How an Usual Request From Florence Knoll Spawned Eero Saarinen’s Womb Chair

The modernist classic’s curved, organic form was devised in response to the idea that many people haven’t felt truly comfortable since birth.

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Dora Vanette

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Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen produced numerous designs for Knoll that became some of the famous furniture company’s most recognizable pieces. Saarinen met Florence Knoll (née Schust) in the mid-1930s at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where his dad, renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, was president. At the time, Knoll was a protégé of the older Saarinen and became close with the entire family. (Eero and Florence also became friends with Charles Eames at Cranbrook, and the three experimented with furniture-making.)

When Florence joined Knoll in the ’40s, she invited Eero to design for the company. In 1946, he designed the Womb chair at Knoll’s request for "a chair that was like a basket full of pillows—something I could really curl up in."

Finnish-American architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen’s Womb chair, one of many furniture pieces he designed for Knoll, debuted in 1948.

"I told Eero I was sick and tired of the one-dimensional lounge chair…long and narrow," Knoll said. "I want a chair I can sit in sideways or any other way I want to sit in it."

The chair debuted in 1948 as the Model 70, but soon became known as the Womb chair—first as a nickname, and later officially—because of its comfortable, organic form. "It was designed on the theory that a great number of people have never really felt comfortable and secure since they left the womb," Saarinen explained.

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Apart from its novel appearance, the Womb chair was also highly innovative from a structural perspective. Saarinen initially attempted the design with molded plywood, a material favored by his friend and prior colleague Eames, but it wasn’t strong enough for the scale he and Knoll envisioned. They eventually turned their attention to fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin, a material being developed for the hulls of Navy boats that was strong, lightweight, low-priced, and extremely malleable. They reached out to a New Jersey–based commercial shipbuilder who specialized in producing fiberglass boats to work with them on the sculpted seating design, but he turned them down a few times. "We just begged him," Knoll said. "He finally gave in and worked with us."

After many iterations and prototypes, the final result was a padded and upholstered reinforced fiberglass shell that sits on a polished chrome steel frame, curving to envelop the sitter. Saarinen applied for a patent on his "truncated cone" method for the chair’s construction the year it was released.

American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell’s 1959 Saturday Evening Post cover featured Eero Saarinen’s Womb chair. — American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell’s 1959 *Saturday Evening Post* cover featured Eero Saarinen’s Womb chair.

The Womb chair quickly became a cultural icon. A 1958 Coca-Cola advertising campaign showed Santa Claus drinking a Coke in one of the lounges. The seating also made an appearance in a New Yorker cartoon, as well as a 1959 Saturday Evening Post cover by Norman Rockwell. Over the years, it’s also made a number of film cameos.

Today, the design is still in production, and comes in a range of material options and sizes, as well as with an ottoman or as a settee. The Womb chair, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023, is a modernist classic—and it continues to be one of Knoll’s top sellers.