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Italian design duo Draga & Aurel make their debut at Downtown Design Dubai 2025 in collaboration with COLLECTIONAL, the design platform that represents them in the GCC. Presented at Booth C2 in the Dubai Design District (D3) from November 5 – 9, 2025, the site-specific design installation encapsulates the essence of their practice: a continuous dialogue between artistic experimentation and the reinterpretation of memory through a contemporary lens.
Founded in 2007 by Italian designers Draga Obradovic and Aurel K. Basedow, the multidisciplinary studio is internationally acclaimed for its seamless blend of art, design and craftsmanship. For their design fair debut, the duo presents a new evolution of their two signature series, Transparency Matters and Heritage. The first investigates the alchemy between resin and concrete through plays of light and depth. The second reinterprets vintage furniture designs from the 1950s to the 1980s, translating historical silhouettes into contemporary design pieces through meticulous craftsmanship.
Among the new works presented in Dubai is Soffio, a collection of floor lamps, table lamps and wall lamps that pay tribute to the ancient tradition of the Murano glassblowing technique. Each lamp design is unique, born from the union of salvaged 1970s glass bubbles and newly crafted elements, created in Venetian furnaces. "Soffio brings together formal precision and expressive lightness: the hand-blown components merge with traditional workmanship," notes Draga & Aurel in an official release.
Also on view are Rescue Me 08 and Rescue Me 09, new iterations of the Rescue Me series that premiered in Milan earlier this year. Here, discarded components are reimagined through resin coatings that transform surfaces into textured, painterly compositions. "Rescue Me takes the concept of recycling to new frontiers, salvaging discarded components that become the protagonists of bold new compositions," notes the duo.
Furthermore, Draga & Aurel present the Stendhal console, a striking geometric composition crafted from vermilion resin and concrete. The Cava coffee table system utilises alternating volumes of concrete and thick cast resin, where light filters through the colour to reveal the architectural essence of the form. Meanwhile, the Lava coffee table plays on contrasts of weight and fluidity: its conical concrete base supports a circular resin top that captures and refracts light. "This coffee table represents a new development in Draga & Aurel's process of experimenting with resin and concrete—two iconic materials in the Transparency Matters series," reads the press release.
Completing the showcase is AKB_25_62, abstract art by Basedow. The piece, composed of layered resin, pigment, fabric and concrete, reflects the same tension between control and spontaneity that defines the studio's design work. "This hefty and reflective artwork initiates a profound dialogue with the environment and viewer, also emphasised by the predominance of the colour red, with its strong, expressive, vibrant and allusive energy," concludes Draga & Aurel.
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