Opera Gallery is entering a new era with a new director and a new, double-fronted space on London’s New Bond Street, which has opened with a group exhibition, 'Untitled Rencontres', including new and classic works by designer Ron Arad.

A mix of versions of Big Easy, Quartet and Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends - whaaaa? are part of the influential designer’s display.

Ron Arad classics made in Dakar

'I am filled with excitement for this show as it features artworks I have not seen in a long time and some that I have never touched before,' Arad said ahead of the show. 'Over the past year, I have dedicated myself to daily and intensive online collaboration with amazing artisans in Dakar, and I can’t wait to see and touch the artworks for real.'

The collaboration he is referring to is a reworking of his classic pieces by artisans in Dakar, made from used oil drums. Despite communicating remotely, Arad and the artisans collaborated intensely on these new pieces. The material, surprisingly thick, strong and comfortable, carries messages in these iterations of Big Easy and Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends - whaaaa? respectively renamed, Don’t Ya Tell Henri and America Made in Africa and the Salam Sofa for this instance. 

'When you work with any material, what you get is sort of a result of what the material in the process will do for you,' Arad told Wallpaper* over video chat. 'And [that’s true] if you look at the resin pieces that are in the shuffle… this stuff… the pigments, doing things that I can't take the full credit for, things that happen, and luckily, it’s mostly better than I deserve.'

In the exhibition, we see three reworkings of the Big Easy, one in solid polished pigment-filled resin where the colour has been allowed to react with the resin, resulting in a smooth finish with organic interventions throughout the material. Arad – who in 2022 unveiled his first NFTs – likes this element of chance in the works, the elements that have a life of their own.

The show also includes some of Arad’s most famous works, such as Love Song, Quartet and The Thinker, and is a unique opportunity to see these with several preparatory sketches. 

Also on view at Opera Gallery is a show of masterworks, showcasing its inventory including Picasso, Miro and Niki de Saint Phalle, and a solo exhibition by contemporary painter Andy Denzler. 

This New Bond Street space adds to Opera’s 15 other galleries, from Beirut to New York. The historic building is a 560 sq m Queen Anne-style townhouse that overlooks Medici Courtyard to the rear, where the gallery will show large-scale sculpture. 

'Untitled Rencontres' is on view until 7 January 2024

Opera Gallery
65-66 Bond St
London W1S 1RW

operagallery.com

Ron Arad chairs get a new twist in a new collaboration with Italian wood composites manufacturer Alpi. The designer and Alpi joined forces to create new editions of Arad's iconic ‘Big Easy’, ‘Oh Void’ and ‘Southern Hemisphere’ chairs, shown at an exhibition at the Alpi showroom in Milan (until 22 December 2022). Titled 'If I Were a Carpenter', this is the latest in a series of creative collaborations started from an idea of Vittorio Alpi, who wanted to give a new dimension to his family company’s flat materials. Previous collaborations with Alessandro Mendini, Martino Gamper and Piero Lissoni helped demonstrate the company’s vision for the future. 

Iconic Ron Arad chairs in colourful wood

Now working with the London-based designer and artist, Alpi presents three iconic pieces made in the company’s signature colourful woods. ‘The pioneering architect, designer and artist Ron Arad already inhabited my wish box,’ says Vittorio Alpi. ‘He decided to make three chairs from his “BTT“ (Blame the Tools) series using boards of our wood in two colours, one for each side. The result is astonishing, and it shows how easily Ron is able to enter a new world and wield new tools while maintaining all his elegance, subversive style and spirit.’

The designer is no stranger to experimentation; we recently saw Ron Arad’s first NFT project join his wealth of design and architecture works. For this new collaboration, Alpi created specially developed woods to give the shapes an optical effect, using boards in two colours to enhance the aesthetic. The sculptural nature of the chairs fits the project well, each piece of furniture abstracted into its pure form through the gridded wood structures. 

‘I was delighted when I was approached by Alpi and was asked to make some pieces using their extraordinary range of wooden sheets,’ says Arad. ‘It was impossible to chase away the “idea” that took charge: to make armature pieces of coloured, layered, wooden plates that would enjoy different tones from different views and directions. And unlike the Corten or stainless steel, it will also celebrate the layered, toned edges of the trimmed wooden sheets.’

The ‘Blame the Tools’ series started with Arad’s ‘Roddy Giacosa’, a lattice study of a Fiat 500, whose body was made of steel and divided into several sections. Redesigned as an armour, the car inspired Arad to revisit some of his most iconic chairs with Alpi. ‘“Big Easy” is of course the first one,’ he continues. ‘We modelled it, rendered it, and made videos of walking around the pieces. We studied samples, we chose colours and patterns. Somehow I’m sure it will turn out better than I deserve.’

‘If I Were a Carpenter’ is on view until 22 December 2022

ALPI showroom
Via Solferino 7
Milan

alpi.it

In 2013, Ron Arad visited R Proietti, a London-based specialist repairer of original Fiat 500s. Arad explained that he was looking for a selection of Cinquecentos in a variety of colours, and was planning to crush them flat. Unsurprisingly, proprietor Stefano Proietti was not immediately on board. Summoning his considerable if mischievous charm, Arad explained that he too was a 500 lover and that his intent was to immortalise the cars, as a pressed flower eternalises an ephemeral bloom. Arad won Proietti over and he took six cars to a specialist in the Netherlands who could flatten them to his satisfaction. 

These became the Pressed Flower series, part of the 2013 ‘In Reverse’ exhibition at the (Arad-designed) Design Museum Holon near Tel Aviv. The show explored the relationship between physical and digital design and making, and between the flat sketch and the 3D model. ‘Normally you make something from a drawing into something three-dimensional and functional,’ Arad explains. ‘I did the opposite. I took a three-dimensional, fully functional thing and I rendered it two-dimensional and non-functional.’

The show also included Slow Outburst, a digital simulation of a car being crushed by an invisible force and then reconstituting itself, created with the help of special effects studio Framestore, more usually employed on Marvel blockbusters. 

These pieces are the basis of Arad’s debut series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). And the crushing and conceptual and commercial reframing of a Fiat 500 might be as nice an analogy as any for the promise of that technology. NFTs are like cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether in that they are generally built using the same programming. However, unlike cryptocurrencies, they are not equal to one another and cannot be exchanged like for like (hence non-fungible). Each one is ‘minted’ in small numbers from digital objects such as music, animation, GIFs or avatars. Crucially, they use blockchains to register ownership and all sales thereafter; smart contracts can be coded in so creators get a piece of all future sales. But because they rely on blockchains, they carry the same reputational stink of scandalous energy use associated with cryptocurrencies. They are mostly in the news because last year an NFT by video artist Beeple was sold at Christie’s for $69.3m, the third-highest price ever paid for the work of a living artist.

Arad is the first to admit that, like most people, he has a very limited understanding of the mechanics and potential of NFTs. But like most artists, he has been bombarded with calls from NFT-minting suitors telling him he should get a piece of the action. Arad is fascinated by emerging and not-yet-emerged technologies, so he just needed the right approach, the promise that he could create something enviable, to get him over the line.

That approach came from Tel Aviv-based Shifting Vision. Established in 2020 by entrepreneur and art and design collector Edouard Sterngold, Shifting Vision has already partnered with artists including Erwin Wurm, Isaac Julien, Rashid Johnson and Adel Abdessemed to create short films.

Sterngold says that, in the early days of the pandemic, he had a sense that art was resonating differently, but also that artists felt there was a greater disconnect between their work and what he calls ‘actuality’. With physical galleries closed, artists had to think about how people engaged with their art. And at the same time, seismic socio-cultural shifts, such as the rise of the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, were reframing their existing work. Shifting Vision would work with artists to create films that were more immediate, accessible versions of the monograph. 

NFTs presented an opportunity to work with artists to create digital art that could reach a new audience. That pitch worked with Arad. ‘I showed them stuff and they reacted to the right things,’ he says. ‘I liked the other artists they were talking to so I said, “Yeah, let’s give it a go”. And then it was just a matter of deciding what would be the right project to start with. Luckily, we are very rich in digital material.’

The animated version of Ron Arad’s limited-edition cover creation, featuring Reverse Again, 2022, hand-painted on the artist’s tablet. Presented in association with Shifting Vision, soundtrack by Dario Marinanelli. 

Set to be auctioned in April, ‘Reverse Again’ is four lots of NFTs, including a reworking of the Slow Outburst film in an edition of 15 (each a different colour), a one-of-a-kind edition of Slow Outburst, and Little Yellow Car, an early video ‘prototype’ of Slow Outburst, also in an edition of 15. Meanwhile, Let’s Drop it, OK? and Let’s Drop it, OK? (Side View) are digital images of a collapsing Roddy Giacosa, the bent steel rod simulacra of a Fiat 500 Arad created for the ‘In Reverse’ exhibition, now produced in editions of 50. 

The Arad collaboration is Shifting Vision’s debut NFT project, but Sterngold has big and serious ambitions. ‘As a technology, it is still 100 per cent potential and opportunity,’ he says. Sterngold knows fine art NFTs are still relatively uncharted territory; it’s his mission to convince established contemporary artists of the potential of NFTs, to help them figure out how and why the technology can work for them. As Shifting Vision’s curator and project manager Jemma Elliott-Israelson says, ‘The goal is to work with artists who are super-established and don’t want to take big, stupid risks with their work.’ 

Sterngold is the first to admit that NFTs are still a difficult sell to many artists, but there is obvious low-hanging fruit. The initial appeal is to video artists who can now ‘mint’ editions of new video work. ‘There’s nothing to lose and all to gain,’ he says. 

He also argues that NFT smart contracts will encourage more cross-disciplinary collaboration, as all creative partners are guaranteed a piece of the financial pie. NFTs allow an artist to explore the potential of digital art, in whatever form, with a greater sense of security around ownership. ‘If you’re an established artist, you want to know what happens to your licensing and copyrights of your image after it’s sold,’ says Elliott-Israelson. ‘We are trying to provide a safe space for artists to do this and then hopefully ignite a lot of creativity within them.’

‘Artists need time to adapt and make the transition. Art shouldn’t be created in a hurry,’ concludes Sterngold. ‘We’ll go on a journey together with the artists. We’ll test some things, we’ll learn and we’ll adapt.’

Shifting Vision produced a short film, directed by art director and filmmaker Giulia Magno, exploring the artistic process behind the creation of Ron Arad's NFT artworks. Shot in Arad’s London home and studio, the film retraces the artist’s long-standing fascination with the Fiat 500

This article was originally featured in the May 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands now and available to subscribers. 

ronarad.co.uk, shiftingvision.org

Throughout its lifetime, the New York gallery Friedman Benda has made supporting both established and emerging design-focused artists its calling card. Its latest duo of exhibitions is no different. Opening this week, the gallery dedicates its ground floor space to the design pioneer Ron Arad. Focused on Arad’s early sculptural work, made between 1985-1994, ‘Fishes and Crows’ is the designer’s first solo exhibition at the gallery space since 2008.

