Eero Saarinen was born in Kirrkonummi in Finland but in 1923 the family emigrated to the USA. Six years later, at the age of 19, Saarinen studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris from where he continued with architectural studies at the Yale School of the Fine Arts in Connecticut. After graduating in 1934, Saarinen worked in his father Eliel Saarinen’s architectural studio and assisted him as a professor at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
In 1937 Eero Saarinen founded his own design studio. Beginning in 1940, Saarinen worked together with Charles Eames, creating a.o. the Organic Armchair, with which they won the first prize at the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In 1946 Saarinen began working for Knoll associates, designing well-known pieces such as the armchairs Grasshopper and Womb. Where the Grasshopper was made of laminated wood, the Womb was constructed of a fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin, originally developed for the hulls of Navy boats. Though they differed in materials, both armchairs were made to the changing living and seating habits.
In 1955 Saarinen designed the one-legged Tulip chair, made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic, which became one of the earliest examples of the futuristic look. In 1948, Saarinen won the Jefferson Memorial Competition, and two years later he founded his own architectural office. From 1953-55 Saarinen designed the chapel and auditorium for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Saarinen’s last big project was the TWA terminal at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Eero Saarinen passed away in 1961 at the age of 50. In 1963, his 192-meter-high Gateway Arch in Saint Louis was finished.
Eero Saarinen is represented at several museums around the world, including the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm.
