mid-century modern

MID-CENTURYMODERNMODERN

A COLLECTION OF FURNITURE CLASSICS FROM THE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GREATEST DESIGNERS OF THE OF THE MID-CENTURY ERABY JIMMY MORRISSEY

CHARLES AND RAY EAMES 4EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR AND OTTOMAN 6

EAMES ALUMINUM GROUP CHAIRS 8EAMES MOLDED PLYWOOD CHAIR 10

EAMES MOLDED PLASTIC ARMCHAIR 12EAMES ELLIPTICAL TABLE 14

ARNE JACOBSEN 16EGG CHAIR 18

EERO AARNIO 20BALL CHAIR 22

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE 24BARCELONA CHAIR 26

FLORENCE KNOLL 28FLORENCE KNOLL LOUNGE COLLECTION 30

32 EERO SAARINEN34 TULIP COLLECTION36 WOMB LOUNGE CHAIR AND OTTOMAN38 EXECUTIVE CHAIR

40 GEORGE NELSON42 NELSON COCONUT CHAIR44 NELSON MARSHMALLOW SOFA

46 ISAMU NOGUCHI48 NOGUCHI TABLE

50 LE CORBUSIER52 LC2 COLLECTION

54 VERNER PANTON56 PANTON CHAIR

3

CHARLES AND RAY EAMES

With a grand sense of adventure, Charles and

Ray Eames turned their curiosity and boundless

enthusiasm into creations that established them

as a truly great husband-and-wife design team. Their

unique synergy led to a whole new look in furniture.

Lean and modern. Playful and functional. Sleek,

sophisticated, and beautifully simple. That was and

is the “Eames look.” That look and their relationship

with Herman Miller started with molded plywood

chairs in the late 1940s and includes the world-

renowned Eames lounge chair, now in the permanent

collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

They loved their work, which was a combination of

art and science, design and architecture, process

and product, style and function. “The details are

not details,” said Charles. “They make the product.”

A problem-solver who encouraged experimentation

among his staff, Charles once said his dream was

“to have people working on useless projects. These

have the germ of new concepts.” Their own concepts

evolved over time, not overnight. As Charles noted

about the development of the Molded Plywood

Chairs, “Yes, it was a flash of inspiration,” he said,

“a kind of 30-year flash.” With these two, one thing

always seemed to lead to another. Their revolutionary

work in molded plywood led to their breakthrough

work in molded fiberglass seating. A magazine

contest led to their highly innovative “Case Study”

house. Their love of photography led to film making,

including a huge seven-screen presentation at the

Moscow World’s Fair in 1959, in a dome designed

by their friend and colleague, Buckminster Fuller.

Graphic design led to showroom design, toy

collecting to toy inventing. And a wooden plank

contraption, rigged up by their friend, director

Billy Wilder for taking naps, led to their acclaimed

chaise design. A design critic once said that this

extraordinary couple “just wanted to make the world

a better place.” That they did. They also made it a

lot more interesting.

CHARLES AND RAY ACHIEVED THEIR MONUMENTAL SUCCESS BY APPROACHING EACH PROJECT

THE SAME WAY:DOES IT INTEREST AND INTRIGUE US?CAN WE MAKE IT BETTER?WILL WE HAVE “SERIOUS FUN” DOING IT?

4 5

6

EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR AND OTTOMANHERMAN MILLER • 1956

Who doesn’t recognize the Eames lounge chair and

ottoman? It lives in museums like MoMA in New York

and the Art Institute of Chicago, in stylish interiors

everywhere, and as a tattoo on a devotee’s arm.

It has been the subject of documentary films and

books. It even has its own fan website. Calling it

va classic is an understatement. It’s the quintessential

example of mid-century design—elegant and

profoundly comfortable too.

The first Eames lounge chair and ottoman was

made as a gift for Billy Wilder, the director of

“Some Like It Hot,” “Irma La Douce,” and “Sunset

Blvd.” The heritage of the chair goes back to the

molded plywood chairs pioneered by the Eameses

in the 1940s. Charles Eames said his goal for

the chair was that it be “a special refuge from the

strains of modern living.” The first lounge chair and

ottoman produced by Herman Miller, in 1956, made

its public debut on Arlene Francis’s Home show, a

predecessor of the Today show. Commenting on the

unique design, Charles Eames told Francis, “We’ve

never designed for a fashion, and the Herman Miller

furniture company has never, ever requested that we

do pieces for a market.” During the interview, a short

film was shown in which a man--Charles described

him as “a typical Herman Miller employee”--

assembled and disassembled the lounge chair,

showing how simple the design was.

Francis ended the segment by quoting something

she said she had read about Charles and Ray:

“The Eameses’ desire to move freely in a world of

enormous and unlimited possibilities is combined with

a very accurate sense of discrimination and taste. It’s

an ability to select among the unlimited possibilities

and return considerable richness to the world.”

