ARCmotiv Modern Furniture

“When I approach an architectural problem,” Eero Saarinen once said, “I try to think out the real significance of it. What is its essence and how can the total structure capture that essence?”

Florence Knoll had put forth the challenge of creating “a chair she could curl up in.” The Finnish-born architect and interior designer responded with the 1948 Womb chair, part of his breakthrough seating collection.

With its steel rod base with a polished chrome finish and a frame upholstered in fabric over a fiberglass shell, the chair is designed to facilitate a relaxed sitting posture, providing emotional comfort and a sense of security-hence, the name “Womb,” now one of Knoll’s most recognizable designs.

• Steel rod with a polished chrome finish.

• Foam over molded, reinforced fiberglass shell on chair. Foam cushion over molded plywood platform on ottoman.
• Separate seat, back, and ottoman cushions constructed of polyester fiber with foam core.

• Stainless steel and nylon articulating glides.

• Medium womb chair and ottoman are 85% scale of standard womb chair.

The son of architect and Cranbrook Academy of Art director Eliel Saarinen and his wife, textile artist Loja, Eero Saarinen studied fine arts in Paris and architecture at Yale before working on furniture design with Norman Bel Geddes and practicing architecture with his father in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He collaborated on several projects, including a plywood leg splint for the U.S. Army, with his friend, Cranbrook alumnus Charles Eames. He opened his own practice in Ann Arbor in 1950. Among the many buildings for which he is known are Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri and the TWA Terminal at Kennedy International Airport in New York. He was the recipient of numerous awards and the subject of many exhibitions.