Next time we sit in a brightly lit office, we might
remember Florence Knoll who died recently at the age of 101.
After mingling with various members of the Bauhaus,
Knoll became an enthusiast of modernism and was
the pioneer who introduced it’s clean-line forms to the
USA.
A lone reed in a man’s world she never the less thrived,
designing offices, homes, furniture and so on.
A stickler for uncompromising detail, she led the way to
replacing the dark heavy look of the past,
with simplified linear clarity set in light bright interiors.
She introduced the long conference table with the
democratic and functional Oval table.
(As had King Arthur with his Round Table.)
The Oval table has been largely abandoned alas, with a return to the more hierarchal ‘ leader of the pack style’.
Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett nee Schust..1917 - 2019.