Designing for the world

The Knoll portfolio spans 100 years of design by 30 global designers and architects who’ve brought order and beauty to projects all over the world. Collaborating with the best and brightest has been the model by which Knoll operates since the company was founded by Hans Knoll in 1938. 

Pictured: (left to right) Florence Knoll, Hans Knoll, Herbert Matter, and Harry Bertoia

Hans, a German businessman, had planned to import furniture from Europe to sell through his USA-based company but found it difficult to secure shipments due to wartime shortages. To succeed, he knew he’d have to commission original works by architects with European design sensibilities. The first was Jens Risom, a Danish designer living in America who impressed Hans with his clean, streamlined pieces, many of which are still produced by Knoll today. 

In 1941, Hans hired architect Florence Schust—who became Florence Knoll when the pair married five years later—to work on interior design projects for his company. Florence was instrumental in shaping an unmatched portfolio of products by recruiting her Cranbrook associates Eero Saarinen (b. Finland) and Harry Bertoia (b. Italy), and it was through her close relationship with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (b. Germany) that Knoll came to produce his furniture as well as that of other Bauhaus designers. 

Notable projects from Florence Knoll’s era include Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Collection and Barcelona Pavilion in Spain, as well as his Villa Tugendhat and Tugendhat Chair in the Czech Republic. In 1972, the Knoll au Louvre exhibition opened at the Pavillon de Marsan, Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris to honour the company’s impact on the world of design. 

Collaborating with top designers and architects from around the world is the model by which Knoll still operates, resulting in recent introductions by London design firm Barber and Osgerby, Italians Piero Lissoni and Antonio Citterio, French-Canadian Willo Perron, and design duo Antenna Design who hail from Japan and Austria. The elegant pieces created through these partnerships have earned Knoll an influential spot in the cultural zeitgeist, internationally recognised as a source for timeless design.