No Compromise: The Work of Florence Knoll
The furniture designer created her own version of modernism, taking offi ce spaces to a new level of functionality with fl air.
Learn how this Mid Century Modern icon refined and glamorized utilitarian design, transforming office spaces and corporate culture forever.
In the 1950s and ’ 60s, an elite class of designers transformed pieces of furniture into works of art. Their names have become synonymous with the iconic modern masterpieces they created: Eames, Saarinen, Starck, Mies van der Rohe, Bertoia, Wright and Jacobsen, to name a few. However, this supreme list would be incomplete without noting the innovative work of Florence Knoll. The primarily industrial designer opened the door to a new kind of offi ce that evolved into an artistic experience. “Knoll paired interiors with architecture, and in so doing, she both defi ned a clearer brief for the interior design profession and elevated its social and cultural status,” writes Ana Araujo in her new book, No Compromise: The Work of Florence Knoll.
Knoll’s roster of renowned corporate clients included media moguls, such as television executives, and business titans, such as the Rockefellers.
“I am not a decorator,” Knoll stated in a 1964 interview with The New York Times. “The only place I decorate is my own house.” Indeed, Florence Knoll did nothing less than turn the concept of the plain, practical office environment on its ear.
“Knoll paired interiors with architecture, and in so doing she both defined a clearer brief for the interior design profession and elevated its social and cultural status.”
CREATING SOLUTIONS
Knoll believed the secret for producing good design was to identify what the problem was and solve it. A perfect example of how Knoll approached specific design challenges was her creative furniture at the office of the president of the Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS), where one of her tasks was to conceal a sophisticated electronic control system that housed a phonograph, telephone, radio and televisions, Araujo explains. She says Knoll created “an ingenious storage unit to resolve the problem, which she detailed in an elaborate but concise sketch. It was one of the main hallmarks of the Knoll look: the articulation of a utilitarian problem with such a degree of care and artistry that it almost acquired, in itself, a decorative status.”
The designer created her own version of modernism, Araujo says, explaining that “her style— consistent with her architectural training from mentors such as Eliel Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe and influenced by colleagues such as Charles and Ray Eames— combined the boldness and sleekness of the steel- and- glass aesthetic with a ‘ humanized’ application of color, texture and comfort.”
Knoll’s designs were nearly as minimal as Mies’ buildings and interiors, yet they felt cozier and more tactile, owing these warmer qualities to the influence of Eliel Saarinen, the Eames couple and others, Araujo says. “Knoll’s interiors combined visual precision with material fuzziness, calibrating these qualities in response to the particularities of each program, site and client.”
Several of Knoll’s interiors became iconic, including the offices of CBS headquarters, General Motors, Connecticut General, H. J. Heinz and Look Publications. Yet Knoll was unassuming about her furniture designs, Araujo says. “‘ Meat and potatoes’ is how she described them. The most iconic interiors Florence Knoll designed resembled living rooms, even if most of them were located within the context of corporate, commercial or institutional settings.”
CULTURE SHOCK
“Under Florence Knoll, the character of the office changed,” Araujo says.
“In the same way that Mies, through his artistic skills, had turned the steel structure, in principle dull and monotonous, into an iconic design feature, Knoll transformed the equally boring and standardized modern office into an image that was eventually considered to be cool and sexy.” Her interiors glamorized the office space. “The Knoll look combined the image of efficiency that was required from a working space with the excitement and drama that is usually linked to leisure and entertainment, adding to the mix a cozy and intimate experience typically associated with the domestic. It was as if the office as a space, and work as an activity, now contained everything that a human being needed in order to feel happy and fulfilled.”
Florence Knoll refined and glamorized utilitarian design, enabling her to create highly sophisticated and seductive working spaces, Araujo says. Her body of work transcended modernizing the ambience of the office; it transformed corporate culture forever.