Diffus Design is a design and consultancy company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 2004 by Michel Guglielmi and Hanne-Louise Johannesen as a creative partnership. The Diffus Design team works with theoretical and practical approaches toward art, design, architecture, and new media.

Diffus Design
Company typePrivate
Founded2004
FounderMichel Guglielmi
Hanne-Louise Johannesen
Headquarters,
Websitewww.diffus.dk

The company creates new products with the help of sensor technology merged with traditional materials and craft. It focuses on design and uses intelligent textiles, wearable technology, tangible interfaces, composite materials, and interactive installations. Diffus Design is in a close working relationship with other organizations such as Forster Rohner, Inntex, and Alexandra Instituttet[1] as well as Delft University of Technology).[2][3]

Diffus Design also undertakes consultancy and research in the fields of interactive design, intelligent textiles, and architecture, as well as product design for global clients within a wide array of industries ranging from industrial production to fashion and infrastructure planning.[4]

Selected projects

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The CREATIF

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The CREATIF project is based on the use of smart fabrics. The aim of the project is to design and develop software and a smart fabric printer that can print electronic materials containing inks with interactive capabilities. The consortium consists of three creative partners (Diffus Design, Base Structures, and Zaha Hadid Architects[5]).

Light.Touch.Matters

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Light.Touch.Matters (LTM) is a cooperation between product designers, material scientists, and industry. LTM plans to create smart materials that can sense touch and movement, and respond with light. The base technologies for the LTM. project are piezo plastics and flexible OLEDs.[6]

The Climate Dress

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The Climate Dress was designed in 2009 in collaboration with the Swiss embroidery company Forster-Rohner, the Alexandra Institute , and the Danish School of Design.[7][8] It is laced with hundreds of LEDs that respond to the level of carbon dioxide in the nearby surroundings and are powered through the conductive embroidery by an Arduino Lily pad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector, resulting in patterns that range from slow pulses to rapid flashes depending on the concentration of CO2.[9][10] The Climate Dress does not rely on wiring, soldering, or crimping, which is often the case with smart textile products. All functional elements are blended into the embroidery and exposed to the viewer.[11]

Solar Handbag

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The Solar Handbag was designed in 2011 in collaboration with the Alexandra Institute and Center for Software Innovation.[12][13] It has 100 silicon solar cells that collect daytime sunlight and thus generate two watts of usable energy enough to charge a mobile device.[12][14][15] The handbag also features a set of interior optical fibers that glow to assist the user in their search for objects in the handbag.[16] The solar cells have been woven into conductive embroidery on the exterior surface of the handbag, which transmits the harvested energy into a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Malik Chua, Jasmin (27 July 2011). "Solar powered wearables guaranteed to give you a charge". Ecouterre.
  2. ^ Schoeser, Mary, Textiles: The Art of mankind, Publisher: Thames and Hudson, 2012
  3. ^ Buechley, Leah, Textile Messages: Dispatches From the World of E-Textiles and Education, Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing, 2013
  4. ^ Goldsmith, Sara Vitamin Green, Phaidon Press, 2012
  5. ^ Banks,Tom "Zaha Hadid joins EU-backed ‘smart fabrics’ research team", Designweek, 12 November 2013
  6. ^ European Plastics News Staff "EU funding for piezo-electric project" Archived 2 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, PRW, 7 June 2013
  7. ^ Schoeser, Mary, Textiles: The Art of mankind, Publisher: Thames and Hudson, 2012
  8. ^ Pakhchyan, Syuzi "CO2 Dress — A Beautiful Pollution Sensing Dress", Fashioning Tech, 16 December 2009
  9. ^ Koch, Wendy LED "climate" dress monitors greenhouse gases, usatoday.com, 30 December 2009
  10. ^ Kim,Sara "Ready-To-Wear Milestones At The Fashion Institute of Technology", The Creators project, 16 April 2013
  11. ^ Buechley, Leah, Textile Messages: Dispatches From the World of E-Textiles and Education, Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing, 2013
  12. ^ a b Jirmann Von Dieter "Diffus Design: Solar power aus der Handtasche", Techfieber, 12 October 2011
  13. ^ Goldsmith, Sara Vitamin Green, Phaidon Press, 2012
  14. ^ "La lumière est dans le sac", Intramuros Design Magazine. Issue: #156, October 2011.
  15. ^ "Diffus Chic Solar-Power Bag Flaunts Its Photovoltaic Panels", Inhabitat. Issue: #Issue: 22 May 2011.
  16. ^ Schoeser, Mary, Textiles: The Art of mankind, Publisher: Thames and Hudson, 2012
  17. ^ "Diffus Solar Handbag Uses Solar Panels For Design". CoolThings. 26 May 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2020.