On March 4th 2012 the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig opened the final part of their permanent exhibition. An exhibition very close to our hearts. Now you know us, we 've nothing against baroque or ancient Japanese furniture and objects. But our hearts do beat a little faster when we get to the late 19th century. Mies van der Rohe bending metal. Alvar Aalto bending wood. Verner Panton bending plastic. Axel Buether bending light. It's all there in “Art Nouveau to Present” Plus a
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August 20th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Finnish architect/designer Eero Saarinen. Eero Saarinen had - in all probability - very little career choice other than that of architect: Not only was his father Eliel Saarinen one of Finland's most celebrated architects, but two of his uncles followed the same profession. In addition his mother, Loja Gesellius Saarinen, was a sculptress and textile designer. Eero Saarinen spent his first 13 years in his birthplace, Kirkkonummi on the
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After the strenuous match against Alexander Girard, France decided to rest Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for the match against Eero Saarinen. Their replacement, the enfant terrible of contemporary French design Philippe Starck however failed to match the old Finnish master; too often Philippe Starck strove forward with fairly predictable and poorly considered approaches. Eero Saarinen was able to make use of the gaps produced by Philippe Starck to good effect scoring with his Tulip Chair and a
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It may not be the most universally recognised example of either Charles Eames' nor Eero Saarinen's canon however their 1940 "Conversation Chair" is without doubt one of the more important examples of 20th century furniture design. Designed for the New York Museum of Modern Art's "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition the Conversation Chair was a concept piece and Eames' and Saarinen's first attempt at moulding synthetics. At that time however the technology lagged somewhat behind
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