Knoll - Barcelona couch

Designed in 1930, the Barcelona couch shares the same simple elegance as the iconic lounge chair of the same name. Mies van der Rohe's command of line and material in all medium, from architecture to furniture, helped define the modern vocabulary.

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.

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.