LEGACY

As most of the moderns architects after the war, Saarinen was a believer of America as a new begin. We saw in United State a powerful nation to the new world. He  participated in the creation of a new facade to the corporations  that were changing the image to make a symbol to the future.   He design to General Motors, IBM, CBS. Also, he was a motor to the creation of new established as the New Airport in New York, or the St. Louis Gateway Arch. All his constructions were part of this process where the technologies in together with his formal and extravagant ideas made a symbol to the reborn of a capitalism America.  He was more than an architect, in the last part of his life, he was a designer of furniture. 

  JFK Terminal TWA

He was an extravagant and brave man that was always improving the new technologies to made it pieces.  He prove with metal structures, prefabricated concrete structures, he explored with curtain steel.

 

Gateway Arch

" Three overarching themes emerge from a review of the hundreds of projects, built and unbuilt, that Saarinen produced over the eleven-year period of his architectural maturity. First, he was committed to the exploration of new building technologies and materials, and he searched constantly for ways to advance the art of architecture by producing innovative formal solutions that reflected scientific and chemical discoveries. Second, he treated every architectural commission as a separate artistic problem, and he sought to create an original, artistic expression of the functional complexities and cultural meanings of each one; this emphasis on communication (a priority for him that was equal to the need for formal discipline and quality in design) required Saarinen to delve into popular and commercial imagery with an openmindedness and enthusiasm that few, if any, elite modern designers could — or wanted to — match. Third, Saarinen clearly imagined his buildings as inhabited and animated spaces, and he thus focused on circulation, framing, and the sensual experiences of clients. He cared deeply about the spiritual and psychological effects of his architecture, and he wanted users of his buildings and furniture to look as good as they felt. In this respect, as in all of the above qualities, he seems to be the consummate American modernist, an architect who saw himself as a creator of glamorous, exciting buildings in which contemporary business transactions and the experiences of everyday life would become ever more brilliant and beautiful." 

https://placesjournal.org/article/modern-architecture-for-the-american-century/

" Today, Saarinen’s bold designs remain symbolic expressions of post-war American identity. His best-known works, such as the St. Louis Gateway Arch and the TWA Terminal at New York’s JFK airport, incorporate new dynamic forms and structural innovations. Saarinen’s exuberant visual effects in architecture and design captured the optimism of an era and a national ideal of boundless opportunity."

http://mam.org/info/details/saarinen.php

Here is some interesting video!

http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,61064843001_1952762,00.html

https://soundcloud.com/stefannif/legacy

TULIP CHAIR

The tulip chair is a model created by Eero Saarinen to Knoll. This is a good example of how the art concepts that are most use in architecture, can be export to others kind of art, as the design of furniture.

The chair combined two materials that makes a good contrast in the color. The white structure of the chair, has an organic geometry with a vertical direction. It is possible talk about symmetry in the configuration of the sculptor piece.

The architect makes a play with the reflection of light thanks the selection of material, in this way, the aesthetics characteristics of this chairs depends of the point where provides the light. It is possible to read this chair as three moments, where the center tries to despair and creates the sense of levitation.

KRESGE CHAPEL (MIT)

In the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located this magnificent building. The project is  result of an organic combination of forms. It is cylindrical volume. The sequence of approaching begins with the pedestrian way direction until this solid and closed building. The exterior is simple and made up by an uniform color of brick. 

@archdaily.com

"Located at the heart of MITs campus, the chapel’s cylindrical form breaks the rigidity of the campus’s orthogonal grid."

www.archdaily.com

It is an introspective building, without windows at the uniform facade. That aspect is used to generates in the user a new perspective to what would happens on its interior.

The interior of the chapel represents an spaces for reflection. The material texture made the aspect of an old construction and also, generates a pretty interesting effect in the reflection of light. 

The buildings has a natural illumination using a water mirror that reflects the light to the  interior walls. 

This make to the spaces a surrealistic place, where the illumination comes through an invisible part of the wall.  

The uniform color has a contrast with the sculpture on the center of the chapel. In this point, the metal of the sculpture is dematerialized  by a skylight. This center is located as the final of a spiritual travel that is created by the light/color effects in the interior of the chapel.

The building’s unique appearance was new to a campus that had previously employed a more classical architecture style. After some criticism, Saarinen explained that the chapel’s windowless cylinder “implied the self-contained, inward-feeling which was desirable” for a place of worship. He noted that its undulating interior walls promoted good acoustics as well as an “enclosed feeling.”" 

MIT Campus Activities Complex

In Plan, there's possible to observed a cycle rhythm in the wall. This geometry is used to cause the interesting effects of lights in the interior. The circulation has a frontal direction.  This dark interior spaces, also responses to the human scale, because was thinking to be a multi functional place, not just for one religion, more as a closed spaces out of the material world.

The material, and the design lets to the building a double skin that protect the interior to the sound out the building, this helps to make the effect of an introspective spaces.

There's some interesting videos about the chapel!

In the videos it looks the approaching and the articulation of the interior spaces

https://soundcloud.com/stefannif/the-chapel?in=stefannif/sets/final-project-id2126

EERO SAARINEN

rEero Saarinen was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial masters of 20th-century architecture. Although his career was cut short by death at age 51 in 1961, Eero Saarinen was one of the most celebrated architects of his time, both at home and abroad"

"

Finnish Cultural Institute in New York

Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen 1920

He was born in Finland in 1910, then he moved to Unite State with his father at 13 years old. Was the son of Eliel Saarinen, a famous Finland architect. In 1929 he began to study sculpture in Paris, at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. During two  years he was there. In 1931, he began architecture at the Yale University completing his studies in 1934. In 1936 he worked with his father until 1950 when the father's death mark a point in his career. After the  father's death he founded his own arhitecture's office and experimented with Eames in the furniture confection.

"It was at Cranbrook that Saarinen met Charles Eames. The two young men, both committed to the exploration of potential new materials and processes, quickly became great friends, pushing each other creatively while collaborating on several projects. "

www.knoll.com

Saarinen´s furniture. 

Hi past through out different styles during his career. But always with an sculptural influence. His buildings have an aesthetics loads, using the technologies, he convert normal structures into an organic alive piece that functioned as a challenges to the engineering. His Architectural masterpiece was the TWA John F Kennedy International Airport.

John F Kennedy International Airport

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Kresge Auditorium

FINAL PROJECT

ID2126
ENE-MAR2016

Hello! This is the blog of the final project of the course! Here you will found a descriptions, videos and some curious information about Eero Saarinen. I hope you'll enjoy

https://soundcloud.com/stefannif/welcome?in=stefannif/sets/final-project-id2126