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Eero Saarinen
A pioneer in the use of foam padding in furniture, Eero Saarinen (1910 -1961) was the great American business architect of the 50s. Finnish but American by adoption, he graduated from Yale in 1934, and continued his training at the Cranbrook Institute of Architecture and Design, where he became passionate about sculpture. The love for this discipline is reflected in the Space Age forms of its buildings, which found their maximum expression in masterpieces such as the TWA terminal at New York's JFK airport. His first critical recognition, in 1940, came to him for a piece of furniture: with Charles Eames, Saarinen won the first prize in the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition, thanks to a chair designed together, the Tulip. This chair would later give its name to the iconic series of white reinforced fiberglass chairs, armchairs and dining tables designed by Saarinen and produced by Knoll in the 50s. Elegance, combined with efficiency, made these furnishings one of the milestones of engineering and construction technology of the time, simply because they were the achievement of the maximum result through the minimum of means. Known for his perfectionism, Saarinen was also the discoverer of some important designers with whom he established durable collaborations, such as Charles Eames and Robert Venturi.
