Ron Arad (industrial designer)

For the Israeli MIA pilot, see Ron Arad (pilot).

Ron Arad
RDI
רון ארד
Arad in 2017
Born (1951-04-24) 24 April 1951
Tel Aviv, Israel
Occupationsindustrial designer, artist, architectural designer

Ron Arad (Hebrew: רון ארד; born (1951-04-24)24 April 1951)[1] is a British-Israeli industrial designer, artist, and architectural designer.[2][3] He is best known for his furniture designs, including the postmodern chair Rover.

Early life

Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in a progressive Jewish family.[4] Both of his parents were artists.[5] He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem between 1971 and 1973, and at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from 1974[6] to 1979.[7] After graduating, he briefly worked as an interior architect under Peter Cook.[8][9]

Career

Arad co-founded the design and production studio One Off in 1981[10] with Caroline Thorman. Ron Arad Associates architecture and design practice was formed in 1989, and in 2008 Ron Arad Architects was established alongside Caroline Thorman and Asa Bruno.[11][12]

Industrial design

Arad's career as furniture designer began with the 1981 Rover chair, a postmodernist armchair assembled from a scrapyard leather seat from a Rover P6 car combined with a steel frame.[13][5] Six copies of the chair were acquired by fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier the same year and made Arad famous overnight.[14][13][15]

In 1993, he designed the Bookworm, a warped-metal bookshelf, mass-produced by the Italian furniture company Kartell.[16] In 1997, he created the Tom Vac chair, made from ribbed vacuum-formed aluminium,[17] and FPE chair.[18]

Arad's designs often involve experimentation with non-traditional materials and unexpected fabrication methods.[19][20][21][22] He often uses biomorphic shapes.[23] His style has been called "ruinism", a definition Arad rejects.[24][25]

In 2004, Arad designed the Lolita chandelier, a lighting fixture for the Swarovski crystal company that can display SMS text messages with light-emitting diodes.[26][27]

In 2008–09, Arad collaborated with KENZO to create his first perfume bottle which was on display in his MoMA exhibit No Discipline.[28] In 2012, he designed a collection of adjustable eyeglass frames for New Eye London.[29]

Arad designed the 2011 large-scale video installation "720 Degrees", made of 5,600 8-metre tall silicone cords with projected video that formed a cinerama-like circle.[30] Initially shown in London, the installation later travelled to the Jerusalem,[31] Valencia,[32] and Singapore.[33]

Architecture

Ron Arad Architects has designed the Maserati Showroom in Modena, Italy (2002),[14] Yohji Yamamoto Flagship Store in Tokyo, Japan (2003) and the Mediacite retail centre in Liège, Belgium.[34] In recent years Arad's firm has been overseeing the construction of a cancer hospital in Afula.[35][36][4]

He has also designed the Design Museum Holon together with Asa Bruno, which was opened in 2010.[37]

Arad's studio designed the ToHA office complex in Tel Aviv, the first phase of which was completed in early 2019.[38] The second phase, which as of 2025 is in development, will be among the tallest skyscrapers in Israel.[38][39]

In 2017, Arad won the competition to design the UK Holocaust Memorial as Memorial Architects, and part of a team led by Ghanaian British architect David Adjaye with Gustafson, Porter + Bowman landscape architects.[40]

Honours

Arad was Head of Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art from 1997 to 2009.[41][42] He was Professor of Design at the Hochschule in Vienna from 1994 to 1997, and later Professor of Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London up until 2009, when he was made Professor Emeritus.

He was awarded the Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 2002 and the London Design Medal of London Design Festival in 2011.[43][44] In 2012 he was elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Art in London.[45][46] Arad holds an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University.[47] His work has been exhibited at the MoMA, the V&A and Centre Georges Pompidou.[6]

  • Well Tempered Chair (1986)
  • The Big Easy Chair (1987), chrome
  • Tom Vac chair (1997)
  • Windwand (Carbon fibre, 2000) at Canary Riverside, Canary Wharf, London[48]
  • Design Museum Holon at 2010 opening in Holon, Israel

