of space.
Also starring in the installation is Les Jalousies – Les Ombres, a system of architectural modules for interiors designed to go beyond simple decoration, introducing sophisticated plays of light, shadow and light vibration, amplifying the scenographic character of the environment. The collection, which is also available in an unglazed version, allows for strong customization and design adaptability, becoming an integral part of space construction.
The collection interprets ceramics as a design element capable of defining environments, scanning volumes and creating new relationships between light, material and architecture. Solids and voids, light and shadow alternate, generating dynamic compositions that change according to lighting and point of view, restoring depth, rhythm and character to spaces.
Three small tables by Cerasarda, made in collaboration with OVRE Design, complete the set-up: San Teodoro Pop in Bordeaux and Silver coloring, Porto Rotondo Lux in Gypsum and Rose Gold, and Orosei Lux Gypsum in Rose Gold.
PEGLI 3 thus presents itself as a contemporary reflection on brutalism and Genoese urban identity: an installation that transforms the harshness of architecture into a sensory and contemplative experience, restoring new centrality to a visual heritage deeply rooted in the city’s imagination.