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Diafos, Abet’s excellence rewarded with the Compasso d’Oro returns

The first translucent laminate re-proposed in a contemporary key by the design curators Iacchetti and Ragni

Innovation, research, heritage: these are the ingredients behind the new Abet Laminati design and architecture material. Diafos starts from afar and arrives on the market with a new and contemporary face. Diafos is the laminate produced for the first time in 1987 by the Bra-based company and now re-proposed in a new guise, sizes and colours. The collection bears the signature of design curators Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni.

Awarded the Compasso d’Oro in 1987, Diafos was the first translucent laminate with three-dimensional decoration. The result of long and complex research that has brought together technology, design and aesthetic intuitions: Diafos is the ideal solution for those who want to experiment with matter and light, allowing light to pass through without getting a transparent effect, implementing on the contrary use of colour.

Like its predecessor, Diafos is the result of a journey through the culture of design where objects no longer have to adapt to matter, but it is matter itself, designed to create the most diverse furnishings and accessories.

“The idea of Diafos was born by leafing through a series of samples from past collections of this material,” said Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni, design curator of Abet. “From the start, it was clear that we were facing a material of great charm and with an enormous potential that is still current. A material that, immediately after seeing the light, was masterfully told in a travelling exhibition, which started at the Beaubourg in Paris in 1988, in which a group of designers led by Ettore Sottsass Jr. gave life to a series of objects made right in Diafos. We were struck by the possibility that this laminate still offers, to capture the light and return it to the environment by enhancing the colours”.

Diafos returns in three thickness variations: the 0.6 mm and 5 mm versions are added to the original 1.6 mm translucent one.

Diafos becomes the protagonist: a real “open” design tool for architects and designers. Furthermore, like all Abet laminates, Diafos can be also customised by digital printing based on the designer’s drawing.

Diafos is available in a palette of six contemporary, solid pastel colours (pink, blue, green, yellow, grey and white) and is the optimal solution for the home, the office, the contract, for sliding doors, partitions and, in general, for all situations where you want to enjoy filtered and indirect light.