Knoll by West’s: Unearthing Local Stories Through a Transnational Design History

Abstract

West’s Furniture Emporium in Brisbane was the first business in Australia to obtain a Knoll manufacturing license in 1956. Laurence (Laurie) West had inherited this company from his father in 1952, and set out to modernize West’s, with the help of the Knoll license and of Karl Langer, a Viennese émigré architect who he commissioned to design a showroom for the furniture emporium at 620 Wickham Street. Between 1953 and 1963, West’s brought a modern design aesthetic to Brisbane and Australia. Surprisingly, the story of West’s and the role that it played in introducing modern furniture to the country is not well known. In Australia, design histories tend to center on Sydney and Melbourne. Haunted by the image of an overgrown country town, Brisbane often sits in the shadows of its southern peers. Drawing on the unpublished memoirs of Laurie, the family history compiled by Margaret West (Laurie’s daughter), and articles published in contemporary newspapers and magazines, this article tells the story of Laurie and West’s. In doing so, it demonstrates how researching histories of a transnational design company, such as Knoll International, can challenge biases in national design histories and reveal local stories of overlooked figures.