News | AA alumnus Ron Arad featured in the FT discussing design and table tennis

Alumnus Ron Arad (AADipl 1979) has been featured in the Financial Times discussing his design process and his unique approach to table tennis. He reflected on the importance of his AA studies on the development of his practice, and one of his earliest works, the Rover Chair.

‘If you had told me that I was going to design furniture, I would have asked you, “What are you on?” But I worked for some architects after I graduated from the Architectural Association and I did my thesis about readymades in art, so I had an idea I did nothing about, which was to claim car seats and make a domestic piece of furniture.’

Table tennis has been a consistent source of entertainment and inspiration for Ron, both as a design object and as a recreational activity:

‘Ping-pong, in particular, is a thing for me. It is very popular in my studio in Chalk Farm and I am one of the best players on my ping-pong table. Because it’s different from any other ping-pong table you know. My thought was, what if you make a table that is concave? Yes, it slows the game down a bit; but it makes the rallies longer. And it is something I can absolutely claim as mine, rather than join the queue of other ping-pong table makers.’