Saarinen Tulip Chair

TULIP CHAIR - UPHOLSTERED BY KNOLL

DESIGNED BY  |  Eero Saarinen, 1957

With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen resolved the "ugly, confusing, unrestful world" underneath tables and chairs. The collection is a defining accomplishment of modern design and a timeless addition to your home—a true classic. Pair Tulip Chairs with a Saarinen Table for the quintessential modern dining set, or mix and match for a statement in any room.

DIMENSION  |   W508 x D540 x H813 x SH470mm

DESIGN STORY  

With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen vowed to eliminate the "slum of legs" found under chairs and tables with four legs. He worked first with hundreds of drawings, which were followed by ¼ scale models. Since the compelling idea was to design chairs that looked good in a room, the model furniture was set up in a scaled model room the size of a doll house.

Drawing on his early training as a sculptor, Saarinen refined his design through full scale models, endlessly modifying the shape with clay. “What interests me is when and where to use these structural plastic shapes. Probing even more deeply into different possibilities one finds many different shapes are equally logical—some ugly, some exciting, some earthbound, some soaring. The choices really become a sculptor’s choice.”

Saarinen was assisted by Don Petitt, of Knoll’s Design Development Group, who introduced several ingenious methods of model making. Together with a Knoll design research team, they worked out the problems arising in production. Full scale models became furniture and, with family and friends acting as “guinea pigs,” the furniture was tested in the dining room and living room of the Saarinen house in Bloomfield Hills.

FRAME  |  Base constructed of vertical steel rods welded to circular horizontal and edge-framing rods. Tabletops: Glass: 3/8" thick; tempered glass with bevel on underside. Marble: .75" thick; transparent polyester coating with polished or satin finish; beveled edge. Wood: 1.06" thick; veneered medium density fiberboard with cathedral grain pattern; solid wood beveled edge. Wood tops are weighted for stability.

FINISH  |  Nickel and 18k Gold finishes are plated and polished. Metallic bronze finish is a paint. Tabletops: Glass, Marble and Wood.

DETAIL  |  Clear plastic extrusion ring on bottom of the base for a smooth bottom surface

Brand: Knoll

Designers: Eero Saarinen