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Ron Arad Strips His Designs Down to Their Bare Cores

01.27.23 | By
Ron Arad Strips His Designs Down to Their Bare Cores

While most designers sit back and admire the fruits of their labor after they’ve released a furniture collection, but Israeli designer and artist Ron Arad doesn’t stop thinking about his designs. In fact, he innovates on them. When the opportunity to work with ALPI as their fourth designer collaboration presented itself, Arad took an idea that he had been contemplating on and brought it to life. Reversing the design process, he stripped three of his design pieces down to their essence using ALPI’s reconstituted wood veneers to build the core structures in his “If I Were A Carpenter” collaborative collection. The designs, though familiar in silhouette, seem completely different in their new forms.

model on modern red rocking chair

Arad’s original three chairs – Big Easy, Voido, and Thumbprint – now border the line between design and art, which aligns with ALPI’s vision for the future. Working with the company’s research department, Arad used bespoke types of woods that created the visual three-dimensional play of shadows and shapes, revealing the sculptural soul that was hidden beneath his original pieces. Multiple slats of ALPI wood are precisely cut and meticulously assembled to create the optical illusion effect, one where the hues and appearance of the pieces change depending on where the viewer is situated.

snake on modern rocking chair

modern rocking chair

close up of snakes on wooden rocking chair

close up of snakes on wooden rocking chair

model doing handstand on wooden arm chair

hammer and saw on wooden arm chair

saw on wooden arm chair

hammer and saw on wooden arm chair

wooden arm chair

back of wooden arm chair

swan on wooden curved chair

swan on wooden curved chair

wood slat details of wooden curved chair

wood slat details of eggs on wooden curved chair

wooden curved chair

naked blonde model on floating curved chair

wooden curved chair

Ron Arad portrait

Ron Arad

Photos by Pierpaolo Ferrari.

As the Senior Contributing Editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She's probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.