Florence Knoll Conference Tables
Like so many of her groundbreaking designs that became the gold standard
for the industry, the 1961 executive collection - including these conference
tables - has made its way into the pantheon of modern classics.
About Designer | |
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Florence Knoll |
While a student at the Kingswood School on the campus of the Cranbrook
Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Florence Knoll Bassett (née
Schust) became a protegée of Eero Saarinen. She studied architecture at
Cranbrook, the Architectural Association in London and the Armour Institute
(Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago). She worked briefly for Walter
Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Wallace K. Harrison. In 1946, she became a full
business and design partner and married Hans Knoll, after which they formed
Knoll Associates. She was at once a champion of world-class architects and
designers and an exceptional architect in her own right. As a pioneer of the
Knoll Planning Unit, she revolutionised interior space planning. Her belief in
"total design" – embracing architecture, manufacturing, interior
design, textiles, graphics, advertising and presentation – and her application
of design principles in solving space problems were radical departures from the
standard practice in the 1950s, but were quickly adopted and remain widely used
today. For her extraordinary contributions to architecture and design, Florence
Knoll was accorded the National Endowment for the Arts' prestigious 2002
National Medal of Arts. |