Pair of Knoll Studio Relax Sofa by Florence Knoll Beige Sand Leather
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Pair of Knoll Studio Relax Sofa by Florence Knoll Beige Sand Leather
About the Item
- Creator:Knoll (Cabinetmaker),Florence Knoll (Designer)
- Design:Florence Knoll SetteeLounge Series
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80 cm)Width: 63 in (160 cm)Depth: 31.89 in (81 cm)Seat Height: 17.72 in (45 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2000s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Aachen, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU6944229666892
Florence Knoll
Architect, furniture designer, interior designer, entrepreneur — Florence Knoll had a subtle but profound influence on the course of mid-century American modernism. Dedicated to functionality and organization, and never flamboyant, Knoll shaped the ethos of the postwar business world with her skillfully realized office plans and polished, efficient designs for sofas, credenzas, desks and other furnishings.
Knoll had perhaps the most thorough design education of any of her peers. Florence Schust was orphaned at age 12, and her guardian sent her to Kingswood, a girl’s boarding school that is part of the Cranbrook Educational Community in suburban Detroit. Her interest in design brought her to the attention of Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish architect and head of the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Saarinen and his wife took the talented child under their wing, and she became close to their son, the future architect Eero Saarinen. While a student at the academy, Florence befriended artist-designer Harry Bertoia and Charles and Ray Eames. Later, she studied under three of the Bauhaus masters who emigrated to the United States. She worked as an apprentice in the Boston architectural offices of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe taught her at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
In 1941, she met Hans Knoll, whose eponymous furniture company was just getting off the ground. They married in 1946, and her design sense and his business skills soon made Knoll Inc. a leading firm in its field. Florence signed up the younger Saarinen as a designer, and would develop pieces by Bertoia, Mies and the artist Isamu Noguchi.
Florence Knoll's main work came as head of the Knoll Planning Group, designing custom office interiors for clients such as IBM and CBS. The furniture she created for these spaces reflects her Bauhaus training: the pieces are pure functional design, exactingly built; their only ornament from the materials, such as wood and marble. Her innovations — the oval conference table, for example, conceived as a way to ensure clear sightlines among all seated at a meeting — were always in the service of practicality.
Since her retirement in 1965, Knoll received the National Medal of Arts, among other awards; in 2004 the Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted the exhibition “Florence Knoll: Defining Modern” — well deserved accolades for a strong, successful design and business pioneer. As demonstrated on these pages, the simplicity of Knoll’s furniture is her work’s great virtue: they fit into any interior design scheme.
Find vintage Florence Knoll sofas, benches, armchairs and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Knoll
As a company that produced many of the most famous and iconic furniture designs of the 20th century, Knoll was a chief influence in the rise of modern design in the United States. Led by Florence Knoll, the firm would draw stellar talents such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen into its compass. Their work would help change the face of the American home and office.
The company was formed in 1938 by the German immigrant Hans Knoll. He first worked with his fellow ex-pat, the Danish designer Jens Risom, who created furniture with flowing lines made of wood. While Risom served in World War II, in 1943 Knoll met his future wife, Florence Schust. She had studied and worked with eminent emigré leaders of the Bauhaus, including Mies, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. She won Knoll over with Bauhaus notions of industrial arts, and an aesthetic that featured flat and tubular metal frames and angular forms. When Hans died in a car crash in 1955, Florence Knoll was appointed head of the company. It was as much through her holistic approach to design — a core division of the firm was dedicated to planning office systems — as Knoll's mid-century modern furnishings themselves that she brought about the sleek and efficient transformation of the American workplace.
Today, classic Knoll furnishings remain staples of modern design collections and decor. A history of modern design is written in pieces such as the elegant Barcelona chair — created by Mies and Lilly Reich — Saarinen’s pedestal Tulip chair, Breuer’s tubular steel Wassily lounge chair and the grid-patterned Diamond chair by Harry Bertoia.
As you can see from the collection of these designs and other vintage Knoll dining chairs, sofas and tables on 1stDibs, this manufacturer's offerings have become timeless emblems of the progressive spirit and sleek sophistication of the best of modernism.