Starting at $3,899 • hermanmiller.com

CHARLES AND RAY EAMES 7


EAMES ALUMINUM GROUP CHAIRSHERMAN MILLER • 1958

Among the buildings Eero Saarinen designed in

Columbus was J. Irwin Miller’s home. Saarinen

wanted a high-quality seating product for outdoor

use at the home and asked Charles and Ray

Eames to develop one. The Eameses accepted the

challenge. Known for their honest use of materials,

the Eameses constructed their chairs with cast

aluminum and a seat frame that would support a

stretched synthetic mesh. The seat-back suspension

they developed was a major technical achievement

and represented a departure from the concept of the

chair as a solid shell.

The Aluminum Group chairs were made for indoor

use in 1958, and they have been in continuous

production ever since. The original mesh was

discontinued shortly after its introduction in favor

of fabric and leather, ribbed at 1 7/8-inch intervals

for a clean, refined appearance. In 1969, the

Eameses extended the original design by adding

plush, individually upholstered cushions. They

named these the Soft Pad chairs. The chairs’ simple

lines, innovative use of materials, and suspension

comfort have kept the Aluminum Group and Soft

Pad chairs among the most popular seating choices

for offices and homes.

It’s a trick only Charles and Ray Eames could pull

off: Chairs designed in 1958 as outdoor seating

still look classic and contemporary in 21st century

interiors. The chair’s clean, curvilinear lines

enhance any décor and work well in your home

office, dining area, and living room. Available in

fabric or leather, these Eames chairs are equipped

with an innovative suspension that creates a firm,

flexible “sitting pocket.” It conforms subtly to your

body’s shape and maintains your comfort. With an

aluminum frame and base, the chair is strong, yet

lightweight and easy to move. Earth-friendly, too:

made of 67 percent recycled materials and 90

percent recyclable at the end of its useful life.


8 9


EAMES MOLDED PLYWOOD CHAIRHERMAN MILLER • 1946

Designers Charles and Ray Eames established their

long and legendary relationship with Herman Miller

in 1946 with their boldly original molded plywood

chairs. The aesthetic integrity, enduring charm, and

comfort of the chairs earned them recognition from

Time magazine as The Best Design of the 20th

Century. Time called the design “something elegant,

light and comfortable. Much copied but never

bettered.” (A locomotive came in second.)

The story behind the Eames molded plywood chairs

makes clear just how big a role imagination and

serendipity play in design. In the early 1940s, when

Charles Eames was working on MGM set designs,

he and his wife, Ray, were experimenting with

wood-molding techniques that would have profound

effects on the design world. Their discoveries led to

a commission from the US Navy to develop plywood

splints, stretchers, and glider shells, molded under

heat and pressure, that were used successfully in

World War II.

When the war was over, Charles and Ray applied

the technology they had created to making

affordable, high-quality chairs that could be mass-

produced using dimensionally shaped surfaces

instead of cushioned upholstery. When they found

that plywood did not withstand the stresses that

occurred where the chair seat and back met, they

abandoned their original single-shell idea in favor

of a chair that had separate molded-plywood panels

for the back and seat. The process eliminated the

extraneous wood needed to connect the seat with

the back, which reduced the weight and visual

profile of the chair and established a basis for

modern furniture design. Sculpting a seat and back

to fit the contours of the human body, they designed

a truly comfortable chair that’s suitable

for businesses and homes.

Starting at $679 • hermanmiller.com

10 11


EAMES MOLDED PLASTIC ARMCHAIRHERMAN MILLER • 1948

Several models of the molded plastic chairs, including

the armchair, were designed as entries in a contest

sponsored by New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

The “International Competition for Low-cost Furniture

Design” was intended to spur the development of

well-designed, low-cost furnishings for the post-war

housing boom. The introduction to the competition’s

catalog put it this way:

“To serve the needs of the vast majority of

people we must have furniture that is adaptable

to small apartments and houses, furniture that

is well-designed yet moderate in price, that is

comfortable but not bulky, and that can be easily

moved, stored, and cared for; in other words,

mass produced furniture that is planned and

executed to meet the needs of modern living.”

Following its introduction at the MoMA exhibit,

the armchair was chosen as the first chair to go

into production because mass producing it presented

the most extensive tooling challenge. Development

took about three years, and our initial 1950

production run was 2,000. These chairs had shells

made from fiberglass in polyester resin. Herman Miller

changed the composition to a more environmentally

responsible material—100 percent recyclable

polypropylene, dyed throughout so the colors are

integral and remain vibrant even after many years.

The armchair was first offered with the rocker

base and two others that are no longer in production.

The “Eiffel Tower” base came later, after a lot of

experimentation with steel rod construction and

stability spacers. Over the years, Herman Miller

has worked at finding ways to improve the chair

bases, to make them more stable and durable and

able to withstand hard use over time.


