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Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was born on 20.08.1910 in Kirkkonumm - Finland as the son of a family of architects.
He emigrated to the USA in 1923.
From 1929 to 1930 Eero Saarinen first studied sculpture in Paris. Subsequently, from 1930 to 1934 Saarinen studied architecture at Yale.
After completing his studies, for some time he worked in his father's architecture firm, where he became a partner in 1941.
In 1940, Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames participated in a competition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Several of their designs - including the Organic Chair - won prizes in various categories. The 1940 designs were the starting point of Saarinen and Eames' various further developments. The designs presuppose production techniques that were not yet suitable for mass production.
The Tulip Chair belongs to a series of chairs, armchairs, tables and side tables that Eero Saarinen developed and designed in 1955 for the Knoll company in New York.
Characteristic of this series is the reduction of the supporting structure, to a central support base.
Like a wine glass, to emphasize the unity of form in the table and chair. The chair has the smooth lines of modernism and was made of expermental materials in its time.
The chair series is now considered a classic of industrial design. The Tulip Chair has the appearance of a chair made in one piece.
The upper shell was made of plastic at the time and was provided with upholstered foam cushions that were fixed with Velcro and are removable. The Tulip Chair became famous not least through the TV series Star-Trek.
Saarinnen's original idea was no less relevant. He wanted to clear up clutter and confusion under the tables.
Saarinen therefore decided to make a unit out of an armchair again. This is where the ingenious idea of the trumpet-shaped single-leg chair - made of cast aluminum - with an attached plastic seat shell came from.
Eero Saarinen died on 01.09.60 in the USA at the age of only 51. After Saarinen's death, his employees Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo continued to run the office under his name until 1966. And ensured the completion of the work that had been started.