Design hero
Remembering Zeev Aram OBE, who brought the Bauhaus and modern Italian design to the UK
Zeev Aram, who died on 18 March aged 89, was more responsible than anyone for bringing the best of contemporary design to London. While Terence Conran introduced a modern European lifestyle to the capital and later the rest of the country, Aram was the definitive protagonist of furniture and lighting. When he opened his first store on the King’s Road in 1964, he introduced Bauhaus and modern Italian design to the UK market as part of a one-man mission to turn the British preference for reproduction wooden furniture on its head. With its white interior, all-glass frontage and display of pieces by Marcel Breuer, A&P Castiglioni and Le Corbusier, the shop certainly stood out and nothing pleased Aram more than seeing the shock on the faces of passers-by on their way to the familiar antiques shops and purveyors of comfortable floral upholstery.
Aram was born in Romania in 1931, but by 1940 his parents had escaped to the safer haven of what would become Israel. He left school at 15, and found work in the studio of architect and Bauhaus alumnus Hans Zelig, who influenced Aram’s life and tastes forever. In 1957, he came to London to study furniture design at the Central School of Art and Design and, from 1960, found work in the studios of Basil Spence and Ernö Goldfinger before establishing his own practice, Zeev Aram & Associates, designing furniture, interiors and more.
In 1973, Aram moved his operations to Covent Garden, which, with its decommissioned market and old warehouse buildings, was on its way to becoming London’s most
WHEN HE OPENED HIS STORE IN 1964, HE INTRODUCED MODERN DESIGN TO THE UK
fashionable district. In the same year he met Eileen Gray, the Irish-born designer, then in her nineties and something of a recluse. She agreed to let Aram manufacture her furniture and sales of the ‘Bibendum’ chair and the ‘E1027’ side table certainly contributed to his commercial success. For him, though, the real success was in reviving Gray’s reputation.
By 2002, now working with his son Daniel and daughter Ruth, he had expanded his Drury Lane premises to four floors after acquiring the adjoining property, devoting the third floor to exhibitions by young designers. ‘I did my first solo show there in 2013,’ says Bethan Laura Wood. ‘I’d been to Jaime Hayon’s exhibition in the space [in 2006] and from then on, it seemed to me an essential step on the way to becoming a successful London designer.’ She followed in the wake of many, including Jasper Morrison and Thomas Heatherwick.
Aram’s commitment to contemporary design never faltered. He popped up at every degree show and every opening night – an energetic and ever curious figure who never required those around him to stand on ceremony, in spite of his status as a design authority. An inexhaustible trailblazer, he will be remembered with respect and gratitude by so many members of London’s design community.