Eero Saarinen wanted to organize things with his Tulip Collection. He wanted to put an end to the “ugly, disturbing, nervous world”, which exists under tables and chairs: The mixture of legs has always annoyed the Finnish architect and designer.
Saarinen Collection: Things that take their time…
Saarinen initially drawed hundreds of sketches, befor he created a model in a scale 1:4, including it in a kind of doll’s house, in order to realize how it would act inside of a room. Since Eero Saarinen already made some experiences creating sculptures, the Finnish-American design icon created his first models in original sizes on his own – out of clay.
Saarinen was supported by Don Petit, an employee of the development department of Knoll, Together they found a way of translating Saarinen’s visionary designs into mass production. Finally friends and relatives became testers in Saarinen’s house in Bloomfield Hills (Michigan).
…will finally succeed!
After loads of sketches and a long testing phase, finally the time came when the finished Saarinen Collection was born: Five years after testing and modelling, Saarinen finally presented his Collection out of one-leg furniture, named Pedestal Collection to the public.
In the beginning it was only the Tulip Chair, which was named after the flower, but the according table is also known as “Tulip Table” today, since the Collection out of one-leg furniture from Knoll is inseparable.
Eero Saarinen