12 13


EAMES ELLIPTICAL TABLEHERMAN MILLER • 1951

In 1951, having perfected a manufacturing technique for

welding wire-rod bases, Charles and Ray Eames decided

to bridge two bases with a dramatically shaped top large

enough to hold a variety of items and fit comfortably

with a long sofa or several chairs. They considered

many shapes. In the end, did they take their inspiration

from the surfboards they doubtless saw frequently, given

the commanding view of the Pacific Ocean from their

California home and studio? They never said, but people

often refer to this piece as the “surfboard table.” Whatever

you call it, the elliptical table makes it clear that good

design never goes out of style.

The elliptical table’s 89 inches of surface length provide

an expansive arc that lets you spread out or display

items--a lot or a few. The tabletop consists of a seven-ply

Baltic birch core sandwiched between high-pressure black

or white laminate. The edge is beveled on a 20-degree

angle to give the top added emphasis. With its long, low

profile, the Eames elliptical table sits dramatically in front

of a long sofa or in the middle of a chair grouping. It sets

a striking stage for displaying mid-century fat lava vases,

fresh flowers, magazines, or a special book in a living

room, waiting room, reception area, or executive lounge.

Finished in either black or white laminate, the table makes

a strong and beautiful statement wherever it is.


14 15

Arne Jacobsen bought a plywood chair designed

by Charles Eames and installed it in his own

studio, where it inspired one of the most

commercially successful chair models in design

history. The three-legged Ant chair (1951) sold in

millions and is considered a classic today. It consists

of two simple elements: tubular steel legs and a

springy seat and back formed out of a continuous

piece of plywood in a range of vivid colors.

Jacobsen began training as a mason before studying

at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen

where he won a silver medal for a chair that was then

exhibited at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des

Art Decoratifs in Paris. Influenced by Le Corbusier,

Gunnar Asplund and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,

Jacobsen embraced a functionalist approach from the

outset. He was among the first to introduce modernist

ideas to Denmark and create industrial furniture that

built upon on its craft-based design heritage.

First among Jacobsen’s important architectural

commissions was the Bellavista housing project,

Copenhagen (1930-1934). Best known and most

fully integrated works, are the SAS Air Terminal and

the Royal Hotel Copenhagen for which Jacobsen

designed every detail from sculptural furnishings such

as his elegant Swan and Egg chairs (1957-1958) to

textiles, lighting, ashtrays and cutlery.

During the 1960’s, Jacobsen’s most important work

was a unified architectural and interior design scheme

for St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, which, like his

earlier work for the Royal Hotel, involved the design

of site-specific furniture. Jacobsen’s work remains

appealing and fresh today, combining free-form

sculptural shapes with the traditional attributes of

Scandinavian design, material and structural integrity.

A PASTRY USUALLY TASTES BETTER

IF IT LOOKS NICEAS LONG AS IT LOOKS NICEIN FACT-THERE IS NOTHING I MIND

ARNE JACOBSEN

16 17

ARNE JACOBSEN

EGG CHAIRFRTIZ HANSEN • 1958

Arne Jacobsen designed the Egg for the lobby and

reception areas in the Royal Hotel, in Copenhagen. The

commission to design every element of the hotel building

as well as the furniture was Jacobsen’s grand opportunity

to put his theories of integrated design and architecture

into practice. The Egg is one of the triumphs of Jacobsen’s

total design - a sculptural contrast to the building’s almost

exclusively vertical and horizontal surfaces. The Egg sprang

from a new technique, which Jacobsen was the first to use;

a strong foam inner shell underneath the upholstery. Like a

sculptor, Jacobsen strove to find the shell’s perfect shape

in clay at home in his own garage. Because of the unique

shape, the Egg guarantees a bit of privacy in otherwise

public spaces and the Egg – with or without footstool – is

ideal for lounge and waiting areas as well as the home.

The Egg is available in a wide variety of fabric upholstery

as well as leather, always combined with a star shaped

base in satin polished aluminium.

Starting at $5,934 • fritzhansen.com

18 19

The Finnish designer Eero Aarnio is regarded as a

pioneer in using plastic materials. Between 1954

and 1957 Eero Aarnio studied at the Institute of

Industrial Arts in Helsinki. In 1962 Eero Aarnio set

up his own studio there. He worked as an interior

decorator, industrial designer, graphic designer and

photographer. For his early furniture designs, Eero

Aarnio mainly used natural materials, for instance,

for the basket chair “Jattujakkare”. In the 1960s

Eero Aarnio turned increasingly to the new plastic

materials, especially fiber glass.

