Thursday 13 November 2014

Ron Arad


Born in Israel 1951

Architect & Designer

Studied at the Belzalel Academy of Fine Art, Jerusalem.(1971-1973)


Then at the Architectural Association, London, under the mentorship of Peter Cook. A key founder of the Archigram movement. 



Worked briefly as an architect.

Formed One-off With Dennis Groves, 1981

Established Ron Arad Associates, 1989
Established Ron Arad Architects, 2008, to run in conjuncture with the above.



Professor of Design Product at the Royal College of Art in London, 1997-2009




Awarded London Design Week Medal for design excellence, 2011.


 Royal Academician, Royal Academy of Arts, 2013.

Considered a sculptor of furniture and spaces, Arad has pushed the boundaries of acceptability with his choices of materials and decorative components.

He has cultivated a high tech/post punk/post apocalyptic aesthetic, utilising deliberately coarse industrial materials, coupled with found objects and scrap. 
However, he is also highly selective of his materials and the ways in which they are manipulated.  

His initial aesthetic is most prominent in his interior design during the 1980's, such as his work for Bazaar on London's South Molton Street, 1984, in which cast concrete features where accompanied with an air of dislocation, destruction and decay. 

Arad's furniture takes a more ironic and playful vain that is undeniably present in the form of his "Big easy" chair. 

The big easy series was intended to demonstrate that comfort could be obtained using industrial materials, that would not normally be associated with soft furnishings.

Later Arad moved toward mass producing some of his earlier designs, Such as his "Book worm" Bookcase, that was first produced in limited numbers and constructed from steel, and later re released made out of translucent plastic for more general consumption and manufactured by Kartell. 


No comments:

Post a Comment