Profile | Eero Saarinen
"Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan."
- Eero Saarinen
Profile | Eero Saarinen
"Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan."
Eero Saarinen
Today, we celebrate the legacy of Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), the Finnish-born American architect and designer renowned for his bold neo-futuristic vision and working relationship with Knoll.
Born to prominent creatives—architect and Cranbrook Academy of Art director Eliel Saarinen and textile artist Loja Saarinen—Eero was destined for a life in design. He began his studies in sculpture in Paris before enrolling in Yale's architecture program in 1930. Upon graduating, he returned to Michigan in 1934 to teach at Cranbrook, where his career and creative network would begin to take shape.
At Cranbrook, Saarinen met Charles Eames. The two young designers shared a passion for innovation and experimentation, which led to their collaboration resulting in their groundbreaking molded plywood furniture collection that won first prize in MoMA's 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishingscompetition. A pivotal moment that launched both of their careers.
It was also at Cranbrook that Saarinen formed a life-long friendship with Florence Knoll (née Schust), a protégé of his father. When Florence joined Knoll in 1940, she invited Saarinen to design for the company. Over the next fifteen years, he would create some of Knoll’s most recognisable pieces, including the Tulip series and the Womb Chair. Known for his sculptural approach to furniture design, Saarinen was obsessive about form and proportion, often producing hundreds of models and full-scale prototypes to perfect a single piece.
Saarinen’s architectural career was also taking form. Working alongside his father for years, he emerged in his own right in 1947 by winning the competition to design the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. This success propelled his reputation, resulting in a series of architectural commissions in the 1950s, including the Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York, and the American Embassy in London.
Discover Eero Saarinen's designer here.
