Packaging Innovation Observatory

    From international exploratory research to the development of a permanent platform for design-driven packaging innovation: a project by the Advanced Design Unit at the University of Bologna, conducted between 2019 and 2023

    The Project

    The Packaging Innovation Observatory was born within the Advanced Design Unit (ADU) of the Department of Architecture at Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, based on an original idea by Professor Flaviano Celaschi and as part of the doctoral research conducted by Dr Clara Giardina. The project has been conceived as an observation, research, and connection platform dedicated to the Packaging System, with the aim of aggregating and reworking knowledge, collecting case studies in a predictive logic, developing design-driven projects, and connecting the actors within the supply chain. 

    The foundational phase of the Observatory begins with an international exploratory research dedicated to innovation and sustainability, both driven by design, in the packaging sector. This activity was incorporated into the organisation of the International Symposium The Future of Packaging Design. Towards a Smart and Sustainable Era, held on 6 December 2019 at the Opificio Golinelli in Bologna. The Symposium was conceived as a day of study aimed at presenting the results of research on the packaging sector and discussing, through testimonies from the Emilia-Romagna Packaging Valley and the international context, the drivers of innovation capable of guiding the industry towards the future.

    The preliminary research involved over 80 surveyors and international experts, engaged in reporting and analysing cases of innovation or sustainability driven by design in packaging. At this stage, more than 300 case studies were mapped, forming an initial knowledge base through which to view packaging not merely as a simple container, but as a complex artefact, a communication device, and a relational node within the supply chain. The 2019 Symposium also provided an opportunity to initiate the creation of a permanent observatory on innovation and sustainability in packaging at the University of Bologna. 

    Starting from this foundation, the Packaging Innovation Observatory developed a platform aimed at collecting, comparing, and interpreting case studies, best practices, emerging phenomena, and innovation trajectories. Its goal was not only to document design solutions but also to recognise common dynamics, drivers of transformation, weak signals, and predictive elements useful for understanding the sector's evolution. Observation was therefore conceived as both a design and strategic practice: a form of critical reading of reality capable of producing transferable knowledge, fostering relationships, and supporting innovation processes.




    Throughout its activities, the Observatory has interpreted packaging as an extended system in which material, technical, communicative, environmental, economic, cultural, and relational dimensions converge. From this perspective, design has been regarded as a mediating form of knowledge among different areas of expertise: a project culture capable of simplifying complexity without reducing it, transferring solutions across sectors, orchestrating relationships among actors in the supply chain, and supporting a culture of innovation oriented towards sustainability. 

    On an operational level, the Observatory has built a database of case studies, organised to highlight drivers of innovation, design strategies, technologies, materials, service models, and transformation dynamics. In addition to mapping, activities have included research, editorial content, events, training opportunities, collaborations with companies and institutions, and hybrid design initiatives combining research, education, and the industrial sector.

     

    The Observatory has served as a mediating body among universities, companies, institutions, consortia, designers, students, and other stakeholders in the supply chain. Its function was not limited to identifying virtuous cases; it also involved developing interpretative tools to understand packaging as a set of artefacts, actors, processes, infrastructures, norms, values, and material and informational flows. In this sense, the project anticipated many themes that are now central to the debate on packaging: circularity, traceability, sustainability, design responsibility, digitalisation, smart packaging, and the role of packaging as an interface between product, supply chain, and user. 

    The experience of the Packaging Innovation Observatory provides the methodological and cultural foundation from which the current Packaging Design Innovation Lab has developed. The transition from the Observatory to the Lab does not simply represent a nominal change but an evolution of the project: from mapping and critical observation of innovation to a broader infrastructure for research, transfer, tool development, and support for the circular, sustainable, and digital transition processes in packaging. In this continuity, the Observatory remains the foundational phase of the journey, the place where the scope of investigation, the network of relationships, and the design-driven approach that now guide the Packaging Design Innovation Lab were defined.
    Project by 
    Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 
    Dipartimento di Architettura, Advanced Design Unit (ADU)





    Scientific Coordination 
    Flaviano Celaschi 
    Erik Ciravegna 
    Clara Giardina 
    Davide Pletto 

    Scientific Committee 
    Laura Badalucco, Università Iuav di Venezia 
    Silvia Barbero, Politecnico di Torino 
    Paola Fabbri, Università di Bologna 
    Franco Fassio, Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo 
    Ladeja Godina Košir, Circular Change 
    Matteo Mura, Università di Bologna

    Network and collaborations

    Throughout its activities, the Packaging Innovation Observatory has built relationships with universities, research centres, companies, consortia, associations, media partners, and other actors within the Packaging System. This network has contributed to the collection of case studies, the discussion of innovation drivers, the development of research activities, and the dissemination of a packaging culture focused on sustainability, design quality, and sector transition.