The 45th NeoCon ( US contract furniture industry trade show) took place on June 10-12, in Chicago
The Merchandise Mart is the world’s largest commercial building, wholesale design center and one of Chicago’s premier international business locations. Encompassing 4.2 million gross square feet, The Mart spans two city blocks and rises 25 stories.
NeoCon is North America’s largest design exposition and conference for commercial interiors, providing over 40,000 architecture and design professionals with more than 100 CEU-accredited seminars and association forums, and top-notch keynote speakers.
Boasting more than 130 mid to high end permanent contract furnishings showrooms, The Mart is a critical channel by which manufacturers launch, display and sell innovative furniture and interior resources for corporate, hospitality, healthcare, retail, government, institutional and education environments.
Modern always embodies the essence of Knoll design innovation and the Knoll brand—past, present and future—since the company’s founding in 1938.
This year, Knoll celebrates its 75th anniversary at NeoCon 2013, with a range of new products and planning approaches that celebrate classic and contemporary Knoll design.
Knoll furnishings offer a flexible platform for the use of technology that helps people connect with each other, display and share information, and adapt to ever-changing work processes.
Knoll‘s 2013 showroom display reflects the company’s ongoing research into the evolving workplace. The display has been designed to showcase how new technology is transforming and liberating the workplace.
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Knoll Debuts Modern always Advertising Campaign
The showroom also celebrates the Company’s Modern Always 75th anniversary campaign, an integrated cross-platform program that includes the new knoll.com, advertising and social media activity.
The print advertising is the second phase of the cross platform Modern always communications campaign, which launched across six social platforms identified by the searchable hashtag #modernalways.
Under the Modern Always headline, the ads juxtapose designers and their recent work for Knoll with Knoll design icons: ….. Rem Koolhaas and the new OMA Collection with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe / Antenna Design principals Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger and Antenna Workspaces with Eero Saarinen and Florence Knoll / Dorothy Cosonas, KnollTextiles Creative Director, and Florence Knoll / a recreation of a vintage advertisment of Richard Schultz with his 1966 Collection / and David Adjaye, whose new collection debuts in October, with Harry Bertoia.
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The showroom also celebrates Knoll’s “Modern Always” 75th anniversary campaign through a series of vintage images juxtaposed with contemporary photography.
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2013 Knoll NeoCon workplace product introductions and enhancements to existing product lines include:
Anchor storage by Marc Krusin with David Noel
Interpol for Activity Spaces by Antenna Design
Expanded Reff Profiles capabilities for Activity Spaces by Brian Graham
Dividends Horizon
Knoll LED Lighting Series by Antenna Design
“Tools for Life” by OMA
New upholstery fabrics from KnollTextiles creative director Dorothy Cosonas
SUNO Collection for Knoll Luxe
FilzFelt designs by Ayse Birsel
Wave and other leather applications from Spinneybeck
The 2013 Knoll NeoCon display weaves Knoll’s diverse workplace products throughout three common typologies: Distinctive / Efficient / Progressive ………..
Distinctive Planning
Characterized by a refined approach, substantial in form and materials, that focuses on holistic planning between open and closed primary workspaces and formal and informal activity spaces
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Knoll Studio – from landmark collaborations with celebrated architects and designers, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and Frank Gehry to new designs by Architecture & Associés, Marc Krusin and OMA, the Knoll Studio Collection is an unparalleled resource for contemporary activity spaces.
Reff Profiles – deliver a progressive and architectural design solution for private offices, administrative areas and open plan environments, leveraging the product line’s history of refined wood detailing, planning flexibility and breadth of options. New designs by Brian Graham include a Media Enclave table and lockers.
AutoStrada – epitomizes modern architectural thinking, offering a refined, singular aesthetic for collaborative, open plan and private office applications.
Efficient Planning
Streamlined to the essence of what matters functionally and physically, with a densified planning approach, featuring compact primary workspaces as well as varied and small activity spaces
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Anchor storage – is the new addition to the Knoll storage portfolio designed by Marc Krusin, is available in multiple configurations including all-open, all-closed with drawers or doors, or a blended solution of open and closed. Ancho storage addresses a variety of work styles. The new collection, constructed in wood, is available in multiple configurations including all-open, all-closed with drawers or doors, or a blended solution of open and closed. Anchor storage offers seamless coordination with Antenna Workspaces and Dividends Horizon.
Dividends Horizon – offers good design in an affordable systems product platform. New work surface shapes conceived to maximize the footprint for Focused work (concentrative work by one person), create innovative free-address for Shared space (among two or three people) and define the work zone in Team space (among four or more people).