In 1965, Eero Aarnio designed the legendary “Ball

Chair” (or “Globe Chair”), a globular seat made from

plastic that was reinforced with glass-fibers. The seat

is based on a narrow plinth with a broad bottom;

there is a round opening in the front. The inner part

of the globe is padded and soft and serves as a

seat. Sitting inside, the noises from outside seem to

be quite absorbed and far away, whilst sound from

the inside is actually amplified. This cocoon feeling

is even stronger in the 1968 “Bubble Chair”; its

curved seat consists of transparent perspex and is

dangling from the ceiling. Another 1968 Eero Aarnio

chair is “Plastil”, for which Eero Aarnio received the

American Industrial Design Award. Even though Eero

Aarnio’s design objects coincide with the era of Pop

design, he repudiated the throwaway ethic of the

1960s and 1970s. Far from it: Eero Aarnio explored

the possibilities of the new material plastic while

remaining true to the Scandinavian tradition of quality

and durability.

A ROOM

A ROOMWITHIN

EERO AARNIO

20 21

EERO AARNIO

BALL CHAIRADELTA • 1965

The idea of the chair was very obvious. We had moved to our

first home and I had started my free-lance career in 1962. We

had a home but no proper big chair, so I decided to make one,

but some way a really new one. After some drawing I noticed

that the shape of the chair had become so simple that it was

merely a ball. I pinned the full scale drawing on the wall and

sat in the chair to see how my head would move when sitting

inside it. Being the taller one of us, I sat in the chair and my wife

drew the course of my head on the wall. This is how I determined

the height of the chair. Since I aimed at a ball shape, the other

lines were easy to draw, just remembering that the chair would

have to fit through a doorway. After this I made the first prototype

myself using an inside mould, which has been made using the

same principle as a glider fuselage or wing. I covered the

plywood body mould with wet paper and laminated the surface

with fiberglass, rubbed down the outside, removed the mould

from inside, had it upholstered and added the leg. In the end

I installed the red telephone on the inside wall of the chair. The

naming part of the chair was easy, the Ball Chair was born.

- Eero Aarnio

Starting at $6,860 • eero-aarnio.com

“

“

22 23

The United States has a love-hate relationship with

Mies van der Rohe. Some say that he stripped

architecture of all humanity, creating cold, sterile

and unlivable environments. Others praise his work,

saying he created architecture in its most pure form.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began his career in his

family stone-carving business in Germany. He never

received any formal architectural training, but when

he was a teenager he worked as a draftsman for

several architects. Moving to Berlin, he found work

vin the offices of architect and furniture designer

Bruno Paul and industrial architect Peter Behrens.

Early in his life, Mies van der Rohe began

experimenting with steel frames and glass walls.

He was director of the Bauhaus School of Design

from 1930 until it disbanded in 1933. He moved

to the United States in 1937 and for twenty years

(1938-1958) he was Director of Architecture at the

Illinois Institute of Technology. Mies van der Rohe

taught his taught students at IIT to build first with

wood, then stone, and then brick before progressing

to concrete and steel. He believed that architects

must completely understand their materials before

they can design.

Mies van der Rohe was not the first architect to

practice simplicity in design, but he carried the

ideals of rationalism and minimalism to new levels.

His glass-walled Farnsworth House near Chicago

stirred controversy and legal battles. His bronze and

glass Seagram Building in New York City (designed

in collaboration with Philip Johnson) is considered

America’s first glass skyscraper. And, his philosophy

that “less is more” became a guiding principle for

architects in the mid-twentieth century. Skyscrapers

around the world are modeled after designs by

Mies van der Rohe.

A CHAIRIS A VERY DIFFICULT OBJECT

A SKYSCRAPERIS ALMOST EASIERTHAT IS WHYCHIPPENDALE IS FAMOUS

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

24 25

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

BARCELONA CHAIRKNOLL • 1929

The Barcelona chair was exclusively designed for

the German Pavilion, that country’s entry for the

Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, which was

hosted by Barcelona, Spain. The design resulted

from collaboration between the famous Bauhaus

architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his longtime

partner and companion, architect and designer Lilly

Reich, whose contributions have only recently been

acknowledged. An icon of modernism, the chair’s

design was inspired by the campaign and folding

chairs of ancient times.

The Barcelona Chair frame was initially designed to

be bolted together, but was redesigned in 1950 using

stainless steel, which allowed the frame to be formed

by a seamless piece of metal, giving it a smoother

appearance. Bovine leather replaced the ivory-colored

pigskin which was used for the original pieces.

The functional design and elements of it that were

patented by Mies in Germany, Spain and the United

States in the 1930s have since expired.

The Barcelona chair was manufactured in the US

and Europe in limited production from the 1930s to

the 1950s. In 1953, six years after Reich’s death,

van der Rohe ceded his rights and his name on the

design to Knoll, knowing that his design patents were

expired. This collaboration then renewed popularity

in the design. Knoll claims to be the current licensed

manufacturer and holder of all trademark rights to

the design. In 1965, Knoll purchased the trademark

rights to the Barcelona word from Drexel. In 2004,

Knoll received trade dress rights to the design from

the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Despite these

trademarks, a large replica market continues. Gordon

International New York has continued to manufacture

the designs since the 1970s, even after a court

battle against Knoll in 2005. In 2008, another court

battle erupted between Knoll and Alphaville Design

California; the outcome is pending Summary Judgment

in Federal District court.

