z-shelf
Design Ron Arad,
2013
A cut and folded sheet of metal, bare, free from decoration. It distinguishes itself in composition, in the freedom of combination. The result is an incomplete grille, broken up by cuts which lighten the perception. It is the careful work of a metalworker, the leftovers of mechanical processing, a snapshot of abandoned industry between brutal aesthetics and poetry. Z-shelf, together with the 3 Nuns stool, and the Glider sofa, is part of Americana, a heterogeneous collection, which, through the use of steel, celebrates conceptual pieces as an expression of the practice of design, while rejecting established conventions and labelling.
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel 1951, Ron Arad studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art, 1971 to 1973. Later, he studied at the Architecture Association, London, being trained by Peter Cook and graduating in 1979. He is primarily known for his early furniture designs such as the Rover chair (recycled car seats set upon a frame of curved scaffolding poles), and his Well Tempered Chair. He has designed the Bookworm bookshelf and FPE chair for Kartell, Tom Vac Chairs for Vitra, upholstered sofas for Moroso and more recently the Baby Boop dishes for Alessi. For over 10 years he has been working as a lecturer in various industrial design departments and as an interior design lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London. Every year Aram holds an exhibition of his students' work.
Agostino Moroso, with his wife, Diana, founded the Moroso company in 1952 with an artisanal approach to making sofas, armchairs and furnishing accessories. Their iconic designs have propelled them within the upholstered furniture market, with help from a long list of well known designers: Ron Arad, Patricia Urquiola, Ross Lovegrove, Konstantin Grcic, Alfredo H?berli, Toshiyuki Kita, Marcel Wanders and others. Each piece maintains a noticeable Moroso style while representing other cultures as well. Its international outlook has landed Moroso into the MoMA in New York, Le Palais de Tokyo, the Grand Palais in Paris.
