Know Your Chairs: The Womb Chair

For this installation of Know Your Chairs, let's look at another classic of Mid-Century Modern design: the Womb Chair. Created in 1946 by Finnish-American designer and architect Eero Saarinen (previously here), around the same time he was working on designs for the gateway Arch in St. Louis, he was approached by Florence Knoll who challenged him to make a new kind of chair: "I told Eero I was sick and tired of the one-dimensional lounge chair...long and narrow...I want a chair I can sit in sideways or any other way I want to sit in it...a chair that was like a basket of pillows...something I could really curl up in."

Saarinen set about reinventing the concept of a chair so that it was not comfortable from all the cushioning or padding, but from the actual shape of the chair itself. Wrapping foam around a fiberglass shell and setting it all on a set of splayed steel legs, the organic, welcoming Womb Chair was born. Speaking to the chair's name, Saarinen said, "It was designed on the theory that a great number of people have never really felt comfortable and secure since they left the womb. The chair is an attempt to rectify this maladjustment in our civilization. There seemed to be a need for a large and really comfortable chair to take the place of the old overstuffed chair. Today, more than ever before, we need to relax."

This classic of modernist design is still available from the original manufacturer and license holder, Knoll.

Happy designing!

Know Your Chairs: The Tulip Chair by Eero Saarinen

Finnish American designer and architect Eero Saarinen is perhaps most famous for his design, which was created with structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel, of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, more commonly known as the St. Louis Arch. But within the sphere of interiors and furniture design, he created one of the most iconic mid-century furniture collections, The Tulip Group (also known as The Pedestal Collection). In 1955, Saarinen set out to design a collection of furniture that would eliminate, as he put it, "the slum of legs" found under ordinary four-legged pieces. His training as a sculptor and architect helped him develop a concept that was clean and spare. The chair is named for the tulip because of its similarity to the flower.

Made of cast aluminum and fiberglass, the design is sleek and utterly modern. In fact, the chair was adapted for use as seating (with a modified back) on the bridge of the Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" television series!

Although its origins are Mid-Century Modern, the chair can look good when paired with other, unexpected styles, as evidenced below (see my "Contrast brings interest" post)!

The chair is available from Knoll.

http://www.knoll.com/product/tulip-arm-chair

Happy designing!

History of Furniture: The Tulip Collection by Eero Saarinen

Finnish American designer and architect Eero Saarinen is perhaps most famous for his design, which was created with structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel, of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, more commonly known as the St. Louis Arch.

But within the sphere of interiors and furniture design, he created one of the most iconic mid-century furniture collections, The Tulip Group (also known as The Pedestal Collection). In 1955, Saarinen set out to design a collection of furniture that would eliminate, as he put it, "the slum of legs" found under ordinary four-legged pieces. His training as a sculptor and architect helped him develop a concept that was clean and spare. The chair is named for the tulip because of its similarity to the flower.

Made of cast aluminum and fiberglass, the design is sleek and utterly modern. In fact, the chair was adapted for use as seating (with a modified back) on the bridge of the Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" television series!

The collection also features a table (which comes in varying dimensions), a stool, and a side table.

Although its origins are Mid-Century Modern, the chair can look good when paired with other, unexpected styles (see my "Contrast brings interest" post)!

The chair is available from Knoll.
http://www.knoll.com/product/tulip-arm-chair

Happy designing!