If you think Blue Design Summit is merely a showcase of shipyards and designers talking about how fascinating it is to build floating luxury objects, you will probably be surprised: this is not what it is about at all.
In just three editions, Blue Design Summit has managed to establish a significant position within the international landscape of events dedicated to contemporary design. Not only because superyachts remain one of the most recognizable symbols of Italian excellence, but because around the nautical world a much broader reflection is emerging on the relationship between design, environment, and innovation.
It is no coincidence that the claim chosen for 2026 is The Next Wave Now. Not simply a suggestion, but the idea of a new cultural and design phase. A “next wave” that moves across different fields of expertise and redefines the relationship between industry, aesthetics, sustainability, and experience.
Architecture, art, hospitality, research, materials, universities, industry: Blue Design Summit brings together different worlds connected by one central element — water. Not only as a physical space, but as a cultural and design dimension capable of generating connections.
Even the choice of La Spezia appears perfectly consistent with this vision. Here, shipyards, research, education, and one of the most iconic landscapes of the Mediterranean coexist. The Gulf of Poets does not remain in the background as a simple postcard image: it actively contributes to defining the very identity of the event.
Blue Design Summit, ultimately, has clearly demonstrated how short-sighted it is today to draw rigid boundaries between design disciplines. Contemporary design increasingly works as a transversal direction in which different skills collaborate to create coherent experiences that only appear simple on the surface.
And perhaps it is precisely within this hybridization that the Next Wave can be found: not in the attempt to impress with increasingly spectacular projects and ever more extreme forms, but in the ability to make different worlds converse until they become one single thing.
For more information: www.bluedesignsummit.it
