Designer · Finland / USA · 1910–1961
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) – Finnish-American architect and designer of Womb armchairs, the Tulip series for Knoll and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
About the designer
- Lifetime
- 1910–1961
- Country
- Finland / USA
- Manufacturers
- Knoll
Eero Saarinen was born in 1910 in Kirkkonummi, Finland, into the family of architect Eliel Saarinen and textile artist Loja Saarinen. From 1929, he studied sculpture in Paris, then studied architecture at Yale University, graduating in 1934.
At Cranbrook, he met Charles Eames, with whom he won MoMA’s “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition in the early 1940s. For around 15 years, he designed key furniture pieces for Knoll: the Womb armchair from the second half of the 1940s and the Pedestal series, known as Tulip – chairs, armchairs and tables on a single, slender leg, produced from 1956.
After his father’s death in 1950, he founded the Eero Saarinen and Associates practice. His works include the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA terminal at JFK Airport in New York and Dulles Airport outside Washington. Saarinen’s furniture is held in the collections of, among others, the V&A, LACMA and Brooklyn Museum. He died in 1961 in Ann Arbor.
More designs from this period can be found in the Mid-Century Modern and Space Age collections.
Key designs
-
Womb armchair
Armchair with a moulded shell and ottoman.
-
Pedestal series (Tulip)
Chairs, armchairs and tables on a single leg.
