Knoll sponsors exhibitions, scholarships, and other activities related to
modernist architecture and design. In 2006, Knoll and the
World Monuments Fund, a New York-based non-profit organization, launched
Modernism at Risk, an advocacy and conservation program.
Modernism at Risk encourages design solutions for at-risk modernist buildings, provides funding for conservation projects, and raises awareness of threats to Modernist architecture through exhibitions and lectures. The World Monuments Fund (also known as the Knoll Modernism Prize) is awarded to projects that preserve Modernist architecture every two years. In 2008, the first Knoll Modernism award was given to Winfried Brenne and Franz Jaschke of the German firm
Brenne Gesellschaft von Architekten for the restoration of the former
ADGB Trade Union School building on the outskirts of Berlin. The school, built between 1928 and 1930, was a project of the
Bauhaus design school. Its architects were
Hannes Meyer, then director of the Bauhaus, and
Hans Wittwer. The 2010 prize went to
Hubert-Jan Henket and Wessel de Jonge, the founders of
Docomomo International, for the restoration of
Zonnestraal Sanatorium (estate) in
Hilversum in the Netherlands. The 2012 prize was given to a consortium of Japanese architects and academics for the restoration of Hizuchi Elementary School, which was built in the 1950s, on
Shikoku Island, Japan. ==Similar companies==