Starting at $4,523 • knoll.com

26 27

I AMNOTA DECORATOR

FLORENCE KNOLL

There aren’t many teenagers who could design

a house, complete in every architectural

detail, but Florence Knoll did – aged just 14.

Trained as an architect and designer, Knoll created

practical, yet beautiful furniture and interiors that

transformed the way living and work spaces are

now perceived. Knoll believed in total, holistic

design, and considered all aspects of a space when

creating interiors: architecture, interior design and

furniture design. Her ‘total’ approach led Knoll to

create clear, uncluttered corporate spaces in the

1950s that revolutionised the way workplaces were

arranged. To these spaces she added functional,

minimalist furniture, such as the Florence Knoll Sofa,

which combined usability, space-saving functionality,

comfort and style. Knoll’s design genius was spotted

early in life, when as an attendee of Kingswood

School – part of the famous Cranbrook Academy

of Art – she became the protégé of school president

and Finnish Architect, Eliel Saarinen. Under his

tutelage, Florence learned the holistic approach

to design that would become the backbone of her

space and furniture creations. Florence met furniture

manufacturer, Hans Knoll, in 1943 and persuaded

him to change the way he created furniture –

introducing interior design to his operations. Within

three years, Florence had founded the now world-

famous Knoll Planning Unit and become Hans Knoll’s

wife and full business partner. When Hans Knoll died

in 1955, Florence went on to run the company – an

unprecedented move for a woman in the 1950s.

Her ability to spot talent meant that designers such

as Eero Saarinen created key furniture pieces for the

company under her leadership.

Knoll is also credited with bringing exceptionally

high standards to her furniture designs, and is

thought to have boosted furniture industry standards

as a whole. Her fastidious attention to detail earned

her a reputation for perfectionism: a quality evident

in her meticulously finished Florence Knoll Sofa, and

other furniture creations.

28 29

FLORENCE KNOLL

FLORENCE KNOLL LOUNGE COLLECTIONKNOLL • 1954

As a pioneer of the Knoll Planning Unit, Florence

Knoll created what she modestly referred to as

the “fill-in pieces that no one else wants to do.”

She refers to her own line of lounge seating as

the equivalent of “meat and potatoes,” asserting,

“I needed the piece of furniture for a job and it

wasn’t there, so I designed it.” Like so many of

her groundbreaking designs that set the industry’s

gold standard, the 1954 Lounge collection has

made it into the pantheon of modern classics.

Consistent with all of Knoll’s designs, the Lounge

collection has a spare, angular profile that

reflects the objective perfectionism of modern

design in the early 1960s. Versatile collection

includes lounge chair, settee, sofa, two-seater

bench and three-seater bench.


30 31

Eero Saarinen was born in Finland in 1910 and

emigrated to the USA with his family when he

was 13 years old. His mother Loja was a sculptor

and textile designer, while his father Eliel was a

highly regarded architect who became one of the

principle lecturers at the Cranbrook Academy of Art

in Michigan. Saarinen studied sculpture in Paris then

architecture at Yale University, completing his degree

in 1934 and joining his father’s architecture practice

soon after. He went on to design such architectural

icons as the St Louis Gateway Arch in Missouri, the

TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International

Airport and the CBS Building in New York.

Saarinen formed a friendship with Charles Eames

while Eames was lecturing at Cranbrook. By

1940 they had collaborated on their first joint

design, which won two first prizes at the New

York Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Organic Design in

Home Furnishings’ competition. The pair went on

to create two Case Study houses together, one

of which was for the founder of the Case Study

program and publisher of avante-garde magazine

Arts & Architecture, John Entenza. While Saarinen’s

furniture output was relatively small, several of his

designs, such as the Womb and Tulip chairs, have

been in constant production since their launch. The

Tulip collection (1955) was a unique expression of

an architectural mind. Of the reduction of chair and

table legs to a single central pedestal, Saarinen said,

“I wanted to clear up the slum of legs.”

I WANTED TOCLEAR UP THESLUM OF

LEGS

EERO SAARINEN

32 33

EERO SAARINEN

TULIP COLLECTIONKNOLL • 1956

The Tulip Chair and Stool is Saarinen’s purist

approach to architecture and interior design. He

sought the essential idea and reduced it to the

most effective structural solution within an overall

unity of design. To that end, Saarinen designed the

1956 Tulip chair in terms of its setting, rather than

a particular shape. “In any design problem, one

should seek the solution in terms of the next largest

thing,” he said. “If the problem is a chair, then its

solution must be found in the way it relates to the

room....” in Tulip, a single-legged chair made from

fiberglass-reinforced resin, Saarinen realized his

ideal of formal unity: “every significant piece of

furniture from the past has a holistic structure.”

