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d - s i d e 4 d e s i g n |
R o n A R A D |
Tel Aviv (1952) |
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Ron Arad began his studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Art in 1971. In
1973 he moved to London where he attended the Architectural Association.
In 1981 he founded the studio One Off with Caroline Thorman, a way of
putting forward not just his own work but that of other avant garde
British designers. In 1989 he founded the architecture and design practice Ron Arad Associates together with Alison Brooks and Caroline Thorman and in 1994 the Ron Arad Studio in Como, Italy. In 1994 he also began teaching at the Hochschule in Vienna and at the Royal college of Art in London. Ron Arad’s work which is mainly in furniture and product design, is characterised by a virtuoso use of steel sheet which he knowingly shapes into sinuous shapes and lines in an apparent continual movement. Given international recognition for his work (Designer of the Year 1994), which started off a long way from the idea of mass production, he has since attracted the interest of notable manufacturers such as Vitra, Moroso, Kartell and Driade. His objects form part of the permanent collections in various museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where recently an exhibition of his work entitled “Before and After Now” was held. (bron : domus)
Design took a radical turn in the 1980's, deconstructing the rigid
ideology of the Bauhaus--often with great humor. Avant-garde designers
like Philippe Starck and Ron Arad brazenly borrowed from the
"historical closet" of previous styles and created biomorphic
forms with whimsical names like Arad's Big Easy Red chair, the After
Spring Before Summer chaise lounge and the Empty chair. These chairs posed
anew the question, "What ought a chair to be?" Design maverick Ron Arad offered some interesting answers. Arad's early
furniture combined materials associated with the high tech style and
objets trouve to produce poetic post-industrial "readymades".
His later designs in the 1980's such as the Big Easy Series were more
refined and often involved costly labor intensive techniques that
identified the pieces as "art" furniture, winning Arad
international attention and commissions from prominent manufacturers. Like the Tom Vac chair (1997) featured by DWR, Arad's work often suggests
movement through graphic, gestural lines or references to organic forms.
The Tom Vac chair also represents the designer's interest in exploiting
the formal and structural possibilities of modern materials like the new
plastics. One of Arad's most commercially successful designs is the
Bookworm, produced by Kartell, and a part of the Vitra Design Museum. The
Bookworm was also featured in the "Mutant Plastics" exhibit at
MOMA. Its novel metaphor illustrates Arad's belief that design has a
responsibility not only to utility, but to surprise and delight. Arad first studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art and the Architectural
Association London and later opened his architectural design office, One
Off Ltd., initially based in Covent Garden and later, Chalk Farm, London.
Primarily known for chair design, Arad has also had important
architectural commissions, including the interior for the Tel Aviv Opera
House. |
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Ron Arad attended the Jerusalem Academy of Art from
1971 to 1973 before moving to London to study at the Architectural
Association under Peter Cook. After graduating in 1979, he briefly worked in
an architectural practice before setting up his own architectural design
office/showroom, One Off. Initially based in Covent Garden (later Chalk
Farm, London), One Off acted as a forum for the exhibition of his own
furniture designs as well as those of other avant-garde British designers,
such as Tom Dixon and Danny Lane (b. 1955).
