At the end of a tunnel-like entrance, comprising an undulating wooden walkway and a roof of curved canvas panels, sits Ron Arad, professor, architect and designer. One of his signature hats perched on his head and a stylus pen poised in his hand, he sits behind a long desk with his back to a low wall, halfway between the “hive” of designers on the floor in front of him and the architects who work in the rooms below. There’s a reverential calm with just a low murmuring buzz of discussion.

“This place inspires me,” says Arad of the offices in Chalk Farm, North London, that have been his “playground” for the past 20 years. “We designed it with a life span of ten years and are still here even though the lease expired a few years ago.”

Arad came from his native Tel Aviv in 1973 to study at the Architectural Association in London; he worked briefly for an architectural practice, but one lunchtime he walked out, never to return. His first furniture project was the iconic Rover chair created from the reclaimed leather seats of the Rover 2000, and in August this year, more than 30 years later, he unveiled his latest sculptural seat, Gomli, at the Timothy Taylor Gallery.

The Gomli chair is named after a small steel figure that sits on Arad’s desk. “When we design chairs we always imagine the invisible sitter who could be male, female, old, young, large or small – so I developed the invisible sitter into a real figure. We nicknamed this sexless, ageless everyman the Gomli.

“The name might have something to do with my friend Antony Gormley. He uses himself as a model for his artworks, whereas Gomli is a one-size-fits-all figure used to represent everybody. Gomli has no preconceptions of beauty – he is designed for comfort.”

Another work-related piece of equipment, but one that has become an artwork, is a set of French curves made by architect Arata Isozaki. Before computers, architects used these drawing tools to create even and flowing lines.

“When I was a student, Isozaki gave a lecture at the Architectural Association where he showed French curves based on Marilyn Monroe’s figure – ‘Why not trace the best curves in the world?’ he said. Being a bit cheeky, I asked him where I could get a set of these curves, to which he replied, ‘Contact my office in Tokyo.’ Years later, I received an award in Japan which was presented by Isozaki. After the presentation he came up to me and said ‘Thirty-five years ago I promised you these,’ and he gave me a new set of ‘Marilyn Monroe’ curves, beautifully cut out of fluorescent tinted acrylic.”

Then Arad opens up a small box labelled “A Portable Story for Ron”, filled with tiny numbered bottles, each containing an index for a sentence in a story printed on the box lid. The work is a present from Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of Everything Is Illuminated. “Jonathan is very interested in objects and claims that he would rather make things than write. Thankfully, he writes…” says Arad.

“When we were introduced to each other in Berlin, by fluke I was in the middle of reading his second book, which was dog-eared in my bag. We kept in touch by e-mail and he came to stay when we started a series of collaborations using words and objects. We also discovered that we share an obsession with ping pong, and I lost one of my hats to him when we bet on a game.”

Ping pong is one of Arad’s passions and with no encouragement he calls a member of his team to join him in a surprisingly full-on match. “I guess I am competitive, but I am a bad winner,” he says. The table they play on is an Arad design. It has a gentle dip towards the centre, leaving the front edges raised to elevate the point of return and improve the quality of the rally.

“It started with an assumption; I thought about it, drew a design and made the table to prove the theory. Some years ago we launched a limited edition of 20,” he says between rallies. “It is also our boardroom and lunch table, so we hold many discussions around it.”

The ping pong table is on the ground floor, behind a screen of Fiat cars. “I bought my first Fiat more than 30 years ago and have had a number since then. Some students from the Royal College ‘borrowed’ this one, my original Fiat 500, and painted it to glow in the dark, but it doesn’t work. Recently Fiat asked me to personalise a limited edition, so I got them to trace the outline of the original car on the exterior of the new one.”

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers