Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv in Israel in 1951. After studying at the art academy in Jerusalem, he moved to London in the UK in 1973, where he studied at the Architectural Association under Peter Cook and Bernard Tschumi from 1974 to 1979.
In 1981, Arad founded the company "One Off Ltd." in Covent Garden, London, together with Caroline Thorman. There he had his first successes with the Rover Chair, the Well Tempered Chair and the Big Easy armchair. In 1989, after One Off Ltd. had moved to Chalk Farm, Arad founded "Ron Arad Associates" in the same year – an architecture and design practice into which One Off Ltd. was merged in 1993. A year later, he established the Ron Arad Studio in Como in Italy, moving production of his metal objects to Italy at the same time. From 1997 to 2009, Arad was also professor of design products at the Royal College of Art in London.
As an architect, Arad's projects include the New Tel Aviv Opera and a showroom for the Italian car maker Maserati in Modena. Several of his many furniture and product designs for renowned companies such as Vitra, Moroso, Driade, Alessi, Cappellini, Fiam and Magis have become true classics. Arad's work, especially his earlier pieces, is characterised by expressive curves and an avant-garde love of experimentation. Probably his best-known object, the "Bookworm" bookshelf for Kartell (1994), set new standards and was probably the first of its kind without right angles. Today, Ron Arad is one of the most successful and best-known international designers. His work has won renowned awards and can be seen in numerous museums and exhibitions, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany.
