Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen, born in 1910 in Kirkkonummi, was an American-naturalised Finnish architect and designer. He graduated from Yale and later specialised at the Cranbrook Institute of Architecture and Design. Here he met Charles Eames with whom he shared a passion for experimentation and research into new technologies in the use of materials and in particular he was interested in fibreglass moulding.

In his early works we find some aspects of the typical rationalism of Mies van der Rohe, but in less classicist forms and with a Scandinavian-derived romanticism.

Over time, his own language begins to take shape, in which the ability to synthesise different elements, such as sculpture, design, architecture, the present and the future, is extraordinary, each time with an absolutely unique, intuitive and personal interpretation.

In addition to being a great architect, Saarinen was also a great designer who designed many products that are still current and appreciated all over the world. In 1940, a chair designed together with Charles Eames won the first prize of the competition organised by the MoMa in New York: it is the Organic Chair, a chair model with a sculptural and extremely innovative shape for those years, both from an aesthetic point of view and for the processing techniques that required its production. So innovative as to only be put into production 10 years later by Vitra. In addition to his work with Eames, it was important for Saarinen's career to have known Florence Knoll during his years at Cranbrook School, with which he then designed some of the masterpieces that made Knoll's history.

Among the most representative works that have left their mark on the international scene both for their design modernity and for the architect's innovative vision are, for example, the Gateway to the West designed in 1947, the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan, the TWA terminal at JFK airport in New York and so on.