ONDA | Fiam Italia

One of the most innovative and revolutionary designers on the international scene; creator of irrepressible, stimulating objects which are intriguing to use and as malleable as sculptures: who else but London-based designer Ron Arad. When Fiam asked Arad to become part of its ground-breaking, paradoxical project to produce a series of furnishing-cum-storage units in transparent glass, the designer turned his attentions to finding an alternative use for curved crystal glass technology. Having settled on the idea of using curved grooves set inside square structures, Arad affirms that he got all the help he needed with production problems from Fiam's outstanding technical team. The result is one of form and function. The recurring wave motif (produced by shaping the glass with a special technique) determines the play on the opacity and transparency of the surfaces. It has also become a structural feature - a never-ending groove which can be used to house any object with no need for additional support: shelves, drawers, trays, CD racks, tape racks, metal lighting and a host of accessories, all of which can be positioned at will along the undulated sides. His idea has produced the fully-modular Onda system which includes the following: variations on Onda Kart, the on castors display cabinet; the range of Onda Media and Onda Lab tall storage units (which can also be used as TV or Hi-fi stands) and smaller Onda Radio, Onda Radio 2 and Onda Radio 3 designs; and the Onda Corta side table and bedside table. In each design, the original form - neutral only by appearance - can be reworked on different scales without losing its unique character.