The biography of Ron Arad

The biography of Ron Arad

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Israeli designer and architect Ron Arad got his international breakthrough with the Rover Chair in 1981, and has since become one of the best known furniture designers in the world.

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Ron Arad studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem from 1971-73 and thereafter moved to London to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. After having obtained his degree in 1979, Arad worked at an architects office before he, in 1981, founded his own design and production studio; One Off Ltd together with Caroline Thorman. During the same year he designed the Rover Chair, made of used car seats from 1960’s Rover cars combined with 1930’s scaffolding, which became Arad's international breakthrough.

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Five years later the Well-Tempered Chair, made of folded stainless steel and wing nuts, for Vitra was released as a part of the first Vitra Edition, with objects to be launched and produced in limited quantities. In 1988 he designed the voluptuous Big Easy Chair, that from 1990 is made by the Italian furniture company Moroso under the name Soft Big Easy. In 1989 Arad founded Ron Arad Associates in London, a studio for design and art.

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Arad’s first solo exhibition was at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany 1990. From 1994 to -97 Arad was professor of product design at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, while also running the Ron Arad Studio in Como, Italy. In 1997 Arad became professor of furniture (and from 1999) industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London where he stayed until 2009. In 2008 he founded the Ron Arad Architects, and as an architect, Arad is most known for the Design Museum Holon in Israel (2003-2010).

During 2008 and 2009 the exhibition Ron Arad No Discipline was shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2011 Arad was awarded the London Design Medal and the following year he became a member of the Royal Academy of Art. Five years later he was presented the prestigious italian Compasso D’Oro for his life’s work.

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