Ron Arad Architects are close to completing construction of their first large-scale commercial project, Design Museum Holon in Israel.
Layers of COR-TEN steel with varying degrees of weathering wrap around the two main gallery buildings.
The museum is part of a 16-year regeneration plan for the city of Holon, outside Tel Aviv.
The museum will be inaugurated on 2 February 2010.
More from Design Museum Holon:
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Design Museum Holon – Press Release
Design Museum Holon
Announces inauguration date for 2nd February 2010
The city of Holon (Israel) is proud to announce February 2nd 2010 as the highly anticipated inauguration date for Design Museum Holon and its award winning building by Ron Arad Architects.
After four years of construction, the iconic building will be completed at the end of 2009 and will open to the public in February 2010. Significant in so many ways, the structure of sinuous ribbons of varying shades of COR-TEN (weathered steel) represents Ron Arad’s first completed commercial architectural project, of this scale. Ron Arad has demonstrated an extremely sculptural approach, combining ingenuous and playful functionality with highly visual sculptural design.
The design museum project is the realisation of a 16-year regeneration programme in the city of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv, which has been lead by the mayor for more than 16 years, Mr. Motti Sasson, and the municipality's managing director, Ms. Hana Hertsman.
“The creation of the first design museum in the region is the pinnacle of a long-term urban re-generation project which brings the discussion and exploration of design, culture and education to the forefront,” says Hana Hertsman, municipality managing director who initiated the project. “It not only highlights the role of design and culture in Holon’s day-to-day life, but also the city’s influence globally; I believe it will be a beacon within Israel and far beyond. Ron Arad’s building design as well as the exciting and engaging exhibition developed by the curators, will make the design experience at Design Museum Holon accessible to all, regardless of age or artistic background.”
More about Design Museum Holon:
Design Museum Holon accommodates two primary galleries and a number of diverse alternative exhibition and education spaces in-between. The Gallery 1 (500m²) celebrates the abundance of natural light in Israel and the qualities it can bring to the display of three-dimensional objects, while allowing curatorial flexibility by modulating light levels. The second, smaller gallery, (200m²) is taller inside but offers a more intimate, personal relationship between the visitor and the object on display.
Annually, Design Museum Holon will showcase site-specific exhibitions, concentrating on design concepts, objects and architecture. In addition to the featured exhibitions, Design Museum Holon will house an ‘Experience Archive’, a collection of international and Israeli design related objects, materials and resources which are all accessible to the public. The archive will be an interactive environment for in-depth research on design, from concepts and materials to execution and trends.
Ron Arad:
Since his career began in 1981, Ron Arad has exhibited at many major museums and galleries throughout the world. 2009 is a significant year for Arad with the completion of Design Museum Holon, an unprecedented turn out to his retrospective at Centre Pompidou in Paris and an exhibition in July at MoMA New York, which moves to the Stedelijkn Museum in Amsterdam.
Awards:
Condé Nast Traveller Innovation and Design Award for Culture, May 2009.