Knoll

Saarinen Tulip High Tables

Designed by Eero Saarinen, 1957

Eero Saarinen vowed to address the "ugly, confusing, unrestful world" he observed underneath chairs and tables - the so-called "slum of legs." A five-year design investigation led him to the revolutionary Pedestal Collection, introduced in 1958.

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  • Tulip High Table, Designed by Eero Saarinen, 1957
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  • Tulip High Table, Designed by Eero Saarinen, 1957
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Details

FEATURES

Eero Saarinen's pedestal collection includes dining, coffee and side tables.
The Knoll logo is located on the underside of the base. A nameplate with the KnollStudio logo and the signature of Eero Saarinen is also located on the underside of the top or on the top support plate.

 
CONSTRUCTION

Top: Bevel-edged satin smooth laminate, lacquer, acrylic stone, marble or veneer.
Marble coated with transparent polyester to avoid useassociated stains.
Acrylic Stone is a solid surface material made of aluminium hydroxide, acrylic resin and natural pigments. The aluminium hydroxide gives the product a particular strength, the quality of the acrylic resin ensures cleanliness suitability for contact with food, water resistance and colour stability over time.
 
Base: Original Saarinen design. Heavy moulded cast aluminium. Black and white bases are protected with Rilsan.

 
FINISHES

Tables are available in white laminate, coated marble in a wide range of colours and veneer. Top in acrylic stone for outdoor use.

Base finish is available in black and white.

 

Dimensions

SAARINEN TULIP HIGH TABLES
Round Dining Tables
  w h seats
Small Round 91 cm 72 cm 3-4
Medium Round 107 cm 72 cm 4
Medium Round 120 cm 72 cm 4-5
Large Round 137 cm 72 cm 4-6
Large Round 152 cm 72 cm 6-8

Oval Dining Tables
  w d h
Saarinen Table - 198cm Oval 198 cm 121 cm 73 cm
Saarinen Table - 244cm Oval 244 cm 137 cm 73 cm

Height may vary of one cm whether the top is laminate, veneer or lacquer, marble and acrylic.


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Product Story image

With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen vowed to eliminate the "slum of legs" found under chairs and tables with four legs. He worked first with hundreds of drawings, which were followed by ¼ scale models. Since the compelling idea was to design chairs that looked good in a room, the model furniture was set up in a scaled model room the size of a doll house.

Drawing on his early training as a sculptor, Saarinen refined his design through full scale models, endlessly modifying the shape with clay. “What interests me is when and where to use these structural plastic shapes. Probing even more deeply into different possibilities one finds many different shapes are equally logical—some ugly, some exciting, some earthbound, some soaring. The choices really become a sculptor’s choice.”

Saarinen was assisted by Don Petitt, of Knoll’s Design Development Group, who introduced several ingenious methods of model making. Together with a Knoll design research team, they worked out the problems arising in production. Full scale models became furniture and, with family and friends acting as “guinea pigs,” the furniture was tested in the dining room and living room of the Saarinen house in Bloomfield Hills.

Designer image

The son of architect and Cranbrook Academy of Art director Eliel Saarinen and his wife, textile artist Loja, Eero Saarinen studied sculpture in Paris and architecture at Yale before working on furniture design with Norman Bel Geddes and practising architecture with his father. He collaborated on several projects in furniture design with his friend, Cranbrook alumnus Charles Eames, and opened his own practice in Bloomfield Hills in 1950. Among the many buildings for which he is known are the Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, 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.