1956

Florence and Hans Knoll used their love of architectural design and friendships with Bauhaus architects to create one of the world’s premier interior design houses

Knoll was founded in 1937 by Hans and Florence Schust Knoll, and remains one of the top producers of quality contemporary  furniture. Best known for their studio furniture collections and office systems, Knoll was dynamic in their understanding of the importance and use of a strong “corporate identity” concept in design.

Florence Knoll’s own designs are reserved, cool and angular, reflecting her modernist sensibility and perhaps the influence of childhood friend Eero Saarinen. While she is modest about her own accomplishments, it was through Florence that Knoll began to manufacture modern sculptural furniture such as the Tulip chair by Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi’s coffee table and Harry Bertoia’s Diamond chair.

In 1948, Knoll also acquired the rights to produce Mies van der Rohe’s furniture designs.

During the 1950’s Florence Knoll continued to fashion the distinctive Knoll look, overseeing all aspects of the corporate identity, from showroom design to graphic design. She also recruited Swiss designer Herbert Matter to create a series of compelling posters advertising Knoll products and the Knoll logo.

In 1967, the Knoll identity was further strengthened by Massimo Vignelli, who designed the bold graphics that represent Knoll today.

Knoll Showroom 1955

Knoll Showroom 1955

Knoll was founded in 1938 by Hans G. Knoll, a German immigrant to the U.S., and son of one of Germany’s pioneer manufacturers of modern furniture. Educated in England and Switzerland, Hans Knoll was familiar with the Bauhaus and with many of the seminal figures in twentieth century design and architecture, including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Hans Knoll arrived in New York City in 1937 and, in the following year, in a single second-story room on East 72nd Street, established the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company, bravely nailing up a sign which read: Factory No. 1.

Like many visionaries, his business objective today seems simplistic: that modern architects would need modern furnishings.

During World War II, Hans Knoll met and hired a young space planner and designer named Florence Schust. Florence Schust came to Knoll with impressive credentials. She had graduate degrees from the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, a degree in architecture from the Architectural Association in London, had studied with Mies van der Rohe at the Armour Institute in Chicago, and had worked in the architectural offices from Gropius and Breuer in Boston.

from the “Knoll Modernist Universe” Book

In 1946, Florence Schust and Hans Knoll married and formed Knoll Associates. From the initiation of their partnership, Florence played a critical role in the development and direction of the company. It was her concept to take a Bauhaus approach to furniture design: to offer objects that represented design excellence, technological innovation and mass production. Together, Hans and Florence Knoll searched for and nurtured talented designers; they believed strongly that designers should be credited by name and paid royalties for their work, a tradition which continues at Knoll today.

Knoll was founded in 1938 by Hans G. Knoll, a German immigrant to the U.S., and son of one of Germany’s pioneer manufacturers of modern furniture. Educated in England and Switzerland, Hans Knoll was familiar with the Bauhaus and with many of the seminal figures in twentieth century design and architecture, including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Hans Knoll arrived in New York City in 1937 and, in the following year, in a single second-story room on East 72nd Street, established the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company, bravely nailing up a sign which read: Factory No. 1.

Like many visionaries, his business objective today seems simplistic: that modern architects would need modern furnishings.

During World War II, Hans Knoll met and hired a young space planner and designer named Florence Schust. Florence Schust came to Knoll with impressive credentials. She had graduate degrees from the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, a degree in architecture from the Architectural Association in London, had studied with Mies van der Rohe at the Armour Institute in Chicago, and had worked in the architectural offices from Gropius and Breuer in Boston.

In 1946, Florence Schust and Hans Knoll married and formed Knoll Associates. From the initiation of their partnership, Florence played a critical role in the development and direction of the company. It was her concept to take a Bauhaus approach to furniture design: to offer objects that represented design excellence, technological innovation and mass production. Together, Hans and Florence Knoll searched for and nurtured talented designers; they believed strongly that designers should be credited by name and paid royalties for their work, a tradition which continues at Knoll today.

With the extensive European and American design contacts of Florence and Hans, the company’s products took on an international flavour. They brought in architects Eero Saarinen and Franco Albini, and worked with artists such as Harry Bertoia, Jens Risom and Isamu Noguchi to develop a collection of furnishings that are now widely recognised as classics in the pantheon of modern design. Later, Knoll acquired the exclusive rights to the Barcelona, MR and Brno Collections by Mies van der Rohe and the Wassily Chair by Breuer, and began manufacturing these classics to the exacting specifications of the original designs.

In 1947, Knoll opened a showroom devoted entirely to textiles, and announced the creation of a textiles division. The New York Times described it as representing, “half a dozen of the most talented designers of this country and Europe.” The original collection was heavily influenced by men’s suiting fabrics; Florence Knoll, despairing of the lack of good-quality upholstery materials, had looked toward the fashion industry to find mills that would produce innovative fabrics for Knoll furniture. Also represented in the early textiles collection were striking fabrics derived from the craft of weaving, adapted for the first time for mass-manufacture on machine looms.

By the end of the war, Hans Knoll had begun to think about developing a base of furniture manufacturing outside New York City. A stickler for quality and an excellent business manager, he was attracted to eastern Pennsylvania, with its large population of German-Americans. Not only did the area have a tradition of meticulous craftsmanship, but young men returning from war and no longer wanting to be farmers meant a good potential labour supply. Knoll’s first purchase was a former planing mill in Pennsburg, near Quakertown. In the early 1950s, the company bought a building in nearby East Greenville. Today, East Greenville is the headquarters of Knoll and the site of the company’s largest manufacturing facility.

Of all the design activities that took place at Knoll Associates, some of the most vital and with far-reaching effects were achieved by the Planning Unit, an internal department which worked with clients to identify their workplace needs and to develop interior architecture and furnishing solutions. This integrated approach pioneered by Knoll Planning Unit is widely recognized as the model for today’s approach to corporate interior design. Architects and business executives alike recognized the value of this approach. During this time Florence Knoll stated affirmatively that “Good design is good business,” a credo that became the company’s anthem.

After Hans Knoll’s untimely death in an automobile accident in 1955, Florence Knoll assumed the role of president, a position she held until 1960 when she became a consultant. In 1965, she withdrew from the industry completely, leaving Knoll it in the hands of those she had trained and inspired.

Today, Knoll is committed to continuing the legacy of design excellence established by Hans and Florence Knoll. We continue to work with the world’s most renowned designers to develop classic, modern designs that look fresh, never dated. We continue to work closely with our customers to help them use workplace design to meet their individual business needs. And we continue to believe that “Good design is good business.”

Vignelli MOMA poster 1966