As head of the Knoll Planning unit, Florence Knoll always approached furniture design with the larger space in mind. Most important to her was how a piece can fit into the greater design — the room, the floor, the building. Every element of a Knoll-planned space supported the overall design and complemented the existing architecture. The Florence Knoll Coffee Table, designed to furnish the new interiors of postwar America, is a scaled-down translation of the lines, gestures, and materials of modern architecture. Consistent with all of her designs, the table has a spare, geometric presence that reflects the rational design approach Florence Knoll learned from Mies van der Rohe.