With more than 100 entries, the seventh edition of the Design Innovation Award reveals a sector in which design is no longer concerned solely with the form of the boat, but with the wider system of experiences, technologies and relationships that defines a new relationship with the sea.
The 66th Genoa International Boat Show closed on 6 October with 138,273 visitors, confirming the growth of the event and its role as an international platform for the nautical industry. Within this context, the Design Innovation Award has become one of the most interesting ways of observing how nautical design is evolving. Now in its seventh edition, the award received more than 100 entries this year, more than twice as many as in its early editions, bringing together companies, designers, technologies and new interpretations of the experience of being at sea.
The jury, chaired by architect Paolo Brescia, worked across eleven categories, alongside three special awards and two honourable mentions, approaching innovation from a perspective that extends beyond formal research alone. It is a significant shift for a sector in which design has traditionally been associated above all with the lines of the hull and the quality of interiors, while today it increasingly encompasses spatial distribution, materials, onboard systems, sustainability, performance and the ways in which spaces are used.
Among the winning projects, the Magellano 27M by Azimut Yachts perhaps best captures this transformation. Designed externally by Jarkko Jämsén and Navia Design and internally by Michele De Lucchi and AMDL Circle, the project rethinks the distribution and relationship between spaces, developing a new idea of living on board. Rather than pursuing a purely recognisable aesthetic identity, the yacht is conceived as an environment in which to live, move and establish a relationship with the surrounding landscape. The award in the category dedicated to boats over 24 metres was also highlighted by the Italian press, including La Stampa and Corriere della Sera.
The same attention to the quality of the experience emerges in projects of different scales and typologies. The Grand Soleil 60 by Cantiere del Pardo, designed by Nauta Design with Matteo Polli for naval architecture, works on the continuity between cockpit, deck and interiors, while the Pardo GT65 develops a different interpretation of onboard space through a layout designed to expand the perception of the environment and its relationship with the sea. In the Dufour 39, meanwhile, research focuses on optimising interior volumes, demonstrating how even a more compact boat can substantially influence the quality of the experience on board.
The focus on innovation then extends from the boat itself to the systems that make it possible. One of the most interesting developments of the 2026 edition is the introduction of a category dedicated to nautical components, which recognised solutions such as Milos Coax by MZ Electronics, designed to simplify installation and maintenance, Bettersea Power, which integrates renewable energy production directly into the quay, and Garmin’s SmartDrive, a system that rethinks the architecture of the autopilot actuator, reducing energy consumption, cabling and installation complexity. Several of the special awards reinforce this direction. The Innovation Award went to the Icona 70 by Mangusta, while the Talent Award recognised Limenet for its work in sustainability. The Career Award was given to Veleria San Giorgio and Gottifredi Maffioli, two historic names in Italian nautical manufacturing. Together, these recognitions outline a future in which the development of the sector depends on boat design, but also on research, materials, energy, systems and expertise.
It is within this evolution that the relationship between nautical design and Italian design is also becoming more structural. The presence of Marco Sabetta, General Manager of Salone del Mobile.Milano, on the Design Innovation Award jury, together with the announcement of Salone Contact, the new project planned for 2027 to strengthen the relationship between nautical design and the wider design industry, signals the beginning of a more consistent dialogue between two worlds that increasingly share designers, companies, materials and languages. Yacht interiors have become complex environments in which architecture, furniture, lighting and technology contribute to defining the experience, while the nautical sector offers design a distinctive testing ground in which to explore space, mobility, sustainability and the relationship with the environment. It is a dialogue that Salone del Mobile now appears intent on making more organic, bringing to the nautical world the culture of design and the ability to connect different production sectors that have helped shape the international role of Italian design.
Contemporary nautical design is therefore moving towards a more complex dimension, in which the boat becomes a system of spaces, technologies and relationships. This is perhaps the most interesting perspective to emerge from the seventh edition of the award: rather than simply celebrating the new projects presented in Genoa, it offers a reading of how design is helping to redefine the way we imagine, use and inhabit the sea.
Tag: Design
© Fuorisalone.it — All rights reserved. — Published on 07 October 2026
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