Episode 48: Florence Knoll
Florence Margaret Schust was born on May 24, 1917 in Saginaw, Michigan. By the age of 12 she was orphaned and put under the care of a family friend. She went to live and study at the Kingswood School which was the girls boarding school at the Cranbrook Institute in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. While at the school, her interest in architecture and design was peaked. She was mentored by Eliel, Loja, and Eero Saarinen and was essentially adopted into their family, taking summer trips with them back to their home in Finland. After studying at Cranbrook Academy she went on to study at Columbia School of Architecture, the AA in London, interned with Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius, and finished her architecture degree at the Armour Institute with Mies van der Rohe. After graduating, she moved to New York City and worked in a few offices and during this time she met Hans Knoll, owner of a furniture company. She started working with him on interiors projects and eventually went to work for the company. She and Hans were married in 1946 and she became a partner in Knoll Associates. Florence ran most of the various design departments at Knoll including the furniture, textile, and marketing departments. Knoll made it a point to ask famous architects and designers to submit furniture designs so that they could add notoriety to their products. Florence had made many connections over the years, and utilized these to get many well known people like Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, Lilly Reich & Mies van der Rohe to come to Knoll and use them to manufacture and sell their furniture designs. Florence would go on to design most of the other furniture that made up the Knoll Collection. About half of the collection were designs done by Florence herself. For more information on Florence’s career at Knoll and beyond, check out episode 49.
Caryatid: Fien Muller
Fien is one half of Muller Van Severen, a furniture design firm which she started with her husband Hannes Van Severen. Fien and Hannes met in a sculpture class when they were in art school at Sin-Lucas Ghent in Belgium. Hannes is the son of a famous modern Belgian designer Maarten Van Severen, and Fien grew up in a house that was full of color and paintings. Both of these upbringings along with their sculpture background influence their designs. One of their first pieces was a set of leather swing loungers that had a floor lamp attached to it. In their home outside of Ghent, there wasn’t any electric wiring in the ceiling, so it inspired adding a lamp to this chair. They said their collaboration doesn’t have very set roles and that they do everything together. Sometimes she has the initial idea, sometimes he does. They say they can work this way because they ‘trust each other and accept each other’s criticism because we appreciate the other’s work, personality, background, and talents.’
References
“About | Muller Van Severen.” Muller Van Severen, www.mullervanseveren.be/about-us. Accessed 19 Jan. 2022.
Araujo, Ana. No Compromise: The Work of Florence Knoll. Kindle ed., Princeton Architectural Press, 2021.
“Florence Knoll Bassett.” Pioneering Women of American Architecture, Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/florence-knoll-bassett. Accessed 19 Jan. 2022.
Herriman, Kat. “6 Couples Who Are Shaping Contemporary Design.” Artsy, 28 July 2015, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-6-couples-who-are-shaping-contemporary-design.
Makovsky, Paul. “Florence Knoll Bassett, Architect and Pioneer Of Modern Design, Dies At 101.” Contract Design, 15 Mar. 2019, www.contractdesign.com/practice/profiles/florence-knoll-bassett-architect-and-pioneer-of-modern-interior-design-dies-at-101.
McFadden, Robert. “Florence Knoll Bassett, 101, Designer of the Modern American Office, Dies.” The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/style/florence-knoll-bassett-dead.html.
Williams, Gisela. “A Marriage of Tastes — and of Two Furniture-Designing Artists.” The New York Times, 15 Mar. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/t-magazine/design/furniture-design-muller-van-severen.html.
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