Omer Arbel was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1976, grew up in Vancouver. He was trained in the 1990s as an architect and he apprenticed with architects Enric Miralles in Barcelona and John and Patricia Patkau in Vancouver. His architectural background is evident in his furniture and lighting design - his pieces are characterized not only by their own inherent qualities but also by the way they affect the spaces around them.

Arbel's work has received some of the highest honors of contemporary industrial design and has been published extensively. 113 is the result of a strand of new discoveries that are part of OAO’s ongoing research into the reciprocal relationship between glass and metals.