In contrast, the young British artist Jonathan Trayte takes over Friedman Benda’s basement Project Space with a landscape of colourful and surreal works that reference familiar objects in your typical living, eating and sleeping quarters. Entitled ‘Fruiting Habits’, Trayte’s provocations towards these everyday shapes reveal his background in sculpture and metalwork, along with his sense of humour. Each refreshing interpretation of domesticity merges a wide range of materials like wood, bronze, leather and marble with flashes of glossy paint, bright colours and tubes of neon. Forms range from the functional to the gourmand, such as large melons, gourds, confections and slices of deli meats (Trayte was also previously a chef), imbuing the creations with a lighthearted touch.

‘The work that I tend to make comes together all at once, like a cast of characters,’ Trayte says. ‘There’s always some weird older brother, the “black sheep”, that doesn’t quite fit.’ While Trayte’s quirky world is a dramatic foil to Arad’s freely sculpted works, their shared flair for experimentation seamlessly bridges the gap between the two shows.

This particular decade in Arad’s career saw the designer eschew machine tooling for a more expressive approach to metal. Aided by tools such as a metal compactor, hand welder and a rubber-headed hammer, Arad created armchairs, tables and screens out of gestural pieces of wielded metal – all in opposition to the slick polish of the Memphis movement in Milan. Postmodern and infused with a subversive sense of humours, these pieces are the precursors to the more sophisticated forms that Arad began exploring in the late 1990s that ultimately evolved into how we know him today.

INFORMATION

‘Ron Arad: Fishes & Crows’ and ‘Jonathan Trayte: Fruiting Habits’ is on view at Friedman Benda until 27 July. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

515 W 26th St
New York
NY 10001|
USA

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Flexibility and imaginative engineering meet at the building site for ToHA – a.k.a Totseret Ha-Aretz – in Tel Aviv. The new development, designed by Ron Arad, has been rising fast in the Israeli town, gearing up to make its mark on the city’s skyline.

The result of a joint venture between local developers Amot and Gav-Yam, the complex consists of two towers – one 28 storeys and the other 63 storeys high – which are situated next to each other on a common base of commercial facilities and a split-level planted and landscaped public space. Offices will occupy the upper floors, while two roof terraces at the top will host a number of restaurants and facilities open to the public. A sky bridge will connect the two towers.

Located a stone’s throw from the train station in the heart of Tel Aviv, the project stands out not just for its overall modern style and nature – the site was a rare opportunity for a new-build scheme in the centre of town – but also for its distinctive volume. The buildings’ eye-catching outline was carefully sculpted to negotiate various requirements, from lighting needs to several site constraints and local planning regulations.

Indeed, the structure is full of ingenious solutions, spearheaded by the team’s innovative thinking. Its unusual distribution of massing, stepped façade and the internal arrangement were key. ‘We refer to this as the upside-down building’, says Arad. ‘Plant and machinery are placed down below, freeing up the roof and upper levels for delight and enjoyment. We managed to achieve a seriously small footprint for such a large building, with “legs” that are sprouting from a lush park, rather than a shopping mall’. This gesture helps free up ground space for circulation to create a sense of space and avoid unnecessary density.

‘The lower technical levels are clad with a permeable façade of cross-mounted panels, creating an “X” pattern’, continue the architects. ‘This woven-like arrangement allows for plant facility ventilation, and provides a coherent aesthetic to the first seven floors of the building.’

Currently, construction is moving full steam ahead at the Tel Aviv building site, and the team aims to complete Phase 1 – the first tower – by the end of 2018. That is when construction will begin on the second and last phase, aiming for full completion of the second tower and surrounding landscaping by 2022.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Ron Arad website

Known as Israel’s cultural capital, Tel Aviv has an architectural identity that is a tale of two cities. The sun-drenched secular metropolis is loved internationally for its bohemian Bauhaus treasures, with some 4,000 historic buildings scattered across the broad, verdant boulevards of its White City district.

Then there’s its less recognised postmodern legacy: perhaps best summarised by the 34,500 sq m spacescape of the Azrieli Centre – its epic trifecta of towers completed by Eli Attia & Yaski Sivan Architects just shy of the millennium, reflecting all the futuristic optimism of the late 90s through its design.

This split personality is soothed by Jaffa, the historical port just south of the city that has now become the go-to destination for Tel Avivian nightlife entertainment. Countless clubs and 24-hour art venues like the new Magasin III are setting a new standard for the city’s late night culture junkies.

Meanwhile, Israel’s startup scene continues to flourish in the ‘Silicon Wadi’ tech cluster surrounding Tel Aviv. Venture capital-friendly tax breaks introduced during the 90s through Israel’s Yozma business incubator programme combine with the warm weather and high living standards to encourage a more or less steady stream of tech outposts in Tel Aviv.

Giants like Facebook, Apple, and Amazon get cosy with specialist groups like WeWork, drone safety startup ParaZero and VR darling Magic Leap, all of which have bought into multiple floors of upcoming tower projects including Ron Arad’s ToHA development, Pitsou Kedem’s C6 Tower and the 72-floor Sarona Tower which nears completion.

Tel Aviv’s endless blue skies may yet have found their match in the city’s vertical expansion.

C6 Tower
Architecture by MYS Architects and interiors by Pitsou Kedem
2019

Tel Avivian architectural mainstays MYS Architects join forces with designer-favorite Pitsou Kedem to realize the $50m, 50,000sq m Acro C6 Tower. Climbing to 34 floors, the mixed-use tower will primarily consist of office units anchored by 3 floors of commercial activity. Conceived of as an art-architecture fusion, the Bauhaus-inspired structure will host its own art gallery, conceptual light installations, and bespoke carpeting as part of its interior design by Pitsou Kedem.

Rothschild Tower
Richard Meier & Partners
2017

A household name in the West, Richard Meier’s Bauhaus-inspired residential tower straddles the lengths of the famed Rothschild Boulevard, and bumps elbows with concurrent products of Tel Aviv’s current tech tower boom including the Sarona Tower and iconic Azrieli Centre.

ToHA Towers
Ron Arad
Scheduled for 2018

It’s rare for a 1.8 hectare site to become available in any city centre; British architect Ron Arad’s in-progress ToHA will grace its namesake, Totzeret Haaretz Street, in the heart of Tel Aviv near the bohemian paradise of Carmel Market. Nicknamed the ‘Iceberg’, its two office towers clock in at 28 floors and 63 floors, together offering 160,000 sq m of floor space. Still, the complex will remain light on its feet, supported by slim core ‘legs’ enmeshed within densely planted landscape.

Bein Arim Tower
Miloslavsky architects
2021

Whatever way you cut it – 100 stories, 400 m tall, or 150,000 m² of floor space – Bein Arim tower will be epic. Already building its reputation as Israel’s own Empire State building, the triangular-shaped structure will take root near the Savidor Central Railway Station at the eastern end of Tel Aviv. Its three sides will symbolically and financially link Tel Aviv to neighbouring Ramat Gan and Givatayim, as partnered cities in the project.

Tel Aviv School of Entrepreneurship
David S Robins (Robinsalliance) and Dan Price (Price Piltzer Yawitz Architects)
2016

Stationed like some industrial aquatic creature on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship melds Mediterranean Bauhaus with factory-like exposed functionality. Fins of metal mesh and concrete shield the dark glazed glass façade, which allows a generous glimpse into the building’s inner activity. A suspended steel central staircase anchors the top three floors of classrooms and offices to the open public space and exhibition hall below.

Gordon Gallery
Gottesman Szmelcman Architecture
2017

Gordon Gallery’s third outlet in Tel Aviv is nestled on the southern fringe of the city, leaning into the adjacent gallery hotspot of Shapira. A glowing slab of concrete sandwiched between carpentry workshops and a zipper factory, the airy 165 m² space is intended to host a range of contemporary artwork.

Magasin III
Goldschmid Arditi Ben Naim Architects
2018

Swedish contemporary art museum and foundation Magasin III opened its Jaffa outpost in early 2018, taking the all-hours lifestyle of the city as its point of inspiration for a 24/7 programme. Tapping Israeli architects Goldschmid Arditi Ben Naim for the sophisticated renovation of the 100-year old building, Magasin III’s light-washed interiors never sleep, but mark a new dawn for Tel Aviv’s art scene.

Photography: Youval Hai

Arsuf Residences
Gottesman-Szmelcman Architecture
2017

Still, the techies gotta sleep too sometimes, and Western media outlets’ dominant typecast of Tel Aviv’s architecture scene as sleek modernist residential projects isn’t without reason. This razor-sharp residential complex by Israeli-Franco Gottesman-Szmelcman Architecture was built for the gated coastal community of Arsuf, Israel, just north of Tel Aviv. It offers stunning sea views and borders the scenic Apollonia National Park. Each of its ten apartments has its own unique layout and size, cultivating the sense of a mini-village.

Sotheby’s 20th century design specialists Cécile Verdier, senior director, and Laetitia Contat-Desfontaines, deputy director and head of sale, with Wallpaper* brand and content director Tony Chambers, at Sotheby’s warehouse in West London. From left to right; ‘Floris’ chair in moulded fibreglass-reinforced polyester, 1967, by Günter Beltzig; ‘Wing-Nut’ chair in hardboard, piano hinges and wing-nut connectors, 1985, by Jasper Morrison; ‘All Night Long’ table in coated carbon fibre and Nomex honeycomb paper, 2002, by Ron Arad; ‘Fragments’ wall lamp in reclaimed Venini glass and steel, 2010, by Fernando & Humberto Campana, for Venini; ‘SQN5-T’ table in stainless steel, 2012, by Zhang Zhoujie; ‘Bone’ rocker in cast black marble resin, 2009, by Joris Laarman; ‘Flora’ bureau, model No. 2131, in mahogany-veneered wood, mahogany, brass and printed paper, designed C1950-51, by Josef Frank, for Svenskt Tenn.

‘Living in a Material World.’ It’s a brave title for an auction, perhaps. Yet for Sotheby’s design auction on 17 October, curated by our own brand and content director Tony Chambers, the title has a very literal intent: the 150-odd pieces included have been selected for their material expression. ‘It’s interesting how our perception of the word “material” has changed in the three decades since Madonna’s anthem,’ Chambers says. ‘It was a crass and fairly derogatory term not so long ago that spoke of greed, but today we think of the word as having more noble, fine and pure connotations.’ To be clear: this is an auction exploring materiality, not materialism.

Standing in Sotheby’s storage facility in the outer reaches of West London is a surreal experience. After wending one’s way through warehouses filled with canned drinks and mass-market furniture (a stark reminder that we do still live in Madonna’s material world), you find yourself surrounded by goods of a much higher order. Out of context, away from the workshop, gallery, hotel lobby or home, it’s curiously humbling to see these spectacular works of design for what they are. They were not intended to be lots or price tags, but ideas brought to life through craft and technology as functional objects. Jasper Morrison’s ‘Wing-Nut’ chair is in one corner, its expressive utility fitting right into the warehouse. A ‘Cake’ stool by the Campana brothers is being carried in a grey industrial laundry bag, while their ‘Broken Dreams’ chandelier for Venini sails past on a trolley. Everything feels off duty and all the more fascinating and spectacular for it.

