the architects

The Architects

In order to respond to the Guillemins Station, the work of Catalan architect Santiago Calatrava, and which is located at the end of an axis linking it to Médiacité, it was essential to give Médiacité a strong architectural character. Based on an overall plan and first sketches by the architectural bureaux of Chapman Taylor (London) and RTKL (USA), Wilhelm & Co. mandated the conception of the site and the buildings open to the public to the celebrated architect-designer Ron Arad, who would work together on this mission with Belgian architectural bureau Jaspers-Eyers.

Ron Aradwww.ronarad.com www.barbican.org.uk

Ron Arad: a name familiar to all those who love design – he is almost an icon in the domain. Over recent years he has risen to the status of being a reference for audacious, ‘different’ architecture. Israeli by birth, and also taking up British nationality (the country in which he studied architecture), he discovered design in Italy. It was at the beginning of the 80’s that he established his first studio One Off Ltd. Success was quick to come, with the chairs, ‘Rover’ and ‘Well-Tempered Chair’ along with the infamous ‘Bookworm’ bookshelf, amongst his landmark creations. Known for his use of technologies and materials treated in totally original forms, Ron Arad has become the specialist in transformation, in experimentation.