Ron Arad

Ron Arad is an industrial designer, artist and an architect. The Rover chair kickstarted his career as a designer. This chair, which was made in 1981, is the coming together of two readymades. The postmodernist design combines a Rover P6 car seat and a hollow structural tubing frame from a Klee Klamp milking stall.

Furniture maker Joe Hall visited Ron Arad in his Covent Garden shop in the 1980s. Together they made more chairs that sold for around three times the production cost (£99 each). Since 1981 hundreds of chairs have been made and some have sold for thousands at auctions.

I like this chair as it is simple and still looks like a car seat. I like how each seat is unique as because they are second hand so they all have different wear and tear. I think this adds to the appearance of the seat. The unusual shape of the milking stall gives the chair a look that isn’t traditional but because it is used with a normal shaped seat means it is still obvious what it is meant to be. Another thing that I like about this chair is that it uses materials found in scrap yards that would otherwise just rot away.

Some of Ron Arad’s most notable designs include the Bauhaus Museum in Tel Aviv, The Design Museum in Holon (what he designed with Bruno Asa) and The Big Easy Chair made out of Chrome.

                                                

His work has been described as “scary” because of its “macho concrete and cut metal; tense sheets of tempered steel and guillotine edges”.

Early Ideas for the Hybrid Brief

Thomas Heatherwick

The founder of the London based Heatherwick Studio, Thomas Heatherwick, is an English designer. He has emerged as one of Britain’s most gifted and imaginative designers. His original and advanced designs have earned Thomas Heatherwick a reputation as an “ideas engine”.

His most notable work includes the Olympic Cauldron for the 2012 Olympics in London, His design for a London double decker bus (the first to be commissioned for London in 50 years) and The Rolling Bridge that is part of the Grand Union Canal office and retail development in London.

 

Thomas Heatherwick works with over eighty architects, designers and makers in a combined workshop and studio in London’s King’s Cross.

 

The Rolling Bridge is a movable bridge that can curl into an octagonal at one side of the canal or flatten to allow people to cross. Completed in 2004 the bridge consists of eight triangular, hinged, sections. The sections are hinged level with the walkway and above the walkway each section is connected with two-part links that collapse towards the base to allow the bridge to curl. The 12 metre bridge uses hydraulic pistons curl the bridge. This allows boats to pass through. When the bridge is flattened it resembles a conventional steel and timber bridge.

I think this design is clever and a lot more attractive than a traditional moving bridge. Its design means that only one side of the canal is taken up when the bridge is raised so it is quite space saving. Its design reminds me of a snail when it is fully curled up. The way the bridge moves is complicated and there are more components to go wrong. A traditional moving bridge would probably have been easier to design, build and maintain however I think The Rolling Bridge is a much better design to look at and is a lot more interesting in the way it works.

Definition of Hybrid

Hybrid - Something that is made by combining two different elements.