Cécile Verdier, senior director and coworldwide head of 20th century design at Sotheby’s, is leaning against Marc Newson’s ‘Extruded Table 3’, a seemingly impossible piece of furniture laser-cut from a single block of Striato Olimpico marble. You can’t help but touch it. It requires no small amount of willpower not to lick it. ‘A consignment arrived last year with a group of six pieces from a European private collector,’ Verdier explains. ‘They were an interesting mixture of contemporary pieces – Hadid, Newson, Arad – and we were struck by the collective narrative of material expression. Wallpaper* was the obvious partner to help us tell this story. Tony and his team have helped cross the boundaries of different industries, introducing us to the pioneering and the common elements in design that shape modern life.’

This was the seed from which the auction has grown. It is a collection that traces the evolution of how designers master and manipulate materials, from the politeness of post-war furniture to the use of the most advanced technologies to achieve something more akin to alchemy. As such, there’s an anthropological thread to the hoard. The collection tells the story of modern design through the lens of materials, encompassing the evolution not just of technology, but of skill, taste, trend and wider social values, too.

Materiality is more than just a handy hook for bringing the collection together. It’s also a response to where we find ourselves today, reflecting our growing appreciation of materials. As daily life is increasingly spent in virtual worlds or on digital desktops, we yearn for analogue, physical experiences to act as a counterbalance. Materials summon up primal urges – hence the desire to lick the marble. ‘Across contemporary life we are witnessing profound appreciation for experiences and sensations that ground us,’ Chambers explains. ‘We respond to things that engage our senses and make us feel human.’ Bearing testament to this, in the warehouse there’s a lot of stroking going on.

Laetitia Contat-Desfontaines, Sotheby’s 20th century design head of sale, elaborates, keeping one hand on Ron Arad’s ‘All Night Long’ table: ‘It’s almost like an antidote to our obsession with social media. We crave the materiality and texture that design offers. Craftsmanship is a tangible link to reality. It speaks of skill, tradition, quality and time – when we feel these qualities we build a relationship with the pieces.’

‘People buy design at auction because they love the piece,’ adds Verdier. ‘They don’t buy to sell, in the same way as they do with art. Generally, they live with the designs they buy, and use them, and so they have an intimate relationship with them – it’s a commitment.’

Surveying the diverse lots that will be up for auction in October, it’s a powerful concept. Taking materials as a starting point encourages a new appreciation of older, familiar pieces and a fuller interrogation of more contemporary designs. Joris Laarman’s extraordinary ‘Bone’ rocker, 3D-printed using powdered Belge Noir marble and resin, sits beside a mahogany bureau by Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, bedecked in botanicals. Both are exquisite examples of their period’s craftsmanship and material expression, six decades apart. Elsewhere, Pierre Jeanneret’s armchairs sit beside the Campana brothers’ ‘Cake’ stool; the elegant utility of wood and leather designed for civic duties in Chandigarh is juxtaposed with the synthetic fluffy toys found on São Paulo street stalls – kitsch commerce elevated into something valuable.

The breadth and depth of this collection makes clear how design has evolved over time in the minds and hands of different people. It is a positive story of progress. ‘Each piece is a story brought to life through materials,’ Chambers summarises. ‘Any new technology presents an opportunity for reinventing or developing a material into a new form. The story of design is effectively the combination of human ideas, material expression and technological development.’

INFORMATION

‘Living in a Material World’, pre-sale exhibition: Friday 13 – Monday 16 October; auction: Tuesday 17 October, For more information, visit the Sotheby’s website

‘The Rise of Design and its Importance in our Digital World’ talk will take place on Saturday 14 October. The event is free, register for tickets here

ADDRESS

Sotheby’s
34–35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

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‘Here in Israel, we tend to blame the younger generation for choosing to go to a restaurant or concert over a museum,’ says Maya Dvash, chief curator at Design Museum Holon. ‘But they do this because of the need to have an experience – something that wasn’t previously fulfilled by the classic museum visit.’

Dvash and her team are on a mission to change this, filling Israel's premier design hub with immersive displays to touch, play with and hear, eschewing stuffy glass cabinets and library-quiet galleries. Recall the virtual reality units at the ‘eyewear through the ages' display last year, or Ron Arad's digital experimentations with crushed cars back in 2013.

For the museum's landmark summer exhibition, ‘Sound and Matter in Design’, interactivity is built into the very fabric of the building. Ron Arad's sweeping Corten steel walls have been dotted with speakers, emitting sounds controlled by the visitors themselves. Split into three parts, the exhibition comprises ‘Sensing Sound’, created and curated by Anat Safran and Lila Chitayat along with eight other sound artists and the Upper Gallery exhibition; ‘Seeing Sound’, curated by Anat Safran, Lila Chitayat and Elisabetta Pisu.

The exhibition comes at a moment of flux and reinvention in the world of audio design, as interconnectivity and portability become design priorities. ‘These days, we can listen to music everywhere, we are still able to hear, but we have been de-sensitised to sound, and are losing the ability to listen properly,’ says Dvash. ‘Our exhibition gives a place to a very special way of listening. Listening with attention.’

Our ears are pricked. The lower gallery is filled with a ‘Sensing Sound' installation. Built specifically to connect us to sounds we would normally block out, it ‘aims to teach us how to listen again’, says Dvash. The installation includes original sound works, translated into visual representations influenced by the movement of visitors.

The Upper Gallery houses over 50 objects designed from the 1960s to the present, divided into three categories: stationary, mobile, and interactive objects, which exemplify the conceptual shift from object design to the design of a user experience.

It's a change reflected by the museum's own, ever-growing emphasis on audience engagement. ‘The modern exhibit attender wants more than to just see, they want to understand,' Dvash explains. ‘“Sound and Matter in Design” does just that, it gives the visitor not just a didactic tour of the museum, but rather the whole experience.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Design Museum Holon website

ADDRESS

Design Museum Holon
Pinkhas Eilon St 8, Holon
5845400, Israel

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June sees the return of Design Miami/ for its Basel edition, and along with it the fair’s Design at Large programme, which presents contemporary design in a new conceptual light. For its fourth iteration, the showcase is curated by Thom Browne – the first time a fashion designer has overseen the exhibition – who has put together a retrospective of statement desk designs from the last century, coupled with a choreographed performance focusing on young design students and their creative responses to the installation.

Browne’s installation will include design classics such as Charlotte Perriand’s curved wooden desk, and Pierre Paulin’s ‘CM141’ desk produced by Thonet in the 1950s, as well as iconic designs by Jean Prouvè and Charles and Ray Eames. Some designs on display challenge the traditional desk structure more than others; case in point Ron Arad’s steel ‘Two Legs and a Table’, or Pucci De Rossi’s postmodern marble, glass and wooden piece. 

‘I chose the desks purely based on their design importance in the last century,’ explains Browne, whose display also includes a large-scale installation plucked from his A/W 2014 runway set – a woodland tableau complete with a river and an array of animals clad in menswear fabrics. The 15 desks in the exhibition are displayed in a strict grid-like pattern facing the installation, forming an interesting juxtaposition with the more conceptual scene.

Browne notes, ‘I believe it is vital that as living designers in an increasingly interdisciplinary creative realm we revisit these significant movements and consider how each challenged the status quo and made way for innovation.’ To wit, this Basel exhibition is a fitting example of the multifaceted practice of the designer, who is celebrated for his thrilling fashion shows.

‘The concept of the installation is really taking the very classic idea of menswear fabrics and interpreting them into an autumn/winter scene,’ says Browne. ‘The desks are almost a separate installation which the artists will actually use during the performance so, for me, it will be a study as to how the two concepts play into each other.’

INFORMATION
Design Miami/ Basel runs from 13 – 18 June. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

Design Miami/ Basel
Hall 1 Süd
Messe Basel

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‘Who’s the skinhead with the beard, tight suit and tattoos?’ A few years ago, a distinctive looking chap appeared on the front row of the fashion shows and caught the attention of other regular attendees. ‘He’s the buying director for MyTheresa,’ replied one sage. This particular tattooed gentleman was Justin O’Shea and he was definitely rocking a ‘Thing’. And he was getting noticed. O’Shea came from a humble background. Prior to his Thingness, young Justin grew up in a remote village in Queensland, Australia, working in mines with his dad and shifting boxes at supermarkets. Now he was an unmistakeable feature on the fashion circuit with an exploding social media profile boosted by numerous half naked selfies. Some dismissed him as a bit of a joke. Others said he was a smart guy who knew his fashion retail and also knew how to project himself as a brand – as a Thing.

Fast forward to July 2016 and O’Shea is no longer on the front row but on the catwalk, taking a John Galliano-style bow for his debut collection for Brioni. His appointment as creative director a few months earlier raised eyebrows as he had no formal training or experience as a designer. But it was a reflection of the changing responsibilities of such a role and of the industry and society more widely. It’s no longer just about being able to design or oversee a collection, it’s about communicating a style and a vision. It’s about being an ambassador who projects that vision. It’s about being noticed and talked about. It’s about having a Thing!

I wish I had a Thing. I realised some years ago that anybody who is really successful, who has really made it, has a Thing. I’m doing all right, but if I had a Thing I’d be big. I’d be someone. A Thing gets you noticed and remembered. ‘Do you know Tony Chambers, the editor of Wallpaper*?’ ‘I don’t think I do… oh, hang on, is he the xxx guy with the xxx? Yes, sure I know him.’ Being noticed and  remembered seems to make you better.

Think of Le Corbusier. Would he have been as successful without those black, thick-framed round spectacles? Richard Rogers has his brightly coloured collarless shirts, while Jean Nouvel keeps it monochrome. Peter Marino’s career took off after he adopted the Tom of Finland look. John Pawson keeps it minimal, of course – he has his NOthing.

Steve Jobs had his black polo-neck and 
dad jeans – the low-key thing. While Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli always wore his wristwatch over his shirt cuff. A bling thing!

Fashion designers are undoubtedly kings of the Thing. Alber Elbaz ‘owns’ the big bow tie and Rick Owens ‘owns’ elegant goth, while John Galliano has borrowed just about everything – currently settling on a sober Savile Row gent Thing. Karl Lagerfeld has about five Things. The greedy Kaiser has his powdered ponytail, his high-necked starched shirts, ever-present dark glasses and fingerless gloves, and his celebrity pussy, Choupette.

Although copper is his big Thing, designer Tom Dixon also had a pet Thing. Until her recent sad passing, Dixon would always be seen at cocktail events with his pet poodle, Molly. Even Molly had a Thing – she had to be carried as she was deaf, blind and 120 in dog years. Dixon also proudly sports artfully dishevelled curly hair, rides a vintage motorbike, and was apparently the first person in London to go sockless.

Ron Arad has his ever-present trademark hat, gallerist Rossana Orlandi her oversized eyewear, and Marcel Wanders has his 1970s playboy Thing. Karim Rashid, Jack Mama and Nina Tolstrup are the undisputed bright things. And the younger generation of designers are not to be outdone. Bethan Laura Wood does her Boy George Thing, while Philippe Malouin and the Formafantasma boys have made facial topiary their favoured chin Thing.

Photographers naturally understand the power of image. Terry Richardson has his retro porn star Thing and thumbs-up Thing. Juergen Teller is unvaryingly in the shortest of short, sporty, short shorts. And the late, great Bill Cunningham was never without his bright blue French worker’s jacket.

Successful magazine editors are inveterate thingsters. Graydon Carter’s sweeping patrician pelt, Anna Wintour’s bob, Suzy Menkes’ pompadour and Grace Coddington’s fiery red locks are their mane Things. The follicly challenged have to take another tack. British GQ’s Dylan Jones resorted to wearing comically large shirt collars. It may look preposterous, but at least it’s his Thing. He’s got a Thing. I haven’t. Even our Bespoke art director Aneel has developed a personal way of wrapping his shoelaces behind his ankle. ‘It’s my Thing,’ he answered proudly when quizzed by puzzled colleagues.

What could be my Thing? A monocle? Nah – too old fogey. A single bright, block-coloured outfit? Nah – too Rashid. A hat? A cane? A polka-dot bow tie? Deerstalker and pipe? Pants outside my trousers? Not right! I was about to give up when, lo and behold, I had a Thing bestowed upon me. Last year I contracted vertigo, an inner ear condition resulting in room-spinning, nausea, loss of balance and, subsequently, deafness in my right ear. All rather unpleasant and irritating, but at least I now have my Thing. ‘Tony Chambers? Oh, is he the wobbly guy with the ear trumpet who vomits involuntarily? I know him, he’s a legend!’

As originally featured in the October 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*211)

Brooks England is a cycling institution. For 150 years, its storied leather saddles have bumped bums with the best of them, earning cult status. Now, to celebrate Brooks' 150th birthday, designer Ron Arad, fashion's Sir Paul Smith and photographer Martin Parr (along with a veritable peloton of others) have contributed to a new tome celebrating cycling culture. If you're quick off the mark, 50 limited edition versions come with a signed Parr print taken in the Brooks factory.

Filled with stories, anecdotes, photography, design and historical ephemera, the book reflects Brooks England's position as much more than a saddle manufacturer. After being bought by the Italian company Selle Royal in 2002, Brooks had an opportunity to push forward with new ideas, cleaving a foothold in the wider 'lifestyle brand' arena. Today, Brooks is known for its beautifully crafted leather bags, jackets and cycling accessories as much as its saddles.

The Brooks Compendium of Cycling Culture, with its broad range of collaborators, reflects this widening ethos. 'We wanted to show how we have injected new life into the brand,' explains global communications director, Michela Raoss, who was pivotal in bringing the book to life. 'We are becoming more modern. We have more interaction with art, design and fashion.' Because of this rejuvenated attitude, Brooks chose contributors who didn't necessarily have a longstanding relationship with the brand – or even a particularly strong affinity with cycling. 'We just wanted people who could tell the story of cycling in the best possible way.'

Take Martin Parr for instance, who isn't known for his cycling spirit. Instead, he's known for his unique ability to capture the 'British-ness' of a place in his photography. In 2015, he travelled to the Brooks factory near Birmingham to photograph its craftspeople and atmosphere. The resulting image series, seen here in full, is understated, nostalgic and unmistakably 'Brummie'.

Other contributors have more of a vested interest in bikes. 'Until the age of 17 I only thought about being a bike rider,' Sir Paul Smith writes. 'Then I crashed badly, and the injury stopped me racing. I met these art students in the pub who taught me about strange things called "Bauhaus" and "Kandinsky"... I soon realised I could use inventiveness to make a living.'

The idea of inventiveness crops up continually. Ron Arad prizes it highly in his essay on British design education, in which bikes aren't mentioned at all. In this way, the Compendium is as much about forward-thinking creativity and ingenuity as it is about cycling. It's a clever idea from the Italian management, who continue to pitch Brooks England as a 'wide-ranging' brand, where a contemporary design ethos is just as important as a longstanding cycling history.

INFORMATION

The Brooks Compendium of Cycling Culture, £29.95. Collectors Edition, with a signed Martin Parr print, £350. For more information, visit the Brooks England website

With the Design Museum on the verge of opening its sparkling new West London doors, there's an autumn design buzz in London at the moment. Coinciding with this is another celebration of international design in the capital, Sotheby's ‘Design’ – the second edition of the house's relaunched design-centric sale (last year's was the first in half a decade) and a preceding exhibition at its New Bond Street space.

Following editions hosted in New York and Paris earlier this year, 'Design' London takes place on Tuesday 15 November, offering up a expansive list of 173 pieces. Exhibiting the products from tomorrow, the roster features 20th century pieces that span the classic and contemporary, functional and abstract, spending significant effort honing in on postmodern Scandinavian design with highlights from Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner and Peder Moos.

These minimalist masterpieces stand alongside Gio Ponti silhouettes from the 1930s–60s; whimsical Ron Arad chairs; and experimental forms from Italian stalwarts Ettore Sottsass and Andrea Branzi.

'Just like the city itself, our London "Design" sale is developing its own unique character,' says Laetitia Contat-Desfontaines, Sotheby's head of 20th century design sales. 'Exciting new initiatives such as the inaugural [London] Design Biennale at Somerset House and the fantastic new home for the Design Museum are putting design at the forefront of the cultural life of the city.'

Contemporary lots include a marble table by Marc Newson, Studio Job’s playful 'Bottle Rack’, and clay sculptures by Maarten Baas, while extra special Picasso ceramics and Zaha Hadid prototypes show the team have most styles covered for discerning collectors.

‘Design’ follows an impressive display of David Bowie’s extensive art and design collection, marking a nuanced and successful stream of shows at the auction.

INFORMATION

’Design’ takes place at Sotheby’s on 15 November. For more information, visit the Sotheby’s website

ADDRESS

Sotheby's
34–35 New Bond Street
London W1S 2RT

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The 20th anniversary of Wallpaper* this year has called for celebrations of all kinds – among them a staff knees-up for everyone who had ever worked for the brand, a pop-up gallery on Mayfair’s Cork Street, and a panel discussion at the V&A. But best of all was an intimate dinner at Claridge’s recently. Joining forces with Dom Pérignon and its chef de cave Richard Geoffroy, we gathered some of our closest friends, representing all the creative disciplines we cover – design, architecture, art, fashion, food and, of course, fine wine.

Wallpaper* was founded in 1996. And as we washed down food by chef Simon Rogan with successive glasses of Dom ’96, we realised that, as Francis Albert Sinatra would say, it was a very good year – for all present.

Barber & Osgerby founded their studio in 1996 and created the ‘Loop’ table, which would attract the attention of their first major patron, Giulio Cappellini. John Pawson, who designed our subscribers’ cover this month, published his seminal book Minimum in 1996. And Amanda Levete, then at Future Systems, brought architectural finesse to London’s Docklands with her West India Quay Bridge.

1996 also saw Ron Arad reinvent the wheel. Not literally, but with his rolling circular bookcase, while Tom Dixon conceived his iconic ‘Jack’ light. Peter Saville, being Peter Saville, moved into his outlandishly louche Mayfair flat. ‘The Apartment’, as it was known, was perhaps a prototype for the Wallpaper* aesthetic. ‘I should have bought it,’ he quipped.

A young Ben Evans, now director of LDF, was working behind the scenes in 1996 to propel a similarly young Tony Blair to 10 Downing Street. Gregor Muir, now director of Tate’s international art collection, was laying the groundwork for his book of record on the YBAs. Lucky Kunst! That’s the title of the book – not a comment on Gregor’s fortunate double decade. Conceptualist artist Joseph Kosuth put the finishing touches on The Boundaries of the Limitless, which remains one of Japan’s largest works of public art.

Our younger friends were well on their way to success in 1996. Artist Conrad Shawcross finished his foundation course at the Chelsea School of Art. Simon Fujiwara was a boarder at Harrow, where he would be mentored by his eventual muse Joanne Salley – now the subject of his video installation at London’s Photographers’ Gallery. Designer Beatrix Ong was interning at Harper’s Bazaar and hot British fashion talent Simone Rocha was just celebrating her tenth birthday.

Finally, 1996 was also a very good year for Dom Pérignon. It was the year that Richard Geoffroy took the helm, and produced one of the brand’s best vintages. So it was fitting that we toasted its newest release, the P2, an exceptional champagne in its second Plénitude (stage of maturation).

It’s hard to improve on a classic, but whether among champagnes or creatives, maturity clearly has its perks.

As originally featured in the December 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*213)

INFORMATION
The December 2016 issue of Wallpaper* is out now! Subscribe here

Ron Arad's Curtain Call has been wowing crowds since its London inauguration in 2011. Now, reformulated as 720°, the vibrant curtain is lighting up a picturesque bayside public garden in Singapore.

Part of Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the 8m-high installation drapes a curtain of 5,600 silicone cords in a perfect circle, providing an interactive 360-degree stage for performances and cinematic projections.

The aim of the festival was to be truly international, linking global artists with local talent – and this rendering of 720° embodies the universal theme. It will play host to a theatrical display from Singaporean contemporary artist Brian Gothong Tan, who has created an electrifying multimedia performance – Tropical Traumas: A Series of Cinematographic Choreographies – staged inside Arad's immersive, silicone skeleton. The self-professed 'feast for the senses', which promises to transport you to the tropics, engulfs the space with hypnotic music and projects ethereal moving imagery onto the glowing backdrop of Arad's curtain.

This merging of international talent is seen throughout the festival (Gabriel Chan with Wu Man in Borderlands; Oliver Chong with Fernando Rubio in Time Between Us) making for a truly global experience, and giving new meaning to Gothong Tan's performance, with its focus on exploring and cross-continental travel. As the festival director Ong Keng Sen explains, 'We want to bring Singapore audiences brand-new, fresh productions from around the world. What's more, our investment in supporting and developing artists, rather than simply shopping for productions, will set SIFA apart in a crowded landscape of arts festivals in Asia.'

INFORMATION

Ron Arad's 720° is on view until 17 September at The Meadow, Singapore. For more information, visit Ron Arad's website

Photography: Call The Shots Photography

ADDRESS

The Meadow
18 Marina Gardens Drive
Singapore 018953

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‘I have no doubt that you will immediately be confronted by humour, the inventiveness and the genius of Ron Arad,’ states Ben Brown, founder of the contemporary arts space Ben Brown Fine Arts. Tucked away in his Mayfair mews is the latest exposé of the creative maverick's sculptural and avant-garde works.

Ben Brown’s relationship with the artist started when he opened a Hong Kong space with a show of Arad's works in 2009. Nearly a decade later, that bond stays strong with the opening of 'Summer Exhibition'. Wallpaper* quizzed Arad how he decided which pieces would go into the compact show. ‘It’s always a problem, you always want to show everything,' he explains. 'But you need it be restrained and coherent to look like a good show.’

The result is a wonderful mix, with many pieces showing for the first time, in an intimate exploration of Arad’s mind through his crafted forms. The newest piece is 'Useful, Beautiful, Love' – a mobile, rocking log of cedar wood carved into a bench that brought the organic indoors. Imbued with Arad’s quirky details, the seat is engraved with a William Morris quote, with the addition of ‘or love’ at the end. ‘It can mean whatever you want it to,' he muses, 'it is not prescriptive.’ Drawing on the design for the Moroso ‘Glider' sofa, that also rocks back and forth, Arad wanted to shock the audience with something larger and heavier that can move similarly smoothly and gracefully.

