Kartell FPE Chair

About the Designer
Ron Arad Israel (1951 - )

Ron Arad was born in 1951 in Tel Aviv into an artistic family - his mother is a painter, his father a photographer. He attended the Academy of Art in Jerusalem until the early 1970s, when he decided to leave Israel and study architecture in the UK. Settling in London in 1974, he enrolled at the city's least conventional school, the Architectural Association, where he studied under Peter Cool and Bernard Tschumi with classmates like Nigel Coates, Peter Wilson and Zaka Hadid. He quickly developed artistic and cultural interests outside architecture, and his work became increasingly oriented towards design and non-rhetorical artistic uses of materials. In 1981, with Dennis Groves and Caroline Thorman, he set up One Off, the design agency that made its successful debut with a set of tubular steel furniture. Arad has made no secret of his predilection for technology and the modern aesthetic as ways of revisiting and revising typologies from the past. As a sculptor and craftsman who has taught himself to cut sheet steel, bend wooden legs and put bent plywood to new sculptural uses, he has produced furniture that is emotional and sensual as well as aggressively light and practical. A similar philosophy is evident in his designs for the futuristic foyer of the Opera House in Tel Aviv, the Belgo restaurant in London, the installations for "L'Esprit du Nomade", Fondation Cartier in Paris, the impressive project of Adidas Stadium in Paris, the Domus Totem for the Triennale in Milan, the exclusive Yohji Yamamoto's Store in Tokyo, the Design Museum in Holon, Israel.

Curvilinear lines and shimmering color make the FPE, short for 'Fantastic Plastic Elastic,' an immediate standout. Its alluring, sinuous appearance is only the beginning of what makes FPE so special: its polypropylene body, inserted into an aluminum frame, is attached and curved by a machine without the use of metal inserts. Its structure is at once sturdy, light and flexible, and allows it to thrive both indoors and outdoors. Featured in the Museum of Modern Art, the FPE is a true original that embodies utility and beauty.

Features at a Glance:

FPE Chair Features:

• Seat made of batched-dyed polypropylene
• Frame made of painted extruded aluminum
• Stackable up to eight chairs high
• Can be used indoors or outdoors
• Suitable for residential or commercial use
• Made in Italy

Dimensions:

• 31.2" H x 21.63" W x 21" D
• Seat height: 18.3"

Quality:

• In 2005, Kartell received accreditation for its Quality Management Systems according to the ISO 9001: 2000 standard. The attainment and preservation of this certification testifies to Kartell's commitment to high quality and continued research into higher levels of quality in company management systems

Helping the Environment:

• Kartell products use a wide variety of plastic materials, thereby reducing the use of living organisms, such as trees, which are difficult and time-consuming to replace
• Most Kartell products are easily recycled and product components can be separated to elements made of a single material to simplify the recycling process. Plastic components also carry clear identification marks to aid correct separation of different plastic types for effective recycling

Care and Maintenance:

• Kartell products are easy to clean and require only simple care to remain in excellent condition.

Order with Confidence:

• Authentic Kartell products are guaranteed to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 12 months under normal use and under conditions for which the items were designated
• Should you discover shortly after receiving your FPE Chairs that parts are either damaged or missing, please call us immediately, and we will be happy to send you replacement parts as soon as possible and at no additional cost