Ron Arad

Ron Arad was born in 1951 in Tel Aviv. After having studied at the Art Academy in Jerusalem, he moved in 1973 to London where he studied until 1974 at the Architectural Association under Peter Cool and Bernhard Tschumi.

In 1981, Arad founded together with Caroline Thormann the company “One Off Ltd.” in Convent Garden, London. He was successful for the first time with the Rover Chair, the Well Tempered Chair and the arm chair Big Easy. In 1989, “One Off Ltd.” moved to Chalk Farm and Arad founded the Ron Arad Associates as an architecture and design office which was integrated in the “One Off Ltd.” in 1993. A year later the, Ron Arad Associates became well established in Como, thus the production of the furniture was relocated to Italy. Since 1994, Ron Arad is also working as a professor for furniture and product design at the Royal College of Art in London.

As an archtecit, Arad created among others the New Tel Aviv Opera and a Showroom for the Italian car manufacturer Maserati in Modena. Several of his numerous furniture and product designs for renowned companies like Vitra, Moroso, Driade, Cappelini, Fiam or Magis became true design classics. Arads products and mostly his early work are characterized by the typical expressive coves and an avardgardistic joy for experiments. His most famous object, the book shelf “Bookworm” for Kartell (1194) set standards and was supposedly the first shelf without angles. Nowadays, Ron Arad is one of the most successful and famous international designers whose work has been awarded with numerous important design prizes and is exhibited in museums and galeries like among others. Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in the Modern Pinakothek in Munich.

Web-Site from Ron Arad: http://www.ronarad.com