kingy 2011 design industry: Mitzi Curtis- Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was one of 20th century's most cutting edge architects and industrial designers. Saarinen designed chairs such as the Tulip Chair and buildings like the Gateway Arch in Louis and the TWA Flight Centre at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was associated with the furniture company Knoll where he created furnishings which are still being produced and used today. He was the recipient for a multitude of awards and the subject of many exhibitions.

Having initially chosen sculpture at university and only completing 12 months of it, much of his works show some sort of a relationship between sculpture and architecture. Saarinen established a marvellous number of architectural structures which depended on colour, form and materials. He also displayed a marked dependence on innovative structure and sculptural forms.

Eero comfortably shifted back and forth amidst the International and Expressionism style, utilising a vocabulary of curves and cantilevered forms. The Tulip Chair and the Womb Chair (having been in production since their launch in 1955) are prime examples of the unique and organic feel portrayed in the curves. While shapes and curves were Saarinen's signature, in the architectural industry he oscillated from the angular international style of the John Deere World Headquarters.

Saarinen's furniture incorporated the natural textures of the time and later became one of the earliest designers to use fibreglass. "Always design a thing by considering its next larger context- a chair in a room, a room in a house and a house in an environment." - Eero Saarinen

Before Saarinen died (in 1961) he was elected a fellow of the AIA (American Institute of Architecture) and was also the winner of the AIA gold medal.