Tulip chair

The attempt to bring simplicity and order to the pedestals was always a hot topic of the research of the famous finnish architect. Until then, the pedestals were always been overlooked by designers, with the results of making them confusing and uncomfortable for the tangled legs of tables and chairs. The attempt of Saarinen culminated in the presentation of the Pedestal series for Knoll in 1958, in which the Tulip chair was the flagship of a collection that included the elegant table today re-named “Saarinen”.

Tulip chair is characterized by the goblet shape resting on a single central pedestal. Saarinen worked for a long time on this chair, searching for both the beauty of the lines and the compactness of the materials: its original intent was to make it entirely in plastic, but the techology of the time did not allow such a workmanship. It was so splitted into two pieces, with the fiberglass body rotating on the aluminum base. The lines, soft and enveloping, are molded according to the curves of the human body and almost give the idea of an organic sculpture. The unprecedented appearance of the Tulip chair immediately had a great impact and still preserves the charm of an object from the future.