Saarinen Conference Chair Relax

Designed by Eero Saarinen, 1946 – 1950

Featured in nearly all Florence Knoll-designed interiors, the Saarinen Executive Chair has remained one of our most popular designs for nearly 70 years. The design, which is now found in dining rooms as often as it is in offices, transformed the notion of what executive seating could be with its sculptural form and modern finishing.

The collection of Executice chairs includes ten types of seats, these are: chairs, armchairs, chairs with a plastic back (with tubular or wooden legs and a swivel base), the collection is complemented by two types of bar stools. The seats are made of profiled plywood, reinforced from the outside with a polyurethane shell, the legs are made of steel pipes without visible welds, finished with polished chrome, polished 18-carat gold or powder coated black, wooden legs are finished in light walnut, light oak and black. The chair is available in a wide range of Knoll Textiles and Spinneybeck® leathers.

Details

FEATURES

In his groundbreaking collection of 1957, Eero Saarinen transformed executive seating into a fluid, sculptural form.
Available with or without arms, in a classic version on four legs, or in a height-adjustable swivel model with four-star on glides or five-star on casters for the base.

CONSTRUCTION

Four-Leg Base: Four Leg base: polished chrome, painted black chrome, painted black steel or wood finish.
Four-Star and Five-Star chrome base or black painted finish.
Frame and Upholstery: Moulded reinforced polyurethane shell.
Contoured plywood seat form.
Upholstery on the armchair includes piping on the seat and back.This is not available on the armless chair.
Available in a wide range of fabrics and leathers.

FINISHES

Chrome or wooden structure. Fabric and leather upholstery.

Dimensions

SAARINEN CONFERENCE CHAIR RELAX

Saarinen Conference Armless Chair Relax – four legs
57W 51.5D 79H
57W 51.5D 80H
Saarinen Conference Armchair Relax – four legs
65.5W 63D 82.5H
65.5W 63D 81.5H
Saarinen Conference Armless Chair Relax – swivel base
62W 62D 84.5/78H
Saarinen Conference Armchair Relax – swivel base
66.5W 64D 85.5/79H

Product Story

After winning the Museum of Modern Art Organic Design Competition with Charles Eames for their experiments with bent plywood in 1941, Eero Saarinen was eager to continue exploring the possibilities of a chair that achieved comfort through the shape of its shell, not the depth of its cushioning. Initially, he began the investigation with designs for smaller fiberglass task chairs, but changed direction when Florence Knoll approached him and asked, “Why not take the bull by the horns and do the big one first? I want a chair that is like a basket full of pillows…something I can curl up in.” While that’s not exactly where Saarinen ended up, the suggestion inspired one of the most iconic, and comfortable, chairs of the modern furniture movement.

Like many of Saarinen’s furniture designs, the Womb Chair required production techniques and materials still in the infancy of their existence. Saarinen and Florence Knoll found a boat builder in New Jersey who was experimenting with fiberglass and resin to help develop manufacturing methods for the new chair. Florence Knoll: “He was very skeptical. We just begged him. I guess we were so young and so enthusiastic he finally gave in and worked with us. We had lots of problems and failures until they finally got a chair that would work.”