And the unique juxtapositions do not stop there. Displayed in the gallery windows are three new sculptures, intriguingly fusing glass and steel. ‘Normally you blow glass into moulds,' Arad explains of the melding, 'and here I wanted to blow glass into something else. No moulds, let the glass blow as it wants to.’ 

The Bucket vase sculpture sees a range of country names – Chile, Liechtenstein, Seychelles, Fiji – carved into steel. These were the only countries that when written in capital letters, nothing drops, Arad explains. The type remains linear. 'We could not include any Os or Ds or Ps,’ he adds.

This experimental synergy continues through the room, across the 'Even the Oddballs' chairs, 'Tuba' steel sofa and, finally, the 'Puddles' series of coffee tables that crawl along the floor, creating artistic mirror and shadow images across the white walls. These play with the contrastingly opaque, rusty form of the 'BTT2' rocking chair and all come together outside in Free Standing China, an abstract sculpture that untilises both shiny steel and raw Corten steel.

Arad’s whimsical world was flummoxing to at least one viewer: ‘My favourite question at the opening was "Why did you use the Disney typeface for the text on 'Useful, Beautiful, Love'?" And I replied, that’s my handwriting!’

INFORMATION

’Ron Arad: Summer Exhibition’ is on view until 15 September. For more information, visit the Ben Brown Fine Arts website

ADDRESS

Ben Brown Fine Arts
12 Brook's Mews
London, W1K 4DG

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Public art in the 1940s and 50s was all about social renewal, about building a better place, for the people. Today, art in public spaces tends to be big business, often turning into the industry-sponsored exercise of adding ‘value’ of a different kind. But occasionally you come across hybrids, such as in the very public, yet privatised space of a major railway station: St Pancras in London. There has been a public art scheme here, called Terrace Wires and operated by HS1, the station’s owner, for the past four years. Every year it invites a committee comprised of broadcaster Evan Davis; Nigel Carrington, rector at the University of the Arts London; artist and curator Chris Wainwright; Royal Academy artistic director Tim Marlow; Nicola Shaw, chief executive of HS1; and Wallpaper* editorial director Richard Cook, to commission a work to hang above the Grand Terrace and below the Barlow Shed roof.

This year’s chosen artist is the architect, designer, sculptor and Royal Academician Ron Arad. The Royal Academy element is important, for this is part of an ongoing collaboration with that venerable institution. It is the first time it has curated an external public sculpture series in London in its 248-year history. 

This doesn’t seem to interest Arad that much when I meet him in the heart of Dutch Friesland to inspect the progress of his piece. What excites him about the commission is the location. ‘Unusually, here we have this amazing space where the art has to be suspended,’ he says. And, being a station, it is full of the comings and goings of trains and travellers (around one million people per week). ‘So I wanted it to be a piece that has movement, that uses the fact it’s not bound or limited by gravity – let’s enjoy the freedom of the fact that it is suspended.’ He’s also responded to the array of visual stimuli at the St Pancras site with a piece that he says needs to be ‘minimal, monolithic and calm’.

The idea for the work came quickly, reveals Arad: ‘Often when you’re given a brief or a request the answer comes immediately; it’s not the result of methodical exploration or studies, it’s: “Yeah, I know what I’ll do”.’ The sculpture, called Thought of Train of Thought, is an 18m-long twisted blade of highly polished aluminium. It will hang side-on above the Grand Terrace, rotating slowly along its long axis – giving incoming train drivers the best view.

He shows me a computer animation of the installed piece on his iPad and suddenly the enormous, half-completed, twisted wing we are standing next to makes sense: when it is finished and polished to a mirror-like sheen, the shimmering reflections along its length will create a strange optical illusion. I comment that the object seems to disappear as a result and looks instead like a tear in space-time in front of the station clock, but that may just be the effect of the animation. ‘The turning on one axis,’ he says, ‘gives you the illusion of something moving from nowhere to nowhere and then disappearing, so people ask themselves: “Where does it come from?” Because it looks as though something is moving, like a train.’

Right now we are in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Franeker in Friesland because this is where CIG Architecture, which is responsible for building Thought of Train of Thought, has sourced specialist aluminium boat builders for the job. It seems an appropriate place to manufacture the blade/wing, with its visual backdrop of giant wind turbines. 

Today is the first time Arad has seen the piece since it left his drawing board in London’s Chalk Farm. In his trademark shapeless hat, the designer looks a little like an overgrown Paddington Bear inspecting his art. Excited, he moves restlessly around and around the piece, filming it first on his smart phone then on the iPad. Exclaiming at the interior structure and the way the light catches the, as yet unpolished, surface, he seems pleased. I mention that with his history of building pieces, beginning with the Rover chair in 1981, it must be strange for him to have others building his ideas. ‘I used to hammer and weld myself,’ he acknowledges. ‘Here, fortunately, I’m in the hands of people who are far more skilled than me.’

It is Arad’s disdain for disciplinary boundaries that makes his work so interesting. He may be an architect and designer, but he responds to briefs like an artist, from the self. He designs buildings, makes sculptures, experiments with technology and makes one-off objects and pieces for mass production. Born in Tel Aviv in 1951, Arad enrolled at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem in 1971, relocating to London’s Architectural Association (AA) in 1974, where he studied architecture alongside Peter Wilson, Zaha Hadid and Nigel Coates, and was taught by Peter Cook and Bernard Tschumi. 

Later, when Arad became head of design products at the Royal College of Art, from 1997 to 2009, this extraordinary educational mix influenced him greatly: ‘I very much copied it. I wanted a pluralist place and I had a very good model, which was the AA.’ He certainly succeeded. In fact, Arad is as distinguished as an educator as he is as a designer, in which capacity he has had major retrospectives at New York’s MoMA, the Barbican Centre in London, and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. His former students, equally, read like a who’s who of contemporary design: Peter Marigold, Max Lamb, Paul Cocksedge, El Ultimo Grito, Studio Glithero and Random International, among others. 

After visiting Thought of Train of Thought, Arad popped up the road to another workshop to inspect the final stages of a kinetic piece called Spyre, which is to be installed in the courtyard of the Royal Academy for the Summer Exhibition in June, shortly before the St Pancras installation on 7 July. The Spyre is a 16m-long articulated tentacle of a thing with a camera eye in its head that will snake around the courtyard. The view captured by the eye will simultaneously be projected onto a giant screen – the sculpture beast monitoring its environment and its observers as they observe it. The eye of the storm and centre of attention once again. The maverick at the heart of the establishment. 

As originally featured in the July 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*208)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the St Pancras railway station website or the Royal Academy's website

Photography: Ester Grass Vergara

ADDRESS

St Pancras railway station
Euston Road
London, N1C 4QP

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For the third year, Design Miami/ Basel presented the large-scale projects of Design at Large, welcoming visitors to the South Hall of Messe Basel. 

Eschewing a traditional booth, the Design at Large initiative invites gallerists to take part in a curated project that explores different points of view on design. This year, publishing heiress Martina Mondadori took the helm of the project, focusing on the theme of nature and outdoor living, explored via an eclectic mix of structures and installations. 


Mondadori chose the theme of ‘Landscape’, she says, to ‘invite designers and galleries to confront themselves with the outdoors and re-imagine the space within gardens’. Mondadori cites inspirations such as 19th century British follies and Italian garden labyrinths as the starting points for her theme. The reactions from the nine participants were eclectic and diverse, proving that such a remit can excite and inspire creative ideas. 

Installed like a canopy at the very entrance to the fair were Tom Price’s 'PP Trees' (created in collaboration with Victor Hunt gallery), an eerie forest made of polypropylene pile that invites visitors to question attitudes towards plastic and nature. 

Inside the space, Galerie Patrick Seguin participated with the 1956 'School of Villejuif' by Jean Prouvé, a temporary emergency structure for the Parisian suburb which in true Prouvé fashion could be installed and dismantled in a short time. The prefab acted as an anchor in the large venue, with further installations dotted around it in the cavernous hall. These included Kengo Kuma’s 'Owan' pavilion, part of Galerie Philippe Gravier’s 'Small Nomad House Project', an initiative dedicated to the marriage of art and architecture. Nearby, Dimore Studio’s 'Verande' took a completely different approach; presented like an outdoors and indoors space at once, the tent was furnished with Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci’s outdoors collection hidden in a deep forest of palm trees and enlivened by blue curtains and a soft breeze produced by the ceiling fans. 

Nearby, two installations were presented in close conversation with each other: Masatoshi Izumi and Koichi Hara’s 'Stone Tea House Meditative Alcove' and Enea Landscape Architecture’s bamboo composition offered a corner of tranquil serenity. 

On the other side of the show, Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk’s 'Civilised Primitives', developed with Nilufar, was a collection of handcrafted objects in bronze that invited viewers to ponder about survival in the present world. The collection was displayed under a large Bedouin-style tent featuring an abstract watercolor motif by the designer, in collaboration with print specialist Exposize. 

Ron Arad’s 'Armadillo Tea Canopy', presented by Robbie Antonio’s Revolution Pre-Crafted Properties, is an independent shell structure for indoor or outdoor use, a multifunctional piece which can offer shelter as well as serve as a meditation space. The modular canopy is composed of five individual shells fixed together with exposed brackets and fixings, with the possibility of extending it by adding further elements. 

Visitors to the fair took full advantage of Alexandra Kehayoglou’s 'No Longer Creek' installation, created in collaboration with Artsy. The Argentine rug maker reimagined the now transfigured Raggio creek, north of Buenos Aires, and through her work brought back to life its vegetation. People could walk and rest on the large tapestry, immerse themselves in its landscape and interact with the piece – it is in fact a Design at Large tradition that visitors often have the chance to get up close and personal with the structures and installations on show, offering a more intimate experience with design and expanding its boundaries beyond the gallery walls. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Design Miami/Basel website

Most curators start with a wishlist of works they want to include in a show– not Alexander Heller and Vivian Brodie. The co-curators of Leila Heller’s ‘Shrines to Speed’ chose instead to take a winding journey toward their final catalogue. The resulting exhibit firmly places their show in the lane of minimalists that ‘inject meaning into an object’ and so joins the great American drive toward metaphor.

Proof that cars have become the country’s chosen vehicle of symbolism is everywhere: literature, photographs, music. Brodie –co-founder of nonprofit Y&S, and a gifted show organizer– and Heller– Leila Heller gallery director– have had the vision to bring these disparate media together in a display that, if chaotic, is deliberately so.

Highlights include Ed Ruscha’s rare publication Every Building on the Sunset Strip and Ron Arad’s Pressed Flower Petrol Blue, 2013. Exhibited for the first time is a work by Bay Area painter Richard Diebenkorn, known for his contributions to abstract expressionism. There are artists overtly associated with cars: John Chamberlain and, in recent years, Arad– as well as less expected additions, like the photography of Ruth Orkin. 

