Classic Furniture Design – Florence Knoll glass coffee table

In the last in our series of posts about classic furniture designs, we take a look at one of the all-time great female designers, Florence Knoll. Born in America in 1917, Knoll had the privilege of studying under legends such as Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen, and even briefly worked with the leaders of the Bauhaus movement, including Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

Originally only an architect, Knoll moved into furniture design purely to meet her own needs. She worked closely with interior designers at her and her husband’s store, and only designed new pieces when the existing pieces in her collection did not fit with her vision for that particular space.

Her background in architecture is clear when looking at her furniture – Knoll often translated great architectural designs into human-sized furniture pieces. In this glass coffee table, you can clearly see aspects of the glass and metal skyscrapers that became so popular in the earlier half of the 20^th century.

The design has been adapted for outdoor use in this Tendo table available from Terrace Living.