NEW YORK—Each year, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) invites top designers, architects, brands, and local schools to transform blank spaces into over-the-top art installations as part of its three-day immersive fundraiser. Formerly known as Dining by Design, DIFFA by Design raises funds for the organization's mission to help combat AIDS, homelessness, food scarcity, and mental health issues.
This year's event moved to the Javits Center, taking place May 21-23 during the ICFF and WantedDesign Manhattan trade shows and NYCxDesign. The fundraiser adopted an overarching sustainability theme, ranging from raising awareness on how high-tech solutions can minimize poverty and reduce economic and social inequality to incorporating biomorphic design principles to encourage mindfulness to introducing and employing tools created to help the design community evaluate its products for sustainability and environmental impact. Many of the thought-provoking vignettes also prompted guests to self-reflect on their role in creating a more sustainable future.
The event featured spaces from top design industry brands including Rockwell Group and Benjamin Moore, along with student-led design teams from the School of Visual Arts, the New York School of Interior Design, and Parsons School of Design. The eclectic installations offer a wealth of inspiration for beautiful event design—while also prompting reflection on themes of sustainability and interconnectedness.
Here are some highlights...
Benjamin Moore + Right Meets Left Interior Design
Right Meets Left Interior Design worked on paint brand Benjamin Moore’s space, which drew inspiration from New Orleans, the hometown of the design company's founder, Courtney McLeod. Using the Benjamin Moore Color Trends 2023 palette, the vibrant space incorporated the eclectic colors of the city. Playing off the two companies’ names, the idea was to “take a ride on the Benjamin Moore Streetcar Line to the corner of Right Meets Left,” where guests then encountered “The Color Inn,” which used bold colors and French-inspired pieces to pay homage of New Orleans’ architectural beauty.
Photo: Alan Barry
The streetcar theme was also chosen to highlight the importance of public transportation in the conversation about sustainability.
Photo: Alan Barry
Parsons School of Design
Students from Parsons School of Design created the “Second + Chances” project, which repurposed discarded wood and pipes sourced throughout the city to create a community-driven installation. The panels featured engraved messages about second chances, including personal stories and inspiring quotes.
Photo: Alan Barry
“By upcycling materials and promoting community engagement, this project highlights the potential for sustainability and positive social impact through design,” read the artist statement. “Second chances embody hope and the human capacity for growth, redemption, and transformation. They allow us to break free from our past and create a better future for ourselves and those around us.”
Photo: Alan Barry
School of Visual Arts
Interior design majors at the School of Visual Arts centered their vignette on how high-tech solutions can minimize poverty and reduce economic and social inequality. The team’s hot air balloon design, which took on a cyberpunk aesthetic, incorporated various pieces of upcycled electronic waste.
Photo: Alan Barry
Florim + Perkins&Will
Tile company Florim and architecture firm Perkins&Will created "Highs and Lows," a space that used leftover porcelain surfaces and palettes to create an art piece that diverted waste from landfills and incinerators.
Photo: Alan Barry
“More now than ever before, we are challenged to use packaging and processes that reduce emissions, minimize waste, and consume fewer natural resources,” said the team in an artist statement.
Photo: Alan Berry
Roche Bobois + Rockwell Group
Architecture and design firm Rockwell Group teamed up with luxury furniture brand Roche Bobois to build an immersive, abstract forest. The space featured Roche Bobois’ furniture pieces made from FSC-certified wood, set in an environment with a mirrored stretch fabric and neon messages about DIFFA and sustainability. The wall surface, combined with dramatic lighting, intended to offer a moment for self-reflection, prompting guests to envision their role in creating a sustainable future.
Photo: Alan Barry
“Our design was driven by Roche Bobois’ eco-conscious pieces, and our embrace of DIFFA by Design’s spirit of sustainability,” said David Rockwell, founder and president of Rockwell Group. “Our goal was to create an evocative, abstract vignette that suggests the melding of the natural world with the handcrafted. As with all of our DIFFA installations, we also wanted to bring a sense of celebration, play, and hope for the future.”
