Like many aspiring architects in Italy, Gae Aulenti applied to the Politecnico di Milano, was accepted, and graduated with her degree in architecture in 1954. She became a member of Italy’s Industrial Designers Association in 19601 and began the symbiotic careers of architecture and industrial design. She started teaching, first in Venice and later at her alma mater.
The design of Knoll’s showrooms had been the responsibility of Florence Knoll Bassett herself, up until her retirement in 1965. When plans for a new showroom in Boston were drawn up, Knoll upper management went through a list of architects and interior designers, and chose Gae Aulenti. The Boston showroom opened in 1968, and Knoll awarded her another commission for the New York showroom two years later.2
Industrial design, specifically furniture design, was a natural subset of architecture, and Aulenti was equally adept with furniture. She was drawn into the group of architects and designers for Gavina and she designed an imposing marble table in 1965, which Gavina manufactured. The acquisition of Gavina by Knoll in 1968 coincided with Aulenti’s design of the Boston showroom. Her marble table, however, did not appear in the Knoll catalog and price list until 1972.3 The table was offered in Calacatta Cremo (veined white) or Rosso Alicante (red-brown) marble. The table, measuring just under 45-inches square, rested on four individual sculpted legs having tangs that passed through machined slots in the top. Knoll’s Italian Price List for 1972 gave the table a name instead of a number: Jumbo MB (marmo bianco) or Jumbo MN (marmo nero).4
In 1971, Aulenti also designed a soft form bed and lounge seating group for Knoll, with the name Tennis.5 However, Tennis was not listed in the Italian Price list for 1972, or the US Price list for 1973.
Knoll International then contracted with Aulenti to design a complete collection of seating and tables. As she designed this furniture, she determined thin-wall extruded aluminum would be the most practical and durable for the designs she was creating. Design development and eventual manufacture for the Aulenti Collection took place in Italy, and this made the most sense as Aulenti could supervise prototype construction and, with Knoll, work out the assembly of the aluminum pieces and details of the upholstery for the chairs, lounge seating and tops for the tables. Seating upholstery could be Knoll fabric, vinyl or leather.
Knoll explained the configuration of the furniture in one of its tabloids:
“The basic cylindrical construction is extruded aluminum: six triangular tubes radiating from a common center point. These tubes, with their soft radial edge, become frames of chairs and tables depending on how they are bent or joined and have a high gloss, fused epoxy finish. The chair shells are molded plywood. The tabletops are wood, plastic laminate or marble.”6 Later, glass was added as a tabletop option.
Knoll introduced the Aulenti Collection in 1976, was expanded during the 1980s and continued into the 1990s. Portions of the collection were discontinued as sales diminished. By 1998, only the lounge seating and Jumbo marble coffee table were in the Price List.7
1. Christine Rae, Knoll au Louvre. (New York: Chantcleer Press, 1971). Unpaginated.
2. Eric Larrabee and Massimo Vignelli. Knoll Design (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990)., 211.
3. Brian Lutz. Knoll – A Modernist Universe. (New York: Rizzolli International Publications, 2010), 296.
4. Listino Prezzi, Knoll International Italy, 1972, 44-45.
5. Margherita Petranzan. Gae Aulenti. (New York: Universe Publishing, Inc., 2002). 209.
6. “Gae Aulenti Collection.” Knoll tabloid, 1976. 14. Knoll devoted the entire 16-page issue to Gae Aulenti and her Collection, all photographed in a magnificent Italian villa.
7. KnollStudio Price List 1998. 92-93, 236-237. The KnollStudio Price List 2000 listed only the Jumbo coffee table.