You can’t talk about cars in American culture without talking about pure existential fear, perhaps best expressed in the anonymity of being pinned behind one of John Baldessari’s dots– also included in the show. Walking through the gallery, one is chauffeured toward the conclusion that the car will free you; the car will destroy you... but all will be fine, as long as you keep moving.

Heller and Brodie reference this oblivion as a key theme in the show. They find the literary equivalent in Bret Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero when narrator Clay becomes deeply unsettled by a billboard proclaiming ‘Disappear Here.’ Clay, of course, responds by gunning his car away.

‘Shrines to Speed’ calls to mind two distinctly different types of trauma. There’s the physical event of Sylvie Fleury’s bubble gum pink wreck, rending apart the machine. But there is also the slow, gasoline-leak like seeping of the American dream out of the individual.

Or, as Brodie puts it, ‘the loneliness of chasing a dream.’

INFORMATION

‘Shrines to Speed’ is on view until 9th July. For more information visit the Leila Heller website

ADDRESS

568 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001

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A book that celebrates the fifth anniversary of a building is not something we'd normally get excited about here at Wallpaper*. But a new tome by Ron Arad Architects has proved to be an exception to the rule. The epic and era-defining Design Museum Holon marked the Israeli architect and designer's first building in his home territory – an occasion festively wrapped in the emblematic ribbon colours of this handsome new book.

We at W* have something of a personal connection to the building, having featured it on a limited edition cover back in 2010, weeks before its opening. This was Arad’s favourite picture of the building, a geometric shot by Asa Bruno, who took many of the sweeping images inside the pages of Design(ing) Museum.

The edition replicates the whimsical style of the museum, made up of perforated French folds and wrapped up in rusted coloured ribs that echo the swooping curves of the building. Opening the perforations, innovation flies across the pages; telling the story behind the completed structure via development details and sketches of the impressive project, with a timeline of events and construction ending at the opening exhibition. It was a building of firsts – from being the first Israeli museum dedicated to design, to Arad experimenting with weathered Corten steel, and we get a meaty insight into the genius behind the build from the point of view of the firm itself.

Alongside, we're provided with a charming metal letter opener, also rustically carved in the swishing curves of the building, to playfully assist with opening the thick, perforated pages, revealing the story in full.

'We had this task: to do architecture as a piece of art,' the book informs us. The narrative is made all the more monumental for the unique experimentation and research explored in such a nascent design hub as Holon. ‘It would have to be widely recognisable, iconic but unthreatening,’ the architects explain – and it certainly was.

INFORMATION
Design(ing) Museum, $68, published by Lir & More. For more information, visit the publisher’s website

’Time for Design’ is the powerhouse auction raising money for the relocated Design Museum. Pictured: members of the committee, with pieces to be auctioned, from left to right: Davina Mallinckrodt (sitting on a piece from Martino Gamper’s ‘Metamorfosi’ collection, estimate: £5,000–£7,000); Alexander Payne; Anne-Pierre d’Albis-Ganem; Deyan Sudjic (sitting on ‘Bishop’ stool by India Mahdavi, estimate: £500–£700); Cora Sheibani (sitting on ‘Poltrona di Proust’ armchair by Alessandro Mendini, estimate: £30,000–£50,000); Isabelle Hotimsky; Laure Ghouila-Houri

Five floors up in London’s emblematic Berkeley Square, Oscar Niemeyer’s sensual 1970s masterpiece, the ‘Rio’ chaise longue, sits balanced in a corner, the sunshine hitting it just so, as if it had been beamed down to Earth. Nearby, a black, angry-looking version of Nendo’s ‘Cabbage Chair’ stands stoutly next to Frank Gehry’s lyrical ‘Cross Check’ chair, all beautiful bent strips of intersecting maple veneer. 

Lined up for mugshots against a bare wall at the sleek Mayfair headquarters of auction house Phillips, the three seats could not be more different in origin, intent or execution but, nonetheless, they have a common thread: all will hit the market on 28 April – with some 70 other lots – when Phillips hosts ‘Time for Design’, an auction in support of London’s relocated Design Museum.

This £80m project is scheduled to open on Kensington High Street in November. Proceeds from the auction will help to fill the final fundraising gap for the John Pawson-designed overhaul, which will transform the Commonwealth Institute – a Grade II-listed, 1960s modernist building just south of Holland Park – into a 10,000 sq m destination for those design-obsessed, or merely curious.

‘An auction seemed a good way of making a public statement,’ explains museum director Deyan Sudjic, who is curating the sale. ‘While most of our fundraising has been with individual donors, trusts and foundations, this is a way to open up to a wider group and show the museum’s range of interests.’ 

Whether it’s the first edition of Norman Foster’s sculptural ‘Arc’ table, a steely blue ‘Ribbon Pouf’ by Maria Pergay or a naughty vase by the Haas Brothers, the sale arguably features something for everybody. And that includes the unexpected – such as an ‘Irish Green Falcon’ guitar donated by U2’s Bono. ‘What this auction is trying to say is that the museum (together with Phillips) thinks that this is the world of design now,’ says Sudjic. ‘It features amazing pieces; the kinds of things we’d like to have in the museum.’

There are plenty of rare finds and museum-quality pieces on offer, including an Aldo Rossi desk prototype, designed for Molteni & C in 1989 but never produced, and an unopened example of Gaetano Pesce’s vacuum-packed ‘UP3’ chair (it self-inflates when the packaging is removed). And artist and designer Rolf Sachs, a trustee of the Design Museum, has donated the first edition (of five) of Ron Arad’s ‘London Papardelle’, a woven stainless-steel chair that seems to unroll onto the floor. ‘I’ve always wanted a "Papardelle",’ says Alexander Payne, worldwide head of design at Phillips. ‘It became such an important part of Arad’s vocabulary, and the idea that we can sell the first one is huge.’

For seasoned collectors and newcomers alike, the sale is an opportunity to buy into a premium selection of historical treasures and contemporary works, all in the name of charity. Shopping as patronage, if you will. ‘It is a charitable auction, but it’s not the kind of thing where you sit at a dinner and you’re embarrassed into buying stuff you don’t really want,’ says Sudjic. ‘The contents warranted a proper sale on the open marketplace.’

In addition to donations from collectors, artists and designers, manufacturers and galleries have stepped up, with the likes of Apple and Flos creating one-offs for the occasion. ‘The catalogue reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary design,’ notes Payne. ‘And a what’s what,’ adds Sudjic. ‘It’s kind of a manifesto for the museum – a preview of what to expect in terms of range, quality and the way it is put together.’ 

The lots have been gathered with the help of a 21-strong auction committee (including Payne and Sudjic) that’s a roll-call of design-world royalty and the very well-connected: from Design Miami’s executive director Rodman Primack, designer Marc Newson and architect David Adjaye, to PR power-player Davina Mallinckrodt, Parisian curator Anne-Pierre d’Albis-Ganem and London-based jeweller Cora Sheibani (daughter of the Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger).

‘I grew up around art and design, and the museum is five minutes from my house, so it felt natural to get involved,’ says Sheibani. ‘We’re an international group and this allowed us to tap into a global network, which is obvious in the scope of the sale.’ Mallinckrodt, director of London PR firm Cultural Agenda, has been involved with the museum for several years. ‘The thing that’s so exciting about design is that it has something to offer everybody, and that’s very much what the museum aims to communicate,’ she says.

The museum’s move from its current home – a 1940s warehouse in Shad Thames in south-east London – represents a colossal upgrade in terms of space, location and visibility. When it opens its new doors in the west, it will be close to both the Serpentine and the V&A, bringing it into dialogue with the capital’s other great museums. 

‘We’re aiming to make design more widely understood,’ says Sudjic. ‘In the same way that before Tate Modern opened, contemporary art was seen, at best, as a harmless interest for a small group of people, or a joke. But now it’s centre stage. I think design is a way to understand the world. And we will be leading the conversation on design, which doesn’t ever stand still, but is always changing. Which is why it’s so exciting and interesting, isn’t it?’

As originally featured in the May 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*206)

INFORMATION
‘Time for Design’ takes place on 28 April. For more information, visit the Phillips website
Photography: Marius W Hansen

ADDRESS

Phillips
30 Berkeley Square
London, W1J 6EX

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To raise money for their relocation to Kensington, the Design Museum has partnered with Phillips to stage the 'Time for Design' auction in Berkeley Square.

In aid of the good cause, the Museum has been inundated with generous donations from globally renowned designers and collectors. For example, the Zaha Hadid Foundation has donated three 'Mercuric' collection tables; Ron Arad has contributed his striking 'D-Sofa' in stainless steel; and pop-philanthropist Bono has parted with his Gretsch 'Irish Falcon' guitar.fp

Keen to get in on the action, Apple's chief design officer Sir Jony Ive has created something new: a one-of-a-kind accessory collection for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Ive has a long history with the Design Museum, which is due to close its Shad Thames location in May, and reopen in Kensington at the end of November. He won their inaugural Designer of the Year award in 2003 for the iMac, and he also showed a prototype of a mobile phone at the museum way back in 1990.

• Read our exclusive behind-the-scenes feature on the Apple Park HQ

His new accessory collection includes an iPad Pro housing, which has been anodised with a custom dye; a blue, suede-lined 'Smart Cover', crafted from supple French leather; and an orange cover for the Apple Pencil, created from fine grain Italian calf leather.

Ive's new products are in single editions, designed exclusively for the Design Museum event. To prove it, 'Edition 1 of 1' has been laser etched on the back surface of the iPad and the interior surface of the 'Smart Cover'.

'We are extremely grateful to the friends of the museum who had donated such outstanding pieces to help us fulfill our ambition of creating one of London’s most important new cultural sites,’ says Design Museum curator (and auction co-curator) Deyan Sudjic.

INFORMATION

The ’Time For Design’ live auction will take place on 28 April, with an online auction running from 7 April – 2 May. For more information, visit the Design Museum’s website

Photography courtesy Phillips / Phillips.com

ADDRESS

Phillips
30 Berkeley Square
London, W1J 6EX

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Ron Arad’s home town of Tel Aviv is host to any number of top-notch couscous shacks, and depending on your chef’s Maghreb heritage, the couscous will be as fine as sand or plump as nuts. However, despite these examples of what is possible, Israeli home-cooked chicken and couscous often includes packet stock powder that is salty enough to act as an emetic. Not so the famously hat-wearing designer’s recipe. He sticks to one chicken, the peel from one-and-a-half preserved lemons, saffron and olives, plus some herbs and spices. No stock powder. The tagine takes just over an hour. To do his homemade preserved lemons properly takes at least three weeks. You may want to plan ahead. Or buy a jar. 

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Chicken tagine
Serves five as a main course

Ingredients
1.5kg oven-ready chicken
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
125g purple or green cracked olives, stoned
1½ pickled lemons (can be bought or home made, see Arad's recipe below)
50g butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
100ml prepared saffron (see Arad’s recipe below)
500ml water
3 tbs chopped fresh coriander
3 tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method
Sprinkle the chicken with half the salt and pepper, inside and outside, and set aside. Blanch the olives by plunging them into boiling water. Leave to boil for 30 seconds, then rinse under running water. Repeat these two operations twice more, changing the boiling water each time. Drain the olives and set them aside in a colander.