Photo: Alan Barry
Rockwell Group
Rockwell Group also designed the “Love Locks” totem, intended to inspire visitors to support DIFFA’s mission—while also creating an installation that can be reused in future years. The red metal totem measures 8 feet by 2 feet and is emblazoned with laser-cut red letters spelling out words like DIFFA and LOVE. Anyone who donated to the cause could get a lock to clip onto the metal mesh, reminiscent of the padlocks that couples clip to bridges and fences around the world.
Photo: Alan Barry
New York School of Interior Design
The New York School of Interior Design’s DIFFA booth was dedicated to taking what we learned during the devastating AIDS crisis and tying it into preventing future devastation via climate change. The design showed the world in two variations: the way it is currently and the way it will look if we continue on a path with no regard for the environment. At the center of the booth was a table with information about climate change, leading to the viewer standing in front of a mirror that asked, “What can you do?"
Photo: Alan Barry
HDR Inc.
Design firm HDR Inc. created an installation made up of three tubular elements composed of mirrored discs, serving as a visual reminder of our interconnectedness. The installation also featured an interactive augmented reality moment that brought the message of ACT—a call to action that we all have the power to make a difference—to life.
Photo: Alan Barry
Novità Communications + Maiarelli Studio
“The Fat of the World” was an art installation commissioned by PR firm Novità Communications and designed by Maiarelli Studio. Artist Cynthia Reynolds, whose work uses and takes inspiration from found material, explored the themes of excess and waste by focusing on the highly engineered and mass-produced packing materials we so routinely rely on—most notably, the packing peanut. The installation exaggerated their scale and painted them in bronze.
“Cheap to produce in bulk, this toxic material is of little inherent value. Yet it is often used to protect our most precious objects,” read the artist statement. “By presenting packing peanuts in the context of an art installation, Reynolds is flipping the script and assigning them the value and fragility that make us question our relationship to this material.”
“Cheap to produce in bulk, this toxic material is of little inherent value. Yet it is often used to protect our most precious objects,” read the artist statement. “By presenting packing peanuts in the context of an art installation, Reynolds is flipping the script and assigning them the value and fragility that make us question our relationship to this material.”
Photo: Alan Barry
Western Sensibility + Focus Lighting
Printing company Western Sensibility and architectural lighting brand Focus Lighting created “The Artist’s Studio,” an environment that explored creative possibility and color through a sustainable lens. Brought to life by Western Sensibility’s sustainable digital textile printing process and Focus Lighting’s study of CMYK and RGB color languages, the installation highlighted the interaction between printed color and tinted light.
“The contrast of the installation cues the observer to imagine what it might feel like to have previous creative restraints lifted and their waves of ambition and inspiration fanned in order to rethink how we design, print, illuminate, and use textiles,” read the artist statement.
“The contrast of the installation cues the observer to imagine what it might feel like to have previous creative restraints lifted and their waves of ambition and inspiration fanned in order to rethink how we design, print, illuminate, and use textiles,” read the artist statement.
Photo: Alan Barry
HOK + Mohawk Group + Urban Office + Sven Nielsen
The "Respite Pod" installation was a sculptural pod, which the artists described as “an internal cavity that acts as a comforting cocoon, inviting guests to unwind and find solace.” The exterior texture was crafted using Baltic birch wood, while on the inside, felt lining created a calm and quiet space. The team focused on utilizing sustainable materials and minimizing waste, and plans to repurpose it as a reading nook in a library for children.
Photo: Alan Barry
Gensler + MillerKnoll + EvensonBest + MillerBlaker
Design and architecture firm Gensler’s space, called "Redefining Boundaries," was intended as a calming and immersive installation that evoked the idea of regeneration through an intimate, natural world setting. The space invited visitors to pause and reflect on how “we must come together to embrace innovation, challenge conventional norms, and inspire meaningful action towards a more sustainable future,” according to the artists.
Photo: Alan Barry
Shop Repurpose
Also on-site? The Shop Repurpose boutique, which hosted a pop-up store highlighting how living sustainably does not negate luxury. The space featured designer resale items—including items from Barbara Walters' estate. The DIFFA fundraiser also featured an auction of design finds from renowned brands.
Photo: Alan Barry
