Florence KNOLL

Florence Knoll is simultaneously an architect, a CEO, an interior designer, a fabric and furniture designer. She studies at the Cranbrook Academy, at the Architectural Association in London and at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she is the student of Mies van der Rohe. In 1940, she works in the architectural office of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. From 1943, she collaborates with Hans Knoll who will become her husband. In 1946, they found together the Knoll Associates firm, which rapidly become one of the most important business of the second part of the 20th century. The company is known for the quality of its materials and its use of innovative technologies. Florence Knoll is the manager of several departments. She also creates some furniture and the interior development for buildings and exhibitions. Among the designers who works for Knoll we count Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen and Bauhaus designers. In 1995, when Hans dies in a car crash, Florence Knoll takes the direction of the company. The latter is sold four years later to Art Metal Inc. Florence Knoll is appointed consultant designer.