Personal life

Arad lives and works in Camden, North London.[13] His brother is the violist and educator Atar Arad.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Birthdays", The Guardian, p. 33, 24 April 2014
  2. ^ "Ron Arad, artist, designer and architect". designboom. 5 October 2000. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  3. ^ Burnett, Kate (11 March 2010). "Ron Arad". idfx. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  4. ^ a b Riba, Naama. "Ron Arad is back: 'Israelis say that every protest is antisemitic – but that's not true'". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  5. ^ a b Hobson, Benedict (5 August 2014). "Ron Arad interview: how the Rover Chair made him a designer". Dezeen. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  6. ^ a b Lovell, Sophie (27 June 2016). "Metal guru: Ron Arad creates high-wire meditation for St Pancras station". Wallpaper*. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  7. ^ BONLUXAT (14 June 2006). "Ron Arad Biography". BONLUXAT. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  8. ^ "Arad, Ron". SFMOMA. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  9. ^ SMITH, ROBERTA (30 July 2009). "Bravado That Swaggers to Its Own Beat (Published 2009)". New York Times. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  10. ^ Davies, Lucy (7 July 2016). "Ron Arad: in the studio". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  11. ^ "Ron Arad Architects". Architizer. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  12. ^ Lindsay, Calum (23 April 2020). "Live interview with Ron Arad as part of Virtual Design Festival". Dezeen. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  13. ^ a b c Lewis, Tim (27 July 2025). "Ron Arad: 'I'm the oldest person in the studio, but the most juvenile'". The Observer. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  14. ^ a b Patton, Phil (7 August 2009). "A Designer's Journey: From Rover Chair to Maserati Showroom". New York Times Wheels Blog. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  15. ^ HOOSON, LIVIA (3 February 2021). "In the Studio | Legendary Industrial Designer and Architect Ron Arad". ICONIC LIFE. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  16. ^ Arad, Ron; Kartell (1993), Bookworm, retrieved 12 October 2025
  17. ^ Hobson, Benedict (25 March 2017). "The bestselling Tom Vac chair's success was down to luck, says Ron Arad". Dezeen. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  18. ^ "Ron Arad. FPE (Fantastic, Plastic, Elastic). 1997 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  19. ^ "Ron Arad: Restless, London". Wallpaper*. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  20. ^ Shah, Sonal (9 July 2021). "Luminaries of our Times – Ron Arad". www.stirworld.com. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  21. ^ "'In Reverse' by Ron Arad at Design Museum Holon, Israel". Wallpaper*. 19 June 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  22. ^ Ciuraru, Carmela (5 August 2009). "Ron Arad's Inventive Life Now on Display". The Forward. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  23. ^ Dazed (14 June 2012). "EXCLUSIVE: Ron Arad for PQ". Dazed. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  24. ^ Hobson, Benedict (19 May 2020). ""For me, business was always a necessary evil," says Ron Arad". Dezeen. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  25. ^ "Ron Arad". NUVO. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  26. ^ "Best Inventions of 2004 – TIME". Time. 29 November 2004. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  27. ^ Dick-Agnew, David (6 September 2012). "Swarovski at Design Museum London". Azure Magazine. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  28. ^ "Ron Arad has designed for Kenzo". Designophy. 17 April 2009. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  29. ^ CAMPBELL-DOLLAGHAN, KELSEY (19 June 2012). "Ron Arad Creates Eyewear That's Infinitely Adjustable, Without Hinges or Screws". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  30. ^ "Ron Arad to Bring a Levitating Circular Cinema to the Israel Museum". Archived from the original on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  31. ^ Eby, Margaret (28 September 2012). "Ron Arad Lights Up Jerusalem". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  32. ^ Audio, Lynx Pro (15 September 2022). "Ron Arad 720º, an immersive exhibition in Valencia Lynx Pro Audio". Lynx Pro Audio. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  33. ^ "In the round: Ron Arad's 720° lights up a public garden in Singapore". Wallpaper*. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  34. ^ "Mediacite by Ron Arad Architects". Architizer. 14 July 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  35. ^ Frearson, Amy (15 January 2016). "Ron Arad designs cancer hospital for Israeli and Palestinian communities". Dezeen. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  36. ^ Rosenfield, Karissa (9 February 2016). "Ron Arad to Break Ground on Israeli Cancer Center in Afula". ArchDaily. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  37. ^ "Welcome to Design Museum Holon". Design Museum Holon. 2010. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  38. ^ a b Mafi, Nick (13 October 2016). "Ron Arad Architects Unveils Plans for Israel's Tallest Skyscraper". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  39. ^ "ToHa Tower 2 – The Skyscraper Center". www.skyscrapercenter.com. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  40. ^ "Adjaye Associates and Ron Arad Architects win UK Holocaust Memorial International Design Competition". gov.uk. 24 October 2017.
  41. ^ Dezeen (9 August 2011). "Curtain Call by Ron Arad at the Roundhouse". Dezeen. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  42. ^ Haden-Guest, Anthony (24 April 2009). "Ron Arad". Interview. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  43. ^ "London Design Medal: Ron Arad". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  44. ^ "London Design Festival 2011 Medal Winners". londondesignfestival.com. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  45. ^ "Ron Arad | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  46. ^ Barnett, Laura (23 July 2013). "Ron Arad, architect and designer – portrait of the artist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  47. ^ "Award-winning Campus". Tel Aviv University. 16 July 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  48. ^ Ron Arad: Windwand Canary Wharf Art Trail. Canary Wharf Group. Retrieved 16 February 2023.

Further reading

  • Fiell, Charlotte; Fiell, Peter (2005). Design of the 20th Century (25th anniversary ed.). Köln: Taschen. pp. 42–43. ISBN 9783822840788. OCLC 809539744.
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