Knoll

To architect and sculptor Jonathan Muecke, material is elemental, repetition is clarity, and logic is freedom. In designing furniture for Knoll, Muecke applies the principles of his art practice to create Coffee and Side Tables that feel both raw and intentional with their primitive, rigorous, inviting forms.

Materiality and connection

Material comes first for every Jonathan Muecke project. For this collection he chose wood because it’s common and warm. "Plus, it has grain," he says. "We can think of this as material.”

By rounding solid wood into cylindrical dowels, the face and end grain are both on view. “You can understand the piece of wood,” he says. “It’s not disguised. It’s there for you to understand again and again.” 

Muecke developed a distinct joinery system that repeats throughout the collection. Rounded dowels pass on adjacent planes, connected where they meet by a floating tenon.

The clarity of repetition

Jonathan Muecke produced an extensive series of hand-built prototypes to develop the collection’s distinct joinery, which he then repeated across the collection. Here and in his art practice, Muecke explores the stabilizing effects of repetition. A note on his studio desk reads: Repetition allows an object to be found in as few decisions as possible. He explains, “It’s a preference for a certain type of object—one that isn’t a thousand decisions, but three.”

Jonathan Muecke

From his Minneapolis studio, Jonathan Muecke (pronounced “mih-kee”) strips objects to their essential elements, nearly to the point of abstraction. Often using just one material—wood, aluminum, carbon fiber—his practice challenges the boundaries of art, architecture, and design. Trained as an architect, Muecke holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.