Ron Arad (industrial designer)
Ron Arad (born 24 April 1951) is a British-Israeli designer, artist, and architect. He is best known for his furniture, especially the Rover chair.
He was born in Tel Aviv to artist parents. He studied at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem (1971–1973) and at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (1974–1979).
In 1981 he started the design studio One Off with Caroline Thorman. He formed Ron Arad Associates in 1989 and Ron Arad Architects in 2008 with Thorman and Asa Bruno.
Arad’s Rover chair (1981) is built from a scrap leather seat from a Rover car and a metal frame. Six copies were bought by fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier that year, making him famous. His other notable works include the Bookworm bookshelf for Kartell (1993), the Tom Vac chair (1997), and the FPE chair. His designs often use unusual materials and organic shapes; he rejects the idea that his work fits a single label like “ruinism.”
In 2004 he designed the Lolita chandelier for Swarovski, which can display messages with LEDs. Between 2008 and 2009 he worked with Kenzo on a perfume bottle shown in his MoMA exhibition No Discipline. In 2012 he created adjustable eyeglass frames for New Eye London. His large 2011 video installation, 720 Degrees, used 5,600 silicone cords and projected video to form a circular, cinema-like view; it traveled from London to Jerusalem, Valencia, and Singapore.
Ron Arad Architects has designed the Maserati Showroom in Modena (2002), the Yohji Yamamoto flagship store in Tokyo (2003), and the Mediacite retail center in Liège, Belgium. They designed the Design Museum Holon (2010). The ToHA office complex in Tel Aviv began with phase 1 completed in 2019; phase 2 is planned and would be one of Israel’s tallest buildings.
He has also been a teacher and leader in design. He was Head of the Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art from 1997 to 2009 and was Professor of Design at the Hochschule in Vienna from 1994 to 1997. He returned to the RCA as Professor of Design Products until 2009, then became Professor Emeritus. He received the Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) award in 2002, the London Design Medal in 2011, and was elected a Royal Academician in 2012. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University. His work has been shown at MoMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Centre Pompidou. He lives in Camden, North London. His brother is Atar Arad, a violist and educator.
In 2017 Arad helped lead the design team for the UK Holocaust Memorial, known as Memorial Architects, in collaboration with David Adjaye.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:15 (CET).