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- 1st Gen Dieter Rams RZ620 Sofa for Vitsoe 1962By Vitsoe, Dieter RamsLocated in Aachen, NWThis timeless iconic sofa was made in the early 60s by Vitsoe and designed by Dieter Rams. The sofa comes from the iconic RZ620 series and is a first generation example. The sofa i...Category
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- Warren Platner Stool for Knoll Black Leather, 2000sBy Warren Platner, KnollLocated in Aachen, NWBlack leather stool by Warren Platner for Knoll. The groundbreaking stool was designed in 1966 by Warren Platner and produced by Knoll after the 2010s. This mid-century classic ...Category
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- Knoll Studio “Florence Knoll Relax” Sofa & 2 Armchair Suite in “Volo” LeatherLocated in Barrowford, GBHello Friends, and welcome to another unmissable offering from Lord Browns Furniture, the UK’s premier resource for fine Sofas and Chairs. On offer on this occasion is a rare, original “Florence Knoll” suite of seating, consisting of a 3-Seat Relaxed-Sofa and 2 Lounge Relaxed-Chairs from the world renown furniture house of Knoll Studio, dressed in their sublime Knoll “Volo...Category
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- Florence Knoll Sofa for Knoll InternationalBy Knoll, Florence KnollLocated in Los Angeles, CAA classic mid-century tufted sofa by Florence Knoll Sofa for Knoll International c.1950s, USA. It can easily be floated in the center of a room as the b...Category
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- 2012 Florence Knoll 3 Seat Leather Sofa w/ Custom LeatherBy Knoll, Florence KnollLocated in Philadelphia, PAThis is a classic Three Seat Sofa designed by Florence Knoll and produced by Knoll in 2012. The sofa was custom ordered for the executive suite of a corporate office in New York City...Category
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- Pristine Florence Knoll Sofa for Knoll InternationalBy Knoll, Florence KnollLocated in Los Angeles, CAPristine Florence Knoll sofa for Knoll International. Upholstered in gorgeous Sina Pearson fabric. Florence Knoll was a pioneering designer and entrepreneur who created the modern look and feel of America’s postwar corporate office with sleek furniture, artistic textiles and an uncluttered, free-flowing workplace environment. To connoisseurs of Modernism, the mid-20th century designs of Florence Knoll, were — and still are — the essence of the genre’s clean, functional forms. Transcending design fads, they are still influential, still contemporary, still common in offices, homes and public spaces, still found in dealers’ showrooms and represented in museum collections. Ms. Knoll learned her art at the side of Modernist masters. She was a protégé of the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish architect and teacher and the father of the architect Eero Saarinen. And she worked with the renowned Bauhaus architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. Throughout her career, influenced by the German Bauhaus school of design, she promoted the Modernist merger of architecture, art and utility in her furnishings and interiors, especially — although not exclusively — for offices. In the 1940s, she married and became a business partner of the German-born furniture maker Hans Knoll, and over 20 years she was instrumental in building Knoll Associates into the largest and most prestigious high-end design firm of its kind, with 35 showrooms in the United States and around the world. While her husband handled business affairs, Ms. Knoll was the design force of Knoll Associates. It grew to become the leading innovator of modern interiors and furnishings in the 1950s and ’60s, transforming the CBS, Seagram and Look magazine headquarters in Manhattan, the H. J. Heinz headquarters in Pittsburgh and properties across the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, including American embassies. Her “total design” favored open work spaces over private offices, and furniture grouped for informal discussions. It integrated lighting, vibrant colors, acoustical fabrics, chairs molded like tulip petals, sofas and desks with chrome legs...Category
Early 2000s American Modern Sofas
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Pristine Florence Knoll Sofa for Knoll InternationalBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Los Angeles, CAPristine Florence Knoll Sofa for Knoll International. Upholstered in gorgeous Sina Pearson fabric. Florence Knoll was a pioneering designer and entrepreneur who created the modern look and feel of America’s postwar corporate office with sleek furniture, artistic textiles and an uncluttered, free-flowing workplace environment. To connoisseurs of Modernism, the mid-20th-century designs of Florence Knoll, were — and still are — the essence of the genre’s clean, functional forms. Transcending design fads, they are still influential, still contemporary, still common in offices, homes and public spaces, still found in dealers’ showrooms and represented in museum collections. Ms. Knoll learned her art at the side of Modernist masters. She was a protégé of the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish architect and teacher and the father of the architect Eero Saarinen. And she worked with the renowned Bauhaus architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. Throughout her career, influenced by the German Bauhaus school of design, she promoted the Modernist merger of architecture, art and utility in her furnishings and interiors, especially — although not exclusively — for offices. In the 1940s, she married and became a business partner of the German-born furniture maker Hans Knoll, and over 20 years she was instrumental in building Knoll Associates into the largest and most prestigious high-end design firm of its kind, with 35 showrooms in the United States and around the world. While her husband handled business affairs, Ms. Knoll was the design force of Knoll Associates. It grew to become the leading innovator of modern interiors and furnishings in the 1950s and ’60s, transforming the CBS, Seagram and Look magazine headquarters in Manhattan, the H. J. Heinz headquarters in Pittsburgh and properties across the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, including American embassies. Her “total design” favored open work spaces over private offices, and furniture grouped for informal discussions. It integrated lighting, vibrant colors, acoustical fabrics, chairs molded like tulip petals, sofas and desks with chrome legs...Category
Early 2000s American Modern Sofas
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Florence Knoll Parallel Bar Sofa for KnollBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Philadelphia, PAFlorence Knoll Parallel Bar Armed Sofa. Newly reupholstered in a great weave fabric in shades of red, gray and purple. Very solid and subst...Category
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$4,640 Sale Price38% Off
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