Knoll - Barcelona sommier

Designed in 1930, Barcelona shares the same simple elegance of its iconic counterpart, showcasing Mies van der Rohe’s mastery of lines and materials in any medium, from architecture to furniture, which has helped define modern vocabulary.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Mies van der Rohe was born in Aachen in 1886, the son of a stonemason in whose workshop the young man worked for several years. In 1922, Mies joined the Novembergruppe, an association of artists of the expressionist movement. The aim was to give life to an art that responded to the life and work needs of the people. The group's battle for modernity passes through an intense cultural propaganda activity and the publication of essays.Since 1923 he has been collaborating with the magazine “G. Material fur elementary Gestaltung ”, in whose drafting he had the opportunity to weave relationships with Dadaists, constructivists and surrealists. At this stage date the first applications of glass for seemingly light volumes, which was to become the preferred solution. We find this aspect in the project for a skyscraper in Berlin (1921), and, the following year, for a completely
transparent tower. In 1926 Mies was commissioned to organize the exhibition "Die Wohnung" and designed the master plan of the Weissenhof in Stuttgart. This model neighborhood was created with the aim of showing the public the potential of applying modern industrial production techniques to the field of residence.  Mies designed one of the residences, which composes four different blocks each containing six apartments of varying sizes.  Illuminated by very large windows and supported by an innovative metal supporting structure, which modulates the interiors according to the needs of the inhabitants. Two of these accommodations are also set up by the German architect, minimizing the number of pieces , many of which are integrated into the walls and therefore virtually invisible. They are also designed starting from the use of tubular steel: a choice that subverts the conventions of the time. Indeed, this type of furniture was already present, but generally limited to use on terraces and gardens. At the Weissenhof, the architect presents a cantilevered chair which, in the designer's intentions, was to give the impression of sitting in a vacuum thanks to a seamless steel tubing.

Knoll

Knoll uses modern design to connect people to their work, to their lives, to their world. Since 1938, it has been internationally recognized for creating furniture for work and residential environments.

For more than 80 years Knoll has remained true to the Bauhaus design philosophy that modern furniture should complement the architectural space. At Knoll, modern design has been the guiding principle and this passion has been shared by customers and design professionals around the world. The founders, Hans and Florence Knoll, embraced the creative genius of the time.  Supported schools were Bauhaus School and Cranbrook Academy of Art to create new types of furniture and workplace environments.

Their approach, where craftsmanship joins technology through the use of design, sets the perspective and shapes the values that live today. 80 years of historical collaborations, with pioneering modernists and daring contemporary designers, define not only the past but the future through active, recent and future collaborations with Antenna Design, Don Chadwick, Formway Design, Jehs & Laub, Joseph D'Urso , David Adjaye and OMA.