Desert Aqua Plate by Anna Badur

Berlin-based designer Anna Badur (born in Norden, Germany in 1985) is an independent designer creating furniture, textiles, and accessories inspired by natural elements and processes.  

Badur studied industrial and communication design at Germany’s University of Arts Braunschweig, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 2010. While still in school, Badur interned at Designlabor Bremerhaven at the International Design Institute in Germany. She subsequently obtained her Master’s degree in contextual design in 2012 from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Badur established her eponymous design studio in Berlin in 2013. That same year, she completed an artist-in-residence program at Poland’s Ćmielów porcelain factory. During that period, Badur fell in love with the material, and has since frequently worked in the medium. In 2015, she completed another artist-in-residence program at Kahla porcelain factory in Germany.

While based in Berlin, Badur is very much inspired by the coastal area of her homeland in northwest Germany, an area shaped by rough weather conditions, endless rain, and the tides of the North Sea. She believes that our natural surroundings have an enormous effect on how we develop, feel, and behave. Citing her own roots, Badur notes: “[The environment] has a melancholic beauty, which is somehow mysterious and deeply banal. This unique atmosphere might trigger a sensation of loneliness, but offers room for poetry and creation.” The rhythmic ebb and flow of these natural environments is a common thread throughout her work, which is characterized by a graceful, delicate aesthetic.

Badur’s designs are consistently process-driven, often embracing a method of trial-and-error; this approach ensures each final design is as unique as the method that informs it. Notable projects to date include: Drawn by Nature (2012) and Whatever the Weather Collection (2014), both experimental textile projects that harness natural forces like wind and water to determine aesthetics; and Blue Sunday (2015/2016), a collection of porcelain vases, plates, and cups that utilizes traditional materials and colors to replicate the undulating waves and mimetic aquatic patterns.

In 2014, Badur participated in the BIO 50 – 24^th Biennial of Design Ljubljana in Slovenia, where she worked in collaboration with local stonemason Beno Ogrin. The pair designed Kamnine (2014), a side table and bench realized from various types of natural Slovenian stone that celebrates both the craft of stonemasonry as well as an overview of Slovenia's stone landscape.  Other works by the pair include the limestone Par candlestick holders (2015) and Radio vessels (2015).

Badur has won numerous awards and nominations, including the iF Concept Design Award (2013); third prize for the Lionel Design Award (2013); a newcomer nomination from the German Design Award (2015); and the Young Professional Product Design Winner for the We Love Design Award (2016). Her work has been exhibited in several museums and design events, including True Blue at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, Norway; Broken White at the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven; Material-Effekte at the Chemnitz Museum of Industry in Germany (all 2016); as well as Salone Satellite in Milan, Dutch Design Week, and the London Design Festival, among others. Badur’s Blue Sunday series is part of the permanent collection in the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Trondheim.

Badur lives and works in Berlin.