Remove and discard the flesh and pips from the pickled lemons. Rinse the peel and dry with kitchen paper, then cut into large slices and set aside in a small dish. Heat the butter and oil in a heavy saucepan, add the onion and fry gently, stirring frequently until softened and translucent. Add the garlic, ginger, saffron, the remaining salt and pepper and water and stir well to mix the spices thoroughly.

Add the chicken and turn it over to coat with the sauce. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan and leave to cook slowly for one hour, turning the chicken over several times so that all sides soak up the sauce. If necessary, add a little hot water during the cooking.

Add the olives, pickled lemons, coriander and parsley, stir, then cover and cook for 15 more minutes. Check the seasoning. Once the chicken is cooked, if the sauce is too runny, remove the chicken and set aside, covered with foil to keep it warm. Raise the heat and boil the sauce for five minutes to reduce. Put the chicken in a warmed tagine plate. Arrange the pickled lemons strips and olives on top.

Stir the sauce and quickly pour it over the chicken. Cover the tagine dish and serve straight away, very hot.

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Mom’s pickled lemons

Ingredients
2kg lemons
1kg rock sea salt (or Guérande salt)

Method
Juice half your lemons to obtain enough juice to cover the preserved ones. Take the rest of the lemons and cut them into quarters, starting from the stem end, but make sure you stop before parting the quarters by leaving a centimetre to hold them together. Then, one by one, hold them in your hand with the quarters open like the four petals of a flower, and fill the gaps generously with salt.

Reform each lemon and fit as many as you can into a pickling jar, keeping them tight together to reduce the space in-between, then cover with the juice.

Tightly close the jar and keep in a dark, cold place for three weeks. Your lemon skins will be very fragrant and their citrusy flavour will be a balance between a fresh lemon's bitter kick and that salty, moist and mature comforting touch.

They are perfect for pepper or fennel salads or for your chicken stew. Also try puréeing a whole lemon, after thoroughly washing out the excess salt, to obtain a powerful paste that will transform any bluefish dish.

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Prepared saffron

Ingredients
1 tsp saffron strands will give 250ml of prepared saffron

Method
Heat a dry frying pan on a very low heat and toast the saffron strands very slowly, constantly checking and stirring with a wooden spoon, for 2–3 minutes. When the saffron strands have reached a deep red colour (not too brown), put them in a wooden mortar straight away. Crush them very finely while still hot. Pour the powder into a dry jar, making sure that you collect every precious grain, and fill the jar with 250ml warm water. Close it tightly and shake thoroughly to allow the saffron powder to dissolve in the water. The water will take on a beautiful orange colour. Leave to cool and refrigerate. Once prepared, saffron can be kept in the refrigerator for three or four weeks.

As originally featured in the May 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*206)

INFORMATION

Photography: John Short. Interiors: Matthew Morris. Food: Peta O’Brien

Swarovski's plans are never short of dazzling and their latest launch, Atelier Swarovski Home – due to be unveiled at Salone del Mobile's Brera district – is not one to disappoint. 

Falling under the Atelier Swarovski aegis, an enterprise launched in 2007 to create fashion accessories with international designers like Viktor & Rolf, Jonathan Saunders and Karl Lagerfeld, the Atelier Swarovski Home branch will operate in the same manner: bringing to life design pieces by the world's most respected designers as well as emerging international talents, celebrating the brand's unique crystal artistry.

An all-star cast, including the likes of Daniel Libeskind, Ron Arad, Raw Edges and Tord Boontje, have created a number of unique designs ranging from objets d'art to candlesticks, trays and vases. The late Zaha Hadid designed a piece for the brand too, in her signature sinuous style. 'Crista' is a centrepiece in crystal and metal, taking as its starting point an investigation into the process of crystallisation occurring in nature.

Many of the pieces in the Atelier Swarovski Home collection contrast crystal with other materials. Aldo Bakker, for example, chose to work with a range of Italian marbles in different colours, cut by the same craftsmen who work with crystal in Wattens. Two marble and one crystal 'supports', as the designer calls them, hold a single stem at the centre.

Among the debut collection will be Ron Arad's large, decorative letters, cut from crystal following a new typeface created by the Israeli designer and inspired by the house's crystal figurines; Frederikson Stallard's pure crystal shapes which will combine raw forms with precision cuts in a tabletop collection; Tomás Alonso's UV-coated crystal and marble trays and vases; and a majestic chessboard created by Libeskind. 

As with all Swarovski projects, the collaborators were invited to make full use of the technologies developed by the brand’s experts throughout the years, including crystal printing and the revolutionary 'Wave Cut' technique.

INFORMATION

Photography couresty of Swarovski Atelier Home

At last year's Salone del Mobile, Italian stalwarts Kartell travelled back in time to pay tribute one of the forefathers of Italian design, Ettore Sottsass. For 2016, they are taking it back again, but this time in scale and age with the launch of an inaugural kids collection.

This isn't the first time the Italian brand has toyed with the concept of children’s furniture. The first entirely plastic Kartell '4999' chair by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper – created back in 1964 – was intended for kids, while 'Sistema Scuola' by Centrokappa also tapped into this smaller world. Over 50 years later, the Milanese brand is revisiting the idea with these 'toys for living' that nod to the fun aesthetics of Kartell’s lively collections.

The company chose from their star-studded list of international designers for this first haul of whimsical plastic silhouettes, all in pastel and pop hues. In keeping with simplisitic styles, Japanese designer Nendo created a transparent curvaceous rocking horse alongside 'smile' stools; Philippe Starck presents a streamlined 'Airway' swing; Piero Lissoni provides a toy car and tractor; and Ferruccio Laviani, a vibrant games table.

‘As well as being functional, our products are intrinsically playful, fun and engaging’ says Claudio Luti, president of Kartell. The new kids line allowed the designers to experiment in an area that they perhaps have not before, engaging with a younger audience. Where Nendo approached his stools with the idea of the emotion of a smile, creating a face in the imprint of the seat, Laviani got into the youthful mindset for his building game, which he describes as 'trying to approach their world more than ours'.

In full celebration of the launch, the brand is also bringing back its loved icons in a new child friendly palette, as seen in Ron Arad's 'Bookworm' and Giulio Polvara's modular bookcase. They are also providing a customisation service, adding names and drawings to the 'Lou Lou Ghost' or 'FL/Y' lamp – a little added interactive design fun for smaller people to enjoy.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Kartell’s website

'Have nothing on your body that you don’t know to be useful or believe to be beautiful or love,’ reads an inscription daubed on the walls of Louisa Guinness’ Mayfair gallery. It’s by Ron Arad, appropriated from a quote by William Morris where ‘on your body’ replaces ‘in your house’ and it refers to the jewellery Arad and Guinness have put on show together.

‘Rocks’ is a collection of necklaces, earrings and bracelets that look like they’re made from shards of hefty glass. In fact they’re feather-light hunks of silicone, embedded with shreds of silk scarves, carefully cut up by Arad and arranged in a specific order. ‘Ron has been experimenting with silicone for many years, and the challenge with Rocks was to ensure it doesn’t turn yellow with age,’ explains Guinness. 

The pair first met in 2002 when Guinness ran a furniture showroom in Sloane Avenue showing design art from the likes of Arad, Donald Judd and Rolf Sachs. Preferring ‘small, easy to transport objects’, she shifted focus to artist-made jewellery and has commissioned the likes of Gavin Turk and Grayson Perry, Anish Kapoor and Claude Lalanne to create niche pieces.

Nor is 'Rocks' Arad’s first foray into jewellery design. In 2003, he created a range of spiral earrings entitled 'Hot Ingo', and inspired by the lighting of his great pal Ingo Maurer. The collection – which features black, white and red spirals that expand and contract along silver and gold stems – has been reissued using a 3D printer and 18 carat gold. Then there’s 'Naja', a series of magnifying glass pendants made of silver and guilded silver, which coil around smoky and scratchy quartz circles, or ‘lenses’.

‘To me Ron is one of the most versatile designers there is,’ says Guinness. ‘His range is huge; he can create everything from baths to spectacles to delicate jewellery.’ He’s also one of 15 artists with whom Guinness is collaborating this year, and in June the gallery undergoes its biggest transformation yet, with a show of jewellery, miniatures, clocks and bronzes by Claude Lalanne.

INFORMATION

Ron Arad Rocks! runs from 24 February until 8 April 2016, at Louisa Guinness’ London Mayfair Gallery. For more information, visit the website

Photography courtesy the artist and Louisa Guiness Gallery

ADDRESS

45 Conduit Street
Mayfair, London

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The appearance of small but perfectly formed private houses on the streets of Tokyo is not a rare occurrence but even by the Japanese capital's high creative standards, passers-by will no doubt stop and admire the sweeping curves of the city's latest architectural addition. This private residence, found in the hip neighbourhood of Shibuya-ku in central Tokyo, features the unmistakable signature of quality and experimentation of London based designer Ron Arad. 

Created with the help of local firm Issho who were the project's collaborating architects, and located on a densely built street of two- and three-storey detached homes, the new-build D House spans 180 sq m and three aboveground levels. 

'Somehow I always kept away from 'interior design' projects, especially those based within new buildings designed by other architects,' says Arad. 'I never thought I will find myself doing "exterior design" to another architect's build, with the aid of Skype and WeTransfer, but this turned out to be a joy. Behind every good, interesting project lies a good, interesting client, and in this case we are fortunate to have also had Issho – a great collaborating practice.'

A ground floor hosting the garage and utility areas, leads to a piano nobile that features an open plan living room, kitchen and dinning area. The top, second, level includes two bedrooms and a bathroom. A separate set of stairs provides access to a larger roof terrace at the top. 

More terraces are formed from the main elevation's curves and the building's cascading shape – outdoors spaces are topped up by a small garden at the back and a front courtyard, which is hugged by the steel sheet's bend. 

The building's relatively narrow profile is maximised by an expressive front façade made of a stack of patinated (on site) steel ribbons, which were fabricated locally, in a workshop just outside Tokyo. This adds dynamism to the house's main concrete frame and creates a strong sense of movement and a play with light and shadow in the house. 

In addition to this, the house's stacked elements were designed to decrease in height, the higher up the level, to underline further the overall form. This sculptural dwelling is no doubt the narrow street's most dynamic new addition. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Ron Arad’s website

Photography: Anatole Papafilippou

Ever restless, Wallpaper* Handmade upped its perfectly proportioned sticks again this year, installing itself (well, we helped) in a semi-retired stretch of Milanese store fronts to create the Wallpaper* Arcade. We were determined that this year's Handmade event be the biggest, best and most bountiful yet. And so it was; not least our opening bash, now well established as Salone's swingingest party.

This year we were joined by Tom Dixon, Patricia Urquiola, Konstantin Grcic, Philippe Malouin, Maurizio Cattelan and many other luminaries who enjoyed the more interactive elements of this year's exhibition: including the Wallpaper* nail bar; live hair styling by the legendary Jimo Salako; and the remarkable 'Rotunda Seronita' snack bar, dispensing not only savoury treats but their own handmade cherry wood trays.

