Fantastic Plastic Elastic Chair, designed by Ron Arad.
Identifier
FPF471
Title
Fantastic Plastic Elastic Chair, designed by Ron Arad.
Date
Designed in 1997, manufactured 2000-2005.
Description
Fantastic Plastic Elastic Chair, model FPE, designed by Ron Arad, manufactured by Kartell, Milan, Italy.
Full Description
This stacking chair has an extruded aluminium frame with a transparent red injection-moulded polypropylene seat. It was designed by Ron Arad (b. 1951) and is ingenious in being made by sliding the polypropylene sheet into grooves in the double-barrelled aluminium extrusions while still flat, and then bending the assembly in a press to create the finished chair. The tension generated during the bending process applies sufficient pressure to hold the plastic seat in place without any fixings or glue (Jackson, 2013). The seat and back remain flexible until the sitter’s weight locks the structure and makes it rigid (Sudjic, 1999).
Ron Arad’s association with the Italian plastics firm, Kartell S.p.A., Milan, Italy, began in the mid-1990s. The Fantastic Plastic Elastic Chair (FPE) has its origins in a commission to design an exhibition stand for the Mercedes car company, and specifically a chair for the stand. Arad developed this model in conjunction with Kartell for a competition for seating for the Adidas Sport Cafés. The production version that followed, created from injection-moulded plastic, was ‘visually exuberant and technically ingenious’, in addition to being cheap to produce, lightweight and stackable (Jackson, 2013).
Examples of this chair are in MoMa, New York, object no. 1420.2000 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, object no. 99. For another example of Ron Arad’s furniture in the Frederick Parker Collection see FPF483.
Ron Arad was born in Israel in 1951. Between 1971 and 1973, he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art before moving to London to study at the Architectural Association, graduating in 1979. He opened his own practice, One Off Ltd., in Covent Garden in 1981, the practice later moving to Chalk Farm. He was Professor of Design Product at the Royal College of Art from 1997 to 2009. Although primarily known for his furniture designs, he has also undertaken several important architectural commissions including the Tel Aviv Opera House in 1990.
Ron Arad’s association with the Italian plastics firm, Kartell S.p.A., Milan, Italy, began in the mid-1990s. The Fantastic Plastic Elastic Chair (FPE) has its origins in a commission to design an exhibition stand for the Mercedes car company, and specifically a chair for the stand. Arad developed this model in conjunction with Kartell for a competition for seating for the Adidas Sport Cafés. The production version that followed, created from injection-moulded plastic, was ‘visually exuberant and technically ingenious’, in addition to being cheap to produce, lightweight and stackable (Jackson, 2013).
Examples of this chair are in MoMa, New York, object no. 1420.2000 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, object no. 99. For another example of Ron Arad’s furniture in the Frederick Parker Collection see FPF483.
Ron Arad was born in Israel in 1951. Between 1971 and 1973, he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art before moving to London to study at the Architectural Association, graduating in 1979. He opened his own practice, One Off Ltd., in Covent Garden in 1981, the practice later moving to Chalk Farm. He was Professor of Design Product at the Royal College of Art from 1997 to 2009. Although primarily known for his furniture designs, he has also undertaken several important architectural commissions including the Tel Aviv Opera House in 1990.
Condition
Good.
Materials
Aluminium.
Polypropylene.
Polypropylene.
Physical Dimensions
H. 78
W. 44
D. 56
W. 44
D. 56
Provenance
Acquired by the Frederick Parker Foundation c.2010.
Notes
L. Jackson, Modern British Furniture Design Since 1945, London, 2013, pp. 230-231, no. 257.
D. Sudjic, Ron Arad, London, 1999, pp. 140-145.
D. Sudjic, Ron Arad, London, 1999, pp. 140-145.
