Diasen’s exposed-cork finishing system for the comfort of interiors combines performance, beauty, design and the sustainability of materials.
Selected in the Materials Design category by the ADI Permanent Observatory and on show from 30 October at the ADI Design Museum in Milan with an installation by Giulio Iacchetti
Milan/Fabriano, 31 October 2024 – Diasen‘s CorkPhilia is a finishing application system intended to promote and develop design and living wellbeing, able to hold together the performance, beauty and sustainability of materials and solutions, offering a significant innovation for the green building market: creating environments with finishes that leave the cork visible, in a logic of visual and sensory connection, and therefore biophilic, between people and nature.
This has been recognised by ADI, the Association for Industrial Design, which has included CorkPhilia in the 2024 INDEX, the selection of design products by the ADI Permanent Observatory, which this year comprises 261 entries, a first step towards the Compasso d’Oro of 2026, in which these products will be able to take part together with those selected next year. It is the first time that Diasen has received this recognition, along with five other manufacturers in the Region.
Specialising in the design and production of cork-based bio-mortars and bio-paints, in 2023 Diasen conceived, tested and industrialised CorkPhilia, a system founded on the biophilic quality of exposed cork and the advantage of multifunctionality, that is, the ability to adapt to walls and floors and to address several aspects of comfort and design at once with a single solution. The finishing system is a multifunctional solution able to meet needs for healthiness, comfort and design within a context characterised by the sustainable use of natural and regenerative materials, such as cork, and natural inorganic elements such as white clay, of water-based resins and protective coatings with low emissions of volatile organic compounds, and of waxes serving as natural binders.
“It is a source of great pride for us that ADI has recognised the design value of the CorkPhilia concept and its many applications, because the empathic relationship between people and nature can find in our cork-based materials an effective answer and an evocative vehicle. We launched the biophilic challenge because we are convinced there is a deep connection between the nature of materials and the wellbeing of spaces” says Diego Mingarelli, CEO of Diasen. “Having centred our idea of architecture on cork and regeneration, we have adopted CorkPhilia as the element that characterises us, which brings the sensory emotion of contact with nature directly into the world of materials and building”.
To convey the material and chromatic quality of Diasen, the designer Giulio Iacchetti created a symbolic installation of CorkPhilia. A display unit like a small piece of architecture: a cube resting on a rotating support whose faces show circular elements treated with different finishes and colours, beautiful to look at and inviting to be experienced by touch. The installation is part of the exhibition that opened on 30 October at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, dedicated to the design products selected for 2024 by the ADI Permanent Observatory, which will move to Rome, to Spazio WeGil, from 25 November.