Of course, such scale and ambition does not come easy and we again have to thank the many friends, old and new, who provided invaluable assistance and supplies. The champagne flowed freely thanks to Veuve Clicquot, whose Re-creation Awards installation of re-imagined mail boxes proved a particular favourite, while Royal Salute served wonderful whisky at their remarkable 'Neolithic' bar, designed by Studio Mackereth and crafted by Jack Badger. The highest-grade grappa came courtesy of Nonino (try saying that after a few glasses) whilst beer was supplied by San Miguel (summer in a bottle as far we're concerned).

Given this year's culinary theme, the catering had to impress and we served up a monumental stretch of Italian favourites, including generous dollops of organic panettone gelato from local favourites, Grom. We also flew in St John sous chef Arnold Hoeksma who cooked up bone marrow pizza at the Emeco space while the young craftsmen Josh Fisher bent, beat and shaped metal into unique editions of Jasper Morrison's 'Alfi' chair.

The Wallpaper* Arcade – a collaborative effort in the best tradition of Handmade – was brightened by Kvadrat's spectacular multi-colour colonnade as well as the multidisciplinary delights of d3 Dubai Design District; the contemporary crafted carpets of AfghanMade; and Gufram's prickly pop-up lounge.

Finally, a huge thank you to the event sponsors, Veuve Clicquot, Hästens and Monoqi Business, and, of course, Leclettico's Claudio Loria, whose ambition and drive matches our own.

Philippe Starck, Patricia Urquiola, Ron Arad and M/M (Paris) were among the glittery, and largely well-behaved, guests at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2015 party. Held at auction house Bonhams’ thoroughly modern New Bond Street sales room, guests sipped, never guzzled, champagne - Veuve Clicquot if you ask - and tackled ‘chinmi’, Japanese delicacies served in miniature takeaway cartons, just like the ones in the movies. (Peroni and Glenmorangie cocktails, including a smoky, pokey Yuzu whisky sour were also much enjoyed).

The exhibition design, by the generously talented friend of Wallpaper* Gary Card, gloriously showed off a selection of this year’s design winners while main sponsor BMW managed to squeeze its eye-catchingly curvy electric sports car, the i8, through the door (and parked the punchier, more pugnacious i3 outside). Tunes, as we heard them described, were provided by DJs Lou Hayter and Yasmina Dexter, who looked lovely on duty as did the waiting staff from the Cellar Society, decked out head-to-foot in G-Star, this year’s Best Denim winners.

Explore the Design Awards exhibition at Bonhams auction house

Guests left with a bulging goodie bag, which included: products from London Fields Soap Company, 'Moustache Wax' by Neville for Barber & Parlour, and 'Volcanic Ash Wax' by Windle & Moodie, all winners in our Best For Men Only category; a BMW laptop cover; a specially-made miniature pot of Negroni marmalade by Melbourne gin distiller Four Pillars, a winner in our Best Breakfast in Bed category; and a Wallpaper* City Guide of this year’s Best City, Tokyo. More committed guests took their haul to the Awards after-party, upstairs at L’Escargot. And after that, frankly, the details get blurred.

Michelin-starred chef Carlo Cracco and art director Tanja Solci have joined forces to create Carlo e Camilla in Segheria, the latest addition to Milan's fertile restaurant scene, housed in a defunct sawmill acquired by Solci's grandparents in the 1930s. The soaring structure's brick and raw cement bones give the space a pared back, industrial look - a foil for the otherwise super-polished dining experience. Designed by Solci, the interior features two long cross-configuration tables that seat 65 in a communal arrangement, plus antique chandeliers, Richard Ginori tableware and Cappellini chairs (including Jasper Morrison's 'Tate Colour' and AG Fronzoni's 'Fronzoni 1964'). Pieces by Ron Arad and Ross Lovegrove - part of Solci's personal collection - animate the indoor space as well as the garden. The food is top tier, but wrung of the pretension that swirls around Cracco's other Milanese establishment. Here, the mood is cool, and there is just as much reason to come for an excellent aperetif or dopocena as there is for the delicious dinners.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

Via Giuseppe Meda
24
20136
Milan

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Watch 'Crushing', an exclusive film, narrated by Ron Arad himself, about compressing a series of Fiat 500s for the 'In Reverse' exhibition at the Design Museum Holon. Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates

Fresh from his voyage to Venice aboard the 'Last Train', Ron Arad has arrived in Israel with a fleet of Fiats in tow - albeit squashed ones. The artist-cum-designer, who has forged a career out of cutting, welding and bashing metal, has installed six compressed Fiat 500s in the Design Museum Holon, his largest steel creation to date.

Inside the Corten steel-swathed building in the cultural hub of Holon (home to a slew of design galleries), visitors will find the cars splayed out like paintings on the walls. 'I used to bash metal to make things useful, or useable,' says Arad, who has created chairs for the likes of Vitra and Moroso. 'Here we're doing the reverse.'

The Fiats may read like cartoon cars that have met a nasty fate, yet their surprisingly perfect forms are the result of rigorous experimentation into the way automobiles behave under compression, which began with toy cars in his studio. Achieving the same flattening effect on a larger scale proved tricky - one poor Fiat was even pounded by a digger - yet Arad wanted to go further than the crushed car sculptures by César Baldaccini and John Chamberlain in the 1960s. 'Their work stopped being about cars,' says the Tel Aviv-born but London-based artist. 'They used cars as a source of raw materials to make sculptures out of. The idea here is to allow them to stay cars, yet show them from a new perspective.'

A 500-tonne press capable of an almost instantaneous crush was found in the Netherlands. And a degree of accident was key. 'It's always nice to see things happen in front of you that you are not totally in charge of, that are not exactly the fulfilment of your blueprint,' Arad explains. The pressed cars were then shipped over to Italy for some post-production, or 'embalming'.

So why attack the Fiat 500? 'The car is a national symbol for Italy and our generation, and it's a very endearing vehicle. Everyone has stories about their first ever sex in a Fiat, or first kiss,' says Arad. 'We're not destroying the cars, we're immortalising them.'

The six 'Pressed Flowers', as they affectionately titled, are joined in the Design Museum Holon by a number of metal icons from his past, including the 'Rocking Big Easy Chair' (1991) and the 'D-Sofa' (1994). In fact, the show was first mooted as a survey, a notion to which Arad has always been averse, despite such shows at the Barbican and MoMA. The new works were a fairly recent introduction. 'About nine months ago the script was entirely rewritten,' says curator Lydia Yee, who also masterminded the Barbican show. 'We decided upon a mini survey alongside a brand new body of work.'

'In Reverse' is actually a far more enlightening exhibition about his oeuvre than any survey could have been. For one thing, it has brought to light one of the first triggers for his fascination with metal. During Arad's childhood in Tel Aviv, his father had a severe car crash while driving a Fiat Topolino (the model before the 500), which was made from a mix of wood and metal. The car was completely flattened yet his father survived. Says Arad: 'I will never forget my father's words to us. "Had my car not been made out of wood I wouldn't be alive now".' Thus his interest in metal was born and the seeds for this show were sown.

The new works also hark neatly back to some of his very first efforts, such as the 'Rover Chair' and 'Aerial Light' (1981), both constructed from salvaged car parts. Like these works, they also speak about Marcel Duchamp's notion of the 'readymade' - industrial objects being selected and presented as art with little or no alteration. And they return to the idea of compression, explored with his 'Sticks and Stones' crushing machine installed in the Centre Pompidou in the 1980s and later with the 'Squashed Vipps' in 2008. In this way, the new works provide the linking factor for the different strands of his output, which are distributed around the perimeter of the gallery.

But the exhibition doesn't just look backwards. It also looks to the future, carrying forward his work in the digital realms. The first thing that greets you in the museum is a giant screen showing 'Slow Outburst' (2013), a virtual experiment revealing the simulated effects of the crushing process on the body of a red Fiat 500, made in collaboration with specialists in crash safety design. And the climax of the exhibition is a gleaming new work, the 'Roddy Giacosa', which, as Arad puts it, is 'the perfect symbiosis' of 'physical' and 'digital' making.

This beautiful homage to the Fiat 500 was created by scanning the car, then dissecting the scan into slices to make the mould. The laser cut steel components are completely made by machine, but the only way they could be assembled into the final sculpture was 'by amazing, genius, loving artisans who perform things that we can only sit back and wonder how they do it,' says Arad. For a man who likes to crush cars, it's a surprisingly poetic emblem for the relationship between artisan and computer.  And it's a piece in which visitors can't help but wish they could drive away.

ADDRESS

Design Museum Holon
Pinhas Eilon St. 8
Holon, 5845400
Israel

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Architects and artists are often asked to create jewels. A fresh design perspective is always a good thing but it's tricky with jewellery design because there is a flawed consensus that anyone can do it.

Which is why Ron Arad's Last Train, commissioned by Steinmetz Diamonds and unveiled at midday tomorrow at the 55th Venice Art Biennale, is a refreshing take. Rather than stick to the notion of jewellery as simply a form of adornment, Arad has approached diamonds in the way that the great jewellery houses do - as a great base material from which to create wondrous objects.

'My interest is not in the bling or the value of diamonds but in the strength of the material,' Ron Arad told us just before he left for Venice last week.

For Last Train, Arad worked with Steinmetz to design a diamond ring that also works as a drawing tool. Then he invited several of 'friends', including artists Francesco Clemente, Christian Marclay and David Shrigley, to produce works by 'scratching' on a pane of glass with the ring, which is affixed to a plaster cast of Arad's fist and controlled by an iPad app.

The concept came about when Arad, having watched a missed train pull out of the station in Naples, spotted a man etching on the window pane with a diamond ring. 'In every train ride there is a lot of love and hate on the panes of windows,' Arad said of his inspiration. 'They are almost invisible but when you apply light to them then you discover a word or drawing.'

The ring is a powerful cross of bold diamond studs with a somewhat unrefined aesthetic.  'Elizabeth I used her diamond ring to scratch love vows on bottles,' Arad explains, though the fact that it reflects jewellery design of this era is accidental. 'I am not a jewellery designer or stylist, so the purpose of the ring implied the look,' he says. 'It is designed as a cross and the diamond at the junction is the one that is doing the work.'

Though the romance of diamonds was not an inspiration, Arad also told us a secret. Not only has he 'never scratched on a train window', the work also nearly never made it to Venice and he was almost the victim of a heist. 'Someone decided to help themselves to my fist,' Arad reveals. 'It was on a cardboard box ready to go to Venice. We had three minutes of fear and then we found it stuck in between the rails of a gate. We were not worried about the diamonds but there would be no Biennale show without the fist…'

Watch Ron Arad creating 'Everyone Woz Ere'

Watch David Shrigley creating his digital etching for 'Last Train'

This video of Francesco Clemente's artwork process demonstrates the mechanism of the drawing tool

Watch Christian Marclay's 'Record' etching come to life

Tim Noble and Sue Webster took a unique approach to their creation with the use of a blindfold

Ai Wei Wei, one of the 12 artists enlisted for 'Last Train', works on the drawing tool

Former Wallpaper* Guest Editor Robert Wilson was also enlisted by Arad to create a drawing for 'Last Train'. Watch his work unfold

ADDRESS

Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti
San Marco
Venice

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