Ron Arad
Israeli architect and designer Ron Arad loves to infuse furniture with personality: "The designer's audacious genius is assimilated and translated into objects that transcend their mere form to bring a relationship-generating vitality into everyday life," explains Moroso. From the beginning of his career, Arad has created pieces with personality, including the inimitable Soft Big Easy chair.
1. Soft Big Easy for Moroso
Originally envisioned in steel, Soft Big Easy took the iconic form to a different place by using a new material-cold-foaming with polyester fiber cladding. The dynamic form then became pliable and welcoming, its bulbous arms an invitation to sit.
2. Soft Heart for Moroso
Even more playful is Arad's Soft Heart. The recognizable heart icon is seen in the silhouette of the armchair, as well as in the contours of its seat. Soft Heart turns furniture into metaphor-here, love is welcoming and embracing.
3. Lovely Rita for Kartell
Arad also plays with hard materials. The Lovely Rita bookshelf, for instance, manipulates a standard shelf into a modular, curvaceous system that's reminiscent of calligraphy. The writing on the wall (shelf) holds up the writing on the wall (books) in a fascinating act of doubling.
4. Victoria & Albert Sofa for Moroso
Victoria & Albert Sofa is another deliciously sinuous piece by Arad. "Originally a 'doughnut' which provided inspiration for a sculpture: squashed, and reworked, using irony to go beyond the usual approach to industrial design," explains Moroso.
5. Voido for Magis
Resembling everything from infinity symbol to eye mask, Voido again plays with luscious forms, this time using two negative voids to arrest our attention. In rotationally molded polyethylene, Voido can be used inside or outdoors.
6. Clover for Driade
Curvy, loopy, and lucky, Clover turns a flower into a seat, introducing a magical element into daily life. It is a place to sit and a place to ponder.
7. Do-Lo-Rez for Moroso
Taking inspiration from the pixel as "the base unit of an image," Do-Lo-Rez seating system employs soft rectangular cubes of different heights and materials to create a pixilated picture. Fun and dynamic, Do-Lo-Rez deconstructs representations of the digital age.
8. Z-Shelf for Moroso
Another great reinterpretation of the bookshelf, Z-Shelf fractures linearity. It's like an exploded view of a bookshelf-"an incomplete grille, broken up by cuts which lighten the perception." For readers who like form to follow function, Z-Shelf can hold postmodern books. Also worth mentioning is one of my favorite bookshelves of all time.
Revel in forms and see more work at Ron Arad.
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