For Salone del Mobile 2023, our team interviewed the Italian multidisciplinary design studio Draga & Aurel, where the designer duo shared their deep passion for exploring experimental materials, with a special focus on epoxy resin. Last year, they launched the FLARE collection, showcasing a colorful pattern achieved through acrylic plastic resin, and now they have unveiled a striking new furniture line that cleverly combines resin and concrete. Part of the designer duo’s Transparency Matters series, these pieces captivate with their vibrant hues and the unique interplay of materials.
Showcased at the Dubai Design Week 2025, the furniture collection comprises two different types of tables featuring unique shapes and material composition. The furniture pieces feature a sophisticated mix of warm, earthy, and industrial tones. As per Dezeen, the duo applied sea salt to the slabs of resin and concrete to give them a more textured and tactile finish. Unlike their previous FLARE collection, these pieces combine more than one material.
The Cava coffee tables are made from slabs of concrete layered with epoxy resin. One of the tables features a resin layer on the top, while another takes resin to the side, working as one of the legs. In addition, they have designed Lava tables, distinguished just by their rounded resin tabletops and textured cylindrical bases that look like they are made from real lava.
The Transparency Matters collection also includes a Stendhal console table made from ruby-red resin supported by two pillar-like concrete legs. Draga & Aurel is also exhibiting the Rescue Me cabinet from the Heritage collection that reinterprets vintage furniture from the 1950s to the 1980s with a contemporary twist. It features a gradient-like front made of multi-colored resin cupboards.
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The installation also features Soffio lamps, formed from translucent sheets of glass combined with components recycled from 1970s chandeliers. The designer duo told Dezeen that they travelled to Venice to celebrate Draga’s birthday, and collaborated with local glassblowers to create the lamps.
They explained that the bubbles are given new life by combining with newly blown pieces. These lamps are crafted using traditional blown-glass techniques and gold-leaf inserts, pushed further through their creative experimentation.
Crafted in collaboration with the UAE’s first gallery for collectible design – Collectional – all the pieces capture their artistic exploration of materials and reimagines past styles, all while focusing on future innovation. Draga & Aurel are currently displaying these pieces in a site-specific installation at the annual Downtown Design fair, Dubai Design Week.
Via: Archiproducts
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