A Knoll Design Furniture Discussed
In 1957 Eero Saarinen agreed to design a new collection of design tables and chairs for Knoll. This collection was unique because it had a single leg. The original design was to make the chairs in 1 piece from 1 single material, namely plastic. When using plastic, for a in this time new and exceptional application of the material, many problems arose. The foot of both the chair and the table were therefore made in cast metal, the shell on the other hand was made in fiber reinforced plastic.
The shape of this design Knoll collection was in its simplicity modernist and humanistic in its appeal: the shape was futuristic and at the same time soft and stylized. Florence Knoll spoke of Saarinen as the best designer she had ever worked with, by which she meant that Saarinen's work had more honesty than all the other designs she knew. His Pedestal collection was a perfect example of this because of its form and use of materials.
The collection was an imaginative leap forward in post-war American design, a triumph for art and technology.