Group A, Mid-Century Modern Furnishing

Company Name: Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto
Style: Mid-Century Modern

Address: Studio Tiilimäki 20, 00330 Helsinki Finland. Museum Alvar Aallon katu 7, FI-40600 Jyväskylä, Finland. Riihitie 20, 00330 Helsinki, Finland.

Telephone: Studio +358(0)480123, Museum +358 (0)14 2667113, Aalto House +358(0)9 481350
Email: esa.laaksonen@alvaraalto.fi
Website: http://www.alvaraalto.fi
Contact Person: acting director, chief curator Kaarina Mikonranta
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Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was born in 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976, he was a Finnish architecture and designer.

Alvar Aalto made his international breakthrough as a furniture designer. Aalto wished to learn "the language of wood fibres" and believed that there is a positive effect when our skin comes into contact with natural materials.

In 1935, Aino and Alvar Aalto founded the Finnish company Artek to manufacture their designs. Today, Artek remains faithful to the Aaltos' basic values as their master craftspeople continue to produce Aalto designs in Finland with high quality natural materials.









Company Name: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Style: Mid-Century Modern

Address: 10 W. 35th Street, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60616

Telephone: 312.567.7146
Email: miesmembership@iit.edu
Website: http://www.miessociety.org
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), a German-born architect and educator, is widely acknowledged as one of the 20th century's greatest architects. By emphasizing open space and revealing the industrial materials used in construction, he helped define modern architecture.

Mies designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona chair and table, the Brno chair, and the Tugendhat chair. His furniture is known for fine craftsmanship, a mix of traditional luxurious fabrics like leather combined with modern chrome frames, and a distinct separation of the supporting structure and the supported surfaces, often employing cantilevers to enhance the feeling of lightness created by delicate structural frames. During this period, he collaborated closely with interior designer and companion Lilly Reich.

Company Name: Florence Knoll 

Style: Mid-Century Modern

Address: 1235 Water Street, East Greenville, PA 18041 

Telephone: 1-800-343-5655

Email: SHOPSERVICE@KNOLL.COM

Website: http://www.knoll.com

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Born to a baker, and orphaned at age twelve, Florence Schust grew up Saginaw, Michigan. Schust demonstrated an early interest in architecture and was enrolled at the Kingswood School for Girls, adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

In 1941 Florence moved to New York where she met Hans Knoll who was establishing his furniture company. With Florence’s design skills and Hans’ business acumen and salesmanship, the pair, who married in 1946, grew the nascent company into an international arbiter of style and design. Florence also seeded contributions with her friends Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, and Mies van der Rohe.

In creating the revolutionary Knoll Planning Unit, Florence Knoll defined the standard for the modern corporate interiors of post-war America. Drawing on her background in architecture, she introduced modern notions of efficiency, space planning, and comprehensive design to office planning. Florence ardently maintained that she did not merely decorate space. She created it. The Planning Unit rigorously researched and surveyed each client — assessing their needs, defining patterns of use and understanding company hierarchies — before presenting a comprehensive design, informed by the principles of modernism and beautifully executed in signature Knoll style. Florence and the Planning Unit were responsible for the interiors of some of America’s largest corporations, including IBM, GM and CBS. 

As part of her work with the Planning Unit, Florence frequently contributed furniture designs to the Knoll catalog. She humbly referred to her furniture designs as the “meat and potatoes,” filler among the standout pieces of Bertoia, Mies, and Saarinen. However, with her attention to detail, eye for proportion, and command of the modern aesthetic, many of her designs have become as revered and celebrated as those of her colleagues. 

Poomravee Chaidee