Designers Ron Arad

Born in Tel Aviv in 1951, educated at the Jerusalem Academy of Art and later at the Architectural Association in London, Ron Arad co-founded with Caroline Thorman the design and production studio One Off in 1981 and later, in 1989, Ron Arad Associates architecture and design practice.  In 2008 Ron Arad Architects was established alongside Ron Arad Associates. From 1994 to 1999 he established the Ron Arad Studio, design and production unit in Como, Italy. Ron Arad was awarded the Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in recognition of his ‘sustained excellence in aesthetic and efficient design for industry’ in 2002, and was awarded the London Design Medal in 2011. 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. In 2013 he was elected as a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Art in London. Ron Arad’s constant experimentation with the possibilities of materials such as steel, aluminium or polyamide and his radical re-conception of the form and structure of furniture has put him at the forefront of contemporary design. Alongside his limited edition studio work, Arad designs for many leading international companies, such as, to name a few, Kartell, Moroso, Hennessy. Ron Arad has designed a number of Public Art pieces, including the Vortext in Seoul, Korea, the Kesher Sculpture at Tel Aviv University, Evergreen in Tokyo, and Curtain Call for Roundhouse, London.  A new sculpture, Spyre, was installed at the Royal Academy of Arts in London during summer 2016, and Thought of Train of Thought was part of the Terrace Wires installation programme at St Pancras International station in London in 2017.  720 Degrees appeared in September 2016 at the Singapore International Festival of Arts.  In October 2017 it was announced that Ron Arad Architects, together with Adjaye Associates and Gustafson Porter + Bowman, had won the UK Holocaust Memorial International Design Competition.  Ron Arad’s ‘Safe Hands’ sculpture was unveiled in Toronto in early 2019.