He was an essentialist, breaking a chair or a

piece of furniture down to its most basic form and

function, and marrying that to an equally pure

design aesthetic. The Tulip Chair is an essential

art object, a lovely chair, and a piece of furniture

design history. The entire chair was of a piece:

No detachable parts, no legs, no separation

between component parts. It was unified. Winner

of the 1969 Museum of Modern art award, the

chair is available with or without arms, and with

complementary stools and tables.


34 35

EERO SAARINEN

WOMB LOUNGE CHAIR AND OTTOMANKNOLL • 1948

“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 as well as one of the most

well-known pieces of 20th century design. Designed for

comfort, there is no chair more soothing than the Saarinen

Womb Chair. In addition to its impeccable comfort, the

Saarinen Womb Chair’s design is impossible to ignore.

It’s testament to both Saarinen’s skill and challenging of

rules, the result of which is this true icon of design.


36 37

EERO SAARINEN

EXECUTIVE CHAIRKNOLL • 1946

The design of Eero Saarinen’s Executive Side

Chair (1946) began more than a decade earlier,

when he and Charles Eames submitted several

designs to the Organic Design in Home Furnishings

competition at the MoMA. The pair, who’d

been friends and collaborators since meeting at

Cranbrook Academy of Art, won first prize. These

fluid, sculptural shapes influenced the future work

of both men; for Saarinen, most notably in his

Womb, Tulip and Executive chairs.

The Executive was originally made of fiberglass

but was later updated in polyurethane to take

advantage of the technical advances in plastics.

The feel of this classic seat, however, remains

unchanged. The molded shell flexes slightly

with the sitter and the contoured plywood

seat supported by metal or wood legs. Unlike

Saarinen’s furniture, which was consistently

sculptural in form, these fluid lines didn’t appear

in his architecture until the 1950s. When looking

at the dome-shaped glass wall of the Kresge

Auditorium at MIT, it’s not a big leap to see the

same shape in the back of his Executive Chair.

This chair is Greenguard Indoor Air Quality

Certified; for its use of low-emitting products.

Manufactured by Knoll according to the original

and exacting specifications of the designer.

Starting at $840 • knoll.com

38 39

George Nelson studied Architecture at Yale,

where he graduated in 1928. He continued his

studies and received a bachelor degree in fine

arts in 1931. A year later while preparing for the

Paris Prize competition he won the Rome prize. With

Eliot Noyes, Charles Eames and Walter B. Ford he

was part of a generation of architects that found too

few projects and turned successfully toward product,

graphic and interior design. A few years later he

returned to the U.S.A. to devote himself to writing.

Through his writing in “Pencil Points” he introduced

Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier

and Gio Ponti to North America. At “Architectural

Forum” he was first associate editor (1935- 1943)

and later consultant editor (1944-1949).

By 1940 he had drawn popular attention with several

innovative concepts. In his post-war book: Tomorrow’s

House, for instance he introduced the concept of the

”family room”. One of those innovative concepts, the

“storagewall” attracted the attention of D.J. De Pree,

Herman Miller’s president. In 1945 De Pree asked

him to become Herman Miller’s design director, an

appointment that became the start of a long series

of successful collaborations with Ray and Charles

Eames, Harry Bertoia, Richard Schultz, Donald

Knorr and Isamu Noguchi. He set new standards

for the involvement of design in all the activities of

the company, and in doing so he pioneered the

practice of corporate image management, graphic

programs and signage. His catalogue design and

exhibition designs for Herman Miller close a long list

of involvements designed to make design to the most

important driving force in the company. From his start

in the mid-forties to the mid-eighties his office worked

for and with the best of his times. He was without

any doubt the most articulate and one of the most

eloquent voices on design and architecture in the

U.S.A. of the 20th century.GOOD DESIGNIS TIMELESS

GEORGE NELSON

40 41

NELSON COCONUT CHAIRHERMAN MILLER • 1955

What kind of person thinks up a chair that looks

like a chunk of coconut? How about the person

who came up with the Marshmallow sofa. The

person who said, “Total design is nothing more

or less than a process of relating everything to

everything.” Who brought modernism to American

furniture. George Nelson. 1950s. Call it what you

will—classic, icon, slice of hard-shelled tropical

fruit. Half a century later, it’s as wonderful to look

at—and sit in—as ever.

Introduced in 1955, the coconut chair is one

artifact of the burst of creativity issuing from

George Nelson’s design studio and changing

the look and feel of American furniture. Once

our founder, D.J. De Pree, convinced Nelson to

become his director of design, a warm personal

and professional relationship between the two

led to a stunning range of products—including

the Marshmallow sofa and the first L-shaped desk,

a precursor to today’s workstation. And this chair.

Because of its unique, striking design, the

Coconut chair is part of the permanent collection

in museums worldwide. Because of the comfort

Nelson provided in his design, it’s also part of

the “permanent collection” in homes and offices.

The chair, as we produce it today, is true to

Nelson’s original design, materials, and detailing.

