Jehs+Laub Ottoman

When the opportunity to develop a new lounge collection arose in 2007, Knoll Director of Design Benjamin Pardo immediately went to German designers Markus Jehs and Jürgen Laub. Pardo had hoped to work with Jehs + Laub for some time, thinking they were the right designers to further the legacy of Knoll lounge seating.

Jehs and Laub: “In the beginning we studied all the Knoll classic furniture which impressed us the most — the Mies Chair, the Bertoia Chairs and the Florence Knoll Sofa…We were very impressed with the structure and the pattern. We made little models in fabric with sewing lines, and when Benjamin Pardo visited us, he said ‘this looks like a quilt,’ which was very interesting because the quilt production tradition is in Pennsylvania. It’s always important for us when we work for a company that we find the identity and culture of that company. So, we were very happy to be working with the quilt. The next step became, how can we keep the idea of the quilt?...We wanted a chair that was stable at the base, and remained very soft at the top, to maintain the quilt image…That was the beginning of the idea to have the movable head rest.”
 

Two of Knoll’s newest collaborators, Markus Jehs and Jürgen Laub studied industrial design at the Hochshcule für Gestaltung Schwäebisch Gmuend. Their friendship was cemented while interning in New York, leading them to open Jehs+Laub in 1994. They have designed furniture and lighting for many of the world’s leading design companies, including Thonet, Cassina, and Fritz Hansen. Their interior design portfolio includes the master concept of worldwide showrooms for Mercedes-Benz® and suite 606 at the Ice Hotel in Sweden.

In 2008, Jehs and Laub came to Knoll with a lounge chair proposal. Inspired by the grids found in the work of Harry Bertoia, Mies van der Rohe, and Florence Knoll, the team developed a segmented seating surface that appears to be nothing more than a sculpted blanket.