Saarinen Womb Chair & Ottoman

Knoll International

The starting point for this house for a graphic designer (he designed the No. 5 sign) and his family was a geometric volume where the inside was as important as the outside. If you wish – an inverted volume. A box with a series of openings, or a space with a series of closures.

A grid was established that was based on standardised dimensions for building materials. The grid was then superimposed on the box. From this grid was created the basic room structure. Each room then had one of it’s four sides completely glazed. The result contained three bedrooms and one larger living/dining space with kitchen. The bedrooms are basically open towards one cardinal point each, leaving one opening in each façade. So even though the bedrooms are small the surrounding landscape is always a part of the space, making the sense vast rather than small. The bathroom, which has no wall opening, has a roof window instead. There is a glazed doorway from the living area to a partially walled terrace, creating an outdoor room that is open to the sky at one end and open to the view at the other.

Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, Ola Rune, Deta Gemzell