Yellow air freshener on car dashboard
Photo: Tuala Hjarnø

This Car Diffuser Transforms Any Road Trip Into an Opulent Olfactory Experience

Copenhagen studio GamFratesi designed the Airound car diffuser for furniture maker Poltrona Frau and fragrance brand Acqua di Parma.
By Tom Morris
May 8, 2021
2 minute read

Driving requires keeping your eyes on the road, navigating a primarily visual adventure—but the right accessory can make it an olfactory experience, too. Case in point: the just-released Airound car diffuser from Italy’s storied furniture maker Poltrona Frau and the Milan-based fragrance brand Acqua di Parma. Encased in Poltrona Frau’s silky smooth Pelle Frau leather, the disk-shaped device magnetically attaches to a car’s ventilation grill. Turn the air on, and its perfume—which comes in nine interchangeable, classic Acqua di Parma scents, including woodsy Buongiorno, citrusy Fico di Amalfi, and Milano, a concoction created exclusively for Poltrona Frau—circulates.

GamFratesi, a Copenhagen-based design studio co-founded by architects Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi, took on the challenge of distilling the essences of the two iconic Italian companies, both more than a century old, into a pared-down, air-enhancing object. (The pair also recently designed a home diffuser for the brands, a super-sized version of the automobile variety.) “We wanted to keep the form quite simple, as if it were upholstery,” Fratesi says, noting that the “geometric symmetry of Acqua di Parma’s perfume bottles and the very round, [signature] yellow boxes they’re packaged in” immediately stood out as elements they wanted to express. The resulting scent-maker, available in marigold, gray, or brown leather, seamlessly blends into most car interiors and adds a decidedly Italian aromatic oomph to any road trip.