Dining on a Stem

Twentieth century architects have managed to clean up much of the clutter inside and outside their buildings, but one spot has been missed: the area below the knees. This point came forcibly to Architect Eero Saarinen's attention about five years ago, when he "suddenly noticed that even the most modern room was a slum of legs." Last week Architect Saarinen took the wraps off a slum clearance project that he has been coaxing along secretly for four years at his Bloomfield Hills, Mich, office (TIME, July 2). His solution: a revolutionary design for one-legged, pedestal-based chairs, dining tables and coffee tables that have all the weightless elegance of a stemmed wineglass (see cut).

Architect Saarinen, whose office turns out multimillion-dollar projects for big corporations--General Motors, International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc.--has kept up furniture as a sideline ever since he designed his first piece (a bed for himself) at 16. He was co-winner of the Museum of Modern Art's Organic Design competition in 1941; his "Womb Chair," designed in 1946, remains one of the bestselling modern chairs ever made.

Saarinen's idea for a form to replace "the ugly clutter of cages and legs going in different directions" is based on the design of a police street sign. By carefully calculating the base area of his new chair, he achieved the stability of four legs without weighting the bottom of the porcelain-enameled aluminum pedestal. The plastic seats are of tulip-shaped organic design, can have richly colored cushions to temper modern simplicity with elegance. The tables, in neutral colors, will be topped with marble or fine wood. Saarinen's new pieces are scheduled to go into mass production at Knoll Associates in September, will sell in the medium-price range.

In Eero Saarinen's new chairs and tables there are just three parts: top, stem and bolt. Says Saarinen: "All the great furniture of the past, from Tutankhamen's chair to Thomas Chippendale's, has always been a structural total. I wanted to make the chair all one thing again."

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