A modern classic, plain and simple.

Starting at $3.999 • hermanmiller.com

GEORGE NELSON42 43

NELSON MARSHMALLOW SOFAHERMAN MILLER • 1956

This is a sofa to brighten a room, to be happy

and relax on. You look at its 18 10-inch

“marshmallow” cushions and you can’t help but

smile. It’s been that way since it began turning

heads in 1956, when the Nelson Marshmallow

sofa was described in our catalog this way:

“Despite its astonishing appearance, this piece

is very comfortable.”

George Nelson and Irving Harper, a young

designer working in Nelson’s design firm, were

approached by an inventor who had created an

injection plastic disc that he insisted could be

produced inexpensively and would be durable.

The designers took a look and arranged 18

of them on a steel frame - the origin of the

Marshmallow sofa. The inventor’s cushions

turned out to be impractical, but Nelson and

Harper were intrigued by the design they had

created so casually, and Herman Miller decided

to manufacture the sofa. By joining separate

elements and making them appear to float on

air, Nelson and Harper achieved this sofa’s

unique appearance and eye-catching appeal,

which led the way into the pop art style of the

1960s. And by the way, that young designer

- Irving Harper - also designed the famous

Herman Miller company logo.

Starting at $3.099 • hermanmiller.com

GEORGE NELSON44 45

How does one sculpt space? How do objects give

form to the surrounding emptiness? This puzzle,

posed both by Europeans like Giacometti and

Brancusi and the Zen artists of Japan, creates a theme

that runs through the work of Isamu Noguchi. It is not

one he attempted to solve, but like the Zen master,

posed the question in different ways.

One of the great sculptors of the 20th century,

Noguchi created “lived spaces” for the theater,

interiors gardens and playgrounds. He also sought

to bring sculptural qualities to the many objects

he designed for common use. As a young man,

Noguchi studied medicine at Columbia University, but

abandoned medicine to pursue painting and sculpture

and in 1927, a Guggenheim fellowship took him to

Europe. In Paris, he had the great good fortune to

be apprenticed in the studio of Constantin Brancusi,

whose investigations of form and space recalled the

art and architecture Noguchi knew from childhood

years spent in Japan.

Back in America, Noguchi met choreographer

Martha Graham and began a long friendship with

Buckminster Fuller. Graham and Fuller provided

Noguchi with inspiration, ideas and opportunities

to create new forms like the sets he designed for

Graham’s dance programmes. In 1939, he designed

a free-form dining table for the president of the

Museum of Modern Art, New York, A. Congers

Goodyear. The table’s seductive organic form

presaged the coffee table Noguchi would design

for Herman Miller in 1944 and the wide range of

products that he would design all during the 1940’s,

furniture informed by the biomorphic imagery of his

sculpture.From his sculpture to his garden design to

the Akari lamps designed in the 1950’s, Noguchi’s

work sought always to resolve life and aesthetic

practice, the art object and the utensil, just as he

sought to reveal the essential unity of form and space.

ART SHOULD BECOME

WITH ITS SURROUNDINGSAS ONE

ISAMU NOGUCHI

46 47

NOGUCHI TABLEHERMAN MILLER • 1944

A legendary piece of furniture gives rise to legends

about its inception, and the Noguchi table is a perfect

example. Where did the design begin? We know that

Noguchi was an inveterate scrounger. He scavenged

his New York neighborhood for all kinds of materials

he could use for his sculptures and other projects.

George Nelson, our design director at the time, said

he was visiting Noguchi’s studio while Noguchi was

creating a table for his sister; the prototype he was

working on was made from materials he had picked

up in alleys and on the street.

Isamu Noguchi says in his autobiography that the

design began after another designer “borrowed” a

Noguchi design for a three-legged table, then offered

it for sale. That designer answered Noguchi’s protests

by saying, “Anybody can make a three-legged table.”

So Noguchi set out to design a different three-legged

table. One that not just anybody could make.

Were the tables in these two stories one and the

same? Probably. Because George Nelson asked

Noguchi to allow him to use the design he saw that

day to illustrate an article called “How to Make a

Table.” And he also wanted Herman Miller to produce

it. From the time it first appeared on the market as

a Herman Miller table in 1948, it became perhaps

Noguchi’s most recognized work.

Noguchi was, first and foremost, a sculptor who

believed his task was to shape and bring order

to space. He also believed that art should become

as one with its surroundings. In a long lifetime of

creative work, Noguchi designed gardens and

plazas, fountains and murals, furniture and paper

lamps, and stage sets for modern dance pioneer

Martha Graham. But he said that of all the furniture

designs he created, the table that bears his name

represented his only true success.


ISAMU NOGUCH48 49

Few would protest that Le Corbusier, Charles-

Edouard Jeanneret, is one of the most influential

architects of the 20th century. He articulated

provocative ideas, created revolutionary designs and

demonstrated a strong, if utopian, sense of purpose to

meet the needs of a democratic society dominated by

the machine.