Progressive Planning
Illustrated by highly adaptable, dynamic planning that stimulates diverse work styles and freedom of movement within a broad range of primary workspaces and flexible and accessible activity spaces
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Interpol – designed by Antenna Design principals Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, is a unique vertical planning approach based on a floor-to-ceiling H-post applicable in open plan, private offices and Activity Spaces. Interpole can be used in community spaces to support portable technology; in offices and activity spaces to support video displays at any height; and as a conduit for power throughout the workplace. The new Interpole storage wall offers open shelves, open cabinets and partial height screens between poles to establish boundaries of Activity Spaces.
Toboggan series – including a sled base collaborative chair, a new plannable bench, a new pull-up table, new standing height Big Table and Power Cube, for “plug and play” access, complement the range of Interpole applications.
Antenna Workspaces – by Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, principals of Antenna Design, is a new approach to workplace design that reflects the freedom and mobility people seek in today’s office. Antenna is a pace-setting approach to the workplace facilitates transitions between individual and group work.
Activity Spaces – in the evolving workplace, activity spaces are “go to” spaces accessible to everyone for everything from focused, individual work through large community gatherings. Activity Spaces generally fall into five categories: Refuge, the “get away” room for one to two people; Enclave, a “get together” space for three to four; Team Meeting, often a “war room” for four to eight people to collaborate on a specific project; and Assembly and Community spaces for larger groups.
Knoll LED Series – designed by Antenna Design, the lighting series addresses the changing workplace with 3 key benefits: structural lightness, quality illumination and instinctive controls. Knoll LED Lighting Series includes Sparrow for desktop use, Highwire for under cabinet light, and T-light for Antenna Workspaces Big Table applications.
The new LED lighting Series, a comprehensive selection of lights that address the way people work today, has received a Best of NeoCon Silver Award. The collection creates opportunities to light the entire workplace from individual to group settings and open plan to private offices. The LED collection offers ultimate user control with a stepped dimmer and a range of tilt and pivot options.
judging panel for Neocon 2013 awards
Tools for Life
Tools for Life – is an 11-piece collection of furniture designed by Rem Koolhass and his studio, OMA and offers a contemporary interface between furniture and people, supporting the ebb and flow of work and social life.
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Overall, it’s dynamic, innovative and experimental–an expression of OMA’s research and design process on a completely new scale. The furniture performs in a myriad of ways, changing both physically and functionally to suit a variety of environments and uses.
Modern always
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Knoll Textiles – continues its tradition of working with the world’s best design talent.New upholstery fabrics include the SUNO Collection for Knoll Luxe, our third fashion-driven textile collaboration; fabrics by KnollTextiles creative director Dorothy Cosonas; and the Stripes Collection by Irma Boom. Continuing Knoll’s tradition of working with the world’s best graphic and fashion design talents.
Filzfelt – is a purveyor of German-milled 100% wool design felt as well as felt floor coverings and architectural applications. FilzFelt designs by Ayse Birsel including graphic ready-made hanging panels, drapery and floor coverings that utilize the repetition of simple shapes to form intricate patterns.
Spinneybeck – leathers and related products including Wave, the first in a collection of shaped wall panels.
About Knoll
Knoll is the recipient of the 2011 National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
Since 1938, Knoll has been recognized internationally for creating workplace and residential furnishings that inspire, evolve, and endure.
Today, its commitment to modern design, understanding of the workplace, and dedication to sustainable design have yielded a unique portfolio of products that respond and adapt to changing needs.
Knoll is aligned with the U.S. Green Building Council and the Canadian Green Building Council and can help companies achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED workplace certification.
Knoll is the founding sponsor of the World Monuments Fund Modernism at Risk initiative.
Certified collections
The range of new products and enhancements to existing product lines underscores the Company’s ongoing commitment to achieving BIFMA level® 3 sustainable design certifications for its open plan, private office, seating and filing product lines.
level® 3 is the highest rating a product can achieve under the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association’s (BIFMA) level® furniture sustainability certification.
Knoll has been awarded twenty-two level 3® certifications for the following products:
Systems
Antenna® Workspaces
AutoStrada®
Currents®
Dividends Horizon®
Equity®
Morrison™
Reff Profiles®
Template®
Upstart®
Casegoods (including Files & Storage)
Calibre®
Reff Profiles®
Series 2™
The Graham Collection®
Seating
Chadwick®
Essentials Work Chairs (EWC)™
Generation by Knoll®
Life®
Moment™
MultiGeneration by Knoll®
ReGeneration by Knoll®
RPM®
Sapper™
