Knoll

Saarinen Low 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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Details

FEATURES

Eero Saarinen's pedestal table collection includes coffee, side and dining tables. The Knoll logo is located on the uderside 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

Tops are available in bevel-edged satin smooth laminate, lacquer, acrylic stone, marble and veneer.
Coated marble tops feature a transparent polyester coating to help eliminate use-associated stains.
 
Base is constructed from moulded, cast aluminium. White and black bases are protected with Rilsan.


FINISHES

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

Base finish is available in black and white.

Dimensions

SAARINEN TULIP LOW TABLES

Oval Low Tables
         57W x 38D x 51H cm
         107W x 70D x 38H cm

Round Low Tables
         51 diameter x 51H cm
         41 diameter x 51H cm
         91 diameter x 38H cm
         107 diameter x 38H cm
         51 diameter x 36H cm

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


Related Products


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.