Le Corbusier was encouraged by a teacher to take up

architecture and built his first house at the age of 18

for a member of his school’s teaching staff. In 1908,

he went to Paris and began to practice with Auguste

Pierret, an architect known for his pioneering use of

concrete and reinforced steel. Moving to Berlin, Le

Corbusier worked with Peter Behrens, who taught

him about industrial processes and machine design.

In 1917, he returned to Paris where he met post-

cubist Amedee Ozenfant and developed Purism, a

new concept of painting. In 1920, still in Paris, he

adopted the pseudonym, Le Corbusier.

Paradoxically, Le Corbusier combined a passion for

classical Greek architecture and an attraction to the

modern machine. He published his ideas in a book

entitled, Vers une Architecture, in which he refers to

the house as a “machine for living,” an industrial

product that should include functional furniture or

“equipment de l’habitation.” In this spirit, Corbusier

co-designed a system of furniture with his cousin

Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The tubular

steel furniture, like the famous chaise and Grand

Confort chair, projected a new rationalist aesthetic

that came to epitomize the International Style. During

the 1920s and 30s, Le Corbusier concentrated on

architecture and during the 1950s he moved towards

more expressive forms that revealed the sculptural

potential of concrete. Over the decades, his work has

included mass housing blocks, public buildings and

individual villas, all conceived with what he called

the “engineer’s aesthetic.”

THE HOME SHOULD BE THETREASURE CHEST

OF LIVING

LE CORBUSIER

50 51

LC2 COLLECTIONCASSINA • 1928

The Le Corbusier group referred to their LC2

Collection as “cushion baskets,” which they designed

as a modernist response to the traditional club

chair. These pieces reverse the standard structures

of sofas and chairs by having frames that are

externalized. With thick, resilient pillows resting

within the steel frames, the idea was to offer all

the comfort of a padded surface while applying

the elegant minimalism and industrial rationale of

the International Style. The resulting aesthetic of the

simple tubular structure is remarkably relevant to

how we live today, more than 80 years later. Each

piece is signed and numbered and, as a product of

Cassina’s Masters Collection, is manufactured by

Cassina under exclusive worldwide license from the

Le Corbusier Foundation.

Starting at $3.780 • cassinausa.com

LE CORBUSIER52 53

CHOOSING COLORSSHOULD NOT BE A

IT SHOULD BEA CONSCIOUS DECISION

GAMBLE

VERNER PANTON

Born 1926 in Gamtofte, Denmark, Verner Panton

studied at Odense Technical College before

enrolling at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine

Arts in Copenhagen as an architecture student. He

worked from 1950-52 in thearchitectural firm of

Arne Jacobsen and founded an independent studio

for architecture and design in 1955. His furniture

designs for the firm Plus-linje attracted attention

with their geometric forms. In the following years

Panton created numerous designs for seating furniture

and lighting. His passion for bright colours and

geometric patterns manifested itself in an extensive

range of textile designs. By fusing the elements of

a room—floor, walls, ceiling, furnishings, lighting,

textiles, wall panels made of enamel or plastic—

into a unified gesamtkunstwerk, Panton’s interior

installations have attained legendary status. The most

famous examples are the “Visiona” ship installations

for the Cologne Furniture Fair (1968 and 1970), the

Spiegel publishing headquarters in Hamburg (1969)

and the Varna restaurant in Aarhus (1970).

Panton’s collaboration with Vitra began in the early

1960s, when the firm decided to develop what

became his best-known design, the Panton Chair,

which was introduced in 1967. This was also the

first independently developed product by Vitra.

Verner Panton died in 1998 in Copenhagen.

Vitra’s re-edition of designs by Panton, as well as

the retrospective of his work mounted by the Vitra

Design Museum in 2000, bear witness to the special

relationship between Vitra and Verner Panton.

54 55

PANTON CHAIRVITRA • 1960

“Most people spend their lives living in dreary, beige

conformity, mortally afraid of using color. The main

purpose of my work is to provoke people into using

their imagination and make their surroundings more

exciting.” Created by Verner Panton in 1960, and

with the assistance of Vitra technicians a version was

finally ready for series production in 1967. The Panton

Chair is the very first ever to be constructed from one

continous piece of material. Since its market launch, the

Panton Chair has undergone several production phases.

Not until today was it possible to produce it in line with

Panton’s original idea, namely from consistently dyed,

tough plastic with a matte surface and an affordable

price. The Panton Chair has won various design awards

world-wide and graces the collections of numerous

renowned museums. Its expressive shape makes it a true

20th century design icon. The chair offers great seating

comfort thanks to the cantilever base, together with its

shape and flexible materials. It can be used on its own

or in groups and even outdoors.

Starting at $260 • vitra.com

VERNER PANTON56 57

JIMMY MORRISSEY KENDALL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN PUBLICATION DESIGN FALL 2010

mid-century modern

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