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Container Village

In Bolzano, students from the Faculty of art and design developed furniture and objects useful for living and working in a container. And for a number of months they have been building a small village made up of shipping containers in the grounds of the Libera Università.

For a number of months, students from the Faculty of art and design have been building a small village made up of shipping containers in the grounds of the Libera Università in Bolzano.

Lecturer and designer Claudio Larcher came up with the idea for the course entitled “Container village”, during which students developed furniture and objects useful for living and working in a container.

The challenge was to try and design furniture with specific characteristics such as transformability, transportability, multi-functionality etc, with the added possibility of being able to experiment ideas directly on-site as they emerged.

Thanks to the help of the Alto-Adige-based Niederstaetter, one of Italy’s leading companies for the distribution and preparation of shipping containers, students came up with functioning prototypes and furniture, fitting out the containers allocated to them.

The project was based on three principal areas of development: living, working and entertainment (or culture), experimenting with ideas that took into consideration the sustainability and environmental impact of the designs.

As well as furniture and lighting for the containers and systems for improving conditions for people in situations of emergency, a deck was built in larch wood salvaged from rural buildings in Alto Adige, a small allotment and a structure for collecting rainwater for irrigating the allotment.