Florence Knoll is commonly known as “Shu” and had designs that are still in use today due to their timeless nature. She was born in the United States and was first an architect and then a furniture designer and most of her designs have space-saving in mind. She had a talent to come up with a functional piece of furniture that took up as little space as possible, as well as frequently serving multiple purposes. She also had a profound influence on over 50 years of interior design.

Florence Knoll had a knack for utilizing architecture, interior design, graphics, textiles and manufacturing in her designs which during the World Wars were virtually unheard of. But because her designs were considered to be space-savers, revolutionized the way interior space planning was met and her pieces are still in use still today. She was able to make furniture designs that easily worked in cramped spaces. Her designs were characterized by the objective perfectionism of the 1950s modern design and architecture. A list of her designs includes the following:

• Florence Knoll Bench
• Florence Knoll Coffee and End Tables
• Florence Knoll Conference Table
• Florence Knoll Credenza
• Florence Knoll Lounge Seating and
• Florence Knoll Table Desk

She and her husband founded the Knoll Associates and she became a champion of world class architects and designers.  Her radical space-saving designs greatly influenced future designers such as Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi and Harry Bertoia.  She was accorded the National Endowment for the Arts’ prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2002 for her manipulation of space-saving, functional designs, as well as other awards for her design abilities and influence. Florence Knoll was born in Saginaw, Michigan and studied architecture at two different institutes. She studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan with Eliel Saarinen and also at the Illinois Institute of Technology with Mies van der Rohe, both of who are also well-known contemporary furniture designers.

Florence Knoll is an American architect and furniture designer. She studied architecture but her designing ability greatly enhanced the furniture designs of the mid 1950s and revolutionized how furniture was designed for future designers. Her designs were able to manipulate space-saving abilities with functionality while maintaining the modern look and feel of the time. Due to her design capabilities, many of her designs are still in use today and are greatly sought after.