Bringing modernism to the mid-century: Knoll’s Womb Chair celebrates 75 years

“I wanted a chair that was like a basket full of pillows… I wanted something I could curl up in.”

2023 marks the 75th anniversary of Knoll’s Womb Chair, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1948 and defining the era’s conventions of what a chair could be, in both technique and technology.

Saarinen met Florence Knoll at Cranbrook Academy of Art, who later recalled that her history with Saarinen made him her most honest critic. When Florence joined Knoll in the 1940s, it was an obvious choice for her to invite the Finnish-American to design for the company.

Over the next 15 years Saarinen would go on to craft many of the most recognisable Knoll pieces including, of course, the Womb Chair, as well as the classic Tulip chairs and tables and the 70 series seating collection.

Pushing the boundaries in terms of both materials and aesthetics, the Womb Chair debuted as the Model 70 – earning the nickname that was later officially adopted thanks to its organic enveloping shape.

The lounge chairs of the 40s encouraged society’s expectations of how a woman should sit: ankles crossed; hands folded. At the helm of Knoll, Florence had a different idea. “I told Eero I was sick and tired of the one-dimensional lounge chair… long and narrow,” she said in her 1946 request. “I said, ‘Why not take the bull by the horns and do the big one first?’ I wanted a chair that was like a basket full of pillows… I wanted something I could curl up in.”

The concept behind the initial design spoke to a primal human need for comfort, noted by Saarinen in a 1949 letter to J. Irwin Miller, explaining that the chair “was designed on the theory that a great number of people have never really felt comfortable and secure since they left the womb.”

The chair saw instant popularity upon its release and quickly ascended to cultural icon status. Still manufactured to its original design today as a top seller for Knoll, Womb speaks to the company’s founding idea that furniture design must contribute to the ‘total design’ of a space – envisioned as part of a spatial whole. In workspaces, where its functionality offers a solution for today’s multifunctional offices, supporting conversation and collaboration in breakout areas, lobby spaces and small meeting rooms. And in hospitality, where its iconic, customisable design brings a timeless heritage that can elevate and differentiate spaces, from social lobbies to hotel rooms.

The Womb Chair, alongside other pieces from Knoll, is available to be specified for contract projects from MillerKnoll and Knoll dealers across the UK and Ireland.