His early furniture, such as the Rover chair (1981), combined materials associated with the High Tech style, for example scaffolding poles, with objets trouvés to produce poetic Post-Industrialist "readymades". Arad's later mild steel designs of the late 1980s, such as the Big Easy Series (1988--1989), were less "rough and ready" in their constructions and employed labour intensive techniques, making them costly to produce. Consciously distanced from mass-produced furnishings, designs such as these functioned as "art furniture" and won Arad international recognition, bringing his work to the attention of established manufacturers. Although best known for his furniture, Arad has completed several
important interior-design projects including the foyer of the Tel Aviv Opera
House (1990). During the 1990s, Arad produced some of his most commercially
successful designs including his Bookworm shelving (1997), 1,000 kilometres
of which has been produced by Kartell. Other recent innovative designs
include his Tom Vac vacuum-formed aluminium chair (1998) and his Fantastic
Plastic Elastic chair (1998) for Kartell. [one media] |
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Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv in 1951. In 1971
he began to attend the Fine Arts Academy of Jerusalem. Three years later he
moved to London and settled there. He registered at the Architectural
Association, where he met the architect Peter Cook, with whom he studied
during throughout his university training. After taking a degree, he worked
for a short time in an architecture studio and then, in 1979, founded One
Off Ltd together with Caroline Thorman. One Off, a space connected to a
showroom anda workshop, became a gathering place for London avant-garde
designers, including personalities like Tom Dixon and Danny Lane. In the
Covent Garden district Arad began to design and produce furniture on
commission, creating his first poetic ready-mades, combining high-tech
materials and objéts trouvés, giving form to handmade pieces, individually
constructed, each different from the next. These works, with their strong
ties to the world of art, represented a strong contrast to industrial
production. Paradoxically, they attracted the attention of international
manufacturers. In the decade from 1980 to 1990 Ron Arad refined his
hightech, post-industrial style which, combined with a transgressive spirit,
led him to the creation of unprecedented, original solutions. The piece that
made Arad’s name on the international scene is undoubtedly the Rover
chair, made by recycling old leather seats from Rover motorcars, attached to
a tubular steel base designed by Arad. This is the period of his passage
toward a less craftsmanlike approach, with products more suitable for
industrial production, with the necessary modifications. Just consider the
bag chair Transformer (1981), made of vinyl and filled with
polystyrene. Or, in the moment in which Arad begins his continuing
experimentation with the use of tempered steel, the Well-tempered Chair (1986)
and, above all, the Bookworm (1993). These two pieces, which went
into production a few years after they were designed, mark the beginning of
Arad’s career as a genuine industrial designer. Vitra was the first
company to put his work into industrial production with the Well-Tempered
chair, no longer in steel but in moulded plastic. Next came Kartell, a firm
that appreciated the organic, high-tech design of the Bookworm and
decided to make the same product in plastic. The piece has been an enormous
success, and is now the emblem of the continuing collaboration between Arad
and Kartell. From this moment on Arad became a favorite of the Italian
manufacturers, leading to a series of collaboration that continue today.
After Kartell came Moroso (Big Easy Red, 1989 Sof-Sof, 1995),
Driade ( Empty Chair and T four 4, 1994), Artemide and Alessi
(Soundtrack, 1997). While he is known on the international scene as
one of the most innovative and interesting designers of his generation, a
veritable “anti-Starck”, Arad has also received important architectural
commissions. Belgo Centraal, a three-storey restaurant in London, and the
foyer of the new Tel Aviv Opera House are just two of the most important
ones. Since 1997 Ron Arad is professor of furniture design and product
design at the Royal College of Art of London. At present he directs the
studio Arad Associates, with Caroline Thorman. (e.m)
Penny Sparke, Design Gran Bretagna, Rizzoli 2000 [design-italia] |
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1981, Rover, chair, One Off 1986, Well Tempered, chair, Vitra 1987, The School, chair, Vitra 1989, Little Heavy, chair, One Off 1990, The Spring Collection, series of ten chairs, Moroso 1991, Big Soft Easy, sofa, Moroso 1993, Zigo and Zago, chairs, Vitra 1994, The Bookworm, bookcase, Kartell 1994, Lovely Rita, shelf, Kartell 1996, R.T.W., rotating bookshelf, Ron Arad Studio Marzorati Ronchetti (Domus 801/98) 1997, Fantastic Plastic Elastic, chair, Kartell (Domus 801/98) 1997, Tom Vac, chair, Vitra (Domus 792-795/97) 1997, sculpture Domus Totem, Milan, Italy 1998, Infinity Winerack, bottle rack, Kartell 1998, B.O.O.P., table, The Gallery Mourmans (Domus 806/98) 1999, Transformer, inflatable armchair, Inflate (Domus 817/99) 1999, Handles, Valli & Valli 1999, Konx, table, Fiam 2000, Victoria & Albert, collection of sofas, Moroso |
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links : |
http://www.widemedia.com/fashionuk/news/2000/06/20/news0000484.html http://www.wdr.de/tv/ardbauen/archiv/980530_4.html http://www.vitra.com/designer/des_det.asp?lang=eng&did=332 http://www.vago.com/designer/arad/ http://www.uni-weimar.de/~heinick1/arad3.htm http://www.tribu-design.com/cgi-madoc/alpha.cgi?ac=s&pict=1&lg=us&st=10&pc=c http://www.superform-aluminium.com/Casestudies/design/ronarad-bloop.html http://quotidien.nouvelobs.com/conseils/maison/maison21abis.html http://www.maelstrom-online.com/designer.htm#arad http://www.designaddict.com/collections/designers/designers-base/arad.html http://www.20thcenturydesign.com/products/vitra/tom.htm http://www.educational.rai.it/lezionididesign/designers/ARADR.htm
the
design work of ron arad is part of following manufacturer's collections: |
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