Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future Showcases Saarinen's Architecture and Furniture

Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future is a new documentary exploring the life and work of Finnish-American architect and furniture designer Eero Saarinen. Produced and directed by Peter Rosen, the film is slated to appear on television on December 27, 2016 at 8PM on PBS, as part of its American Masters series. 

This month, the film will premiere in several locations across the country. It will be previewed in a benefit for the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research on September 9. Followed by a Q&A with the director, a screening of the documentary will mark the opening of the 2016 Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF), which showcases 30 films at the Cinépolis Chelsea in New York from September 28 to October 2. As part of the city-wide Archtober festival next month, a film screening and Q&A will also take place at Scandinavia House in New York on October 12.

Eero Saarinen's TWA Flight Center (1962), Queens, NY. Image from the Knoll Archive.

“We get a lot of great film submissions each year, but we chose this one to open the festival with because it’s really a love letter to architecture and design,” explained Kyle Bergman, ADFF Director. “It talks about Saarinen’s spirit and passion for design at every scale, and it’s beautifully made. Peter Rosen made a film that’s not just a story about architecture, but a human story as well.” The documentary will be screened for a second time on the last day of the festival.

Showcasing a range of Saarinen designs, from the monumental Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, to his famous pedestal furniture for Knoll, the film demonstrates the versatility and vision of the renowned modernist, whose untimely death at 51 abruptly ended an already prolific career in American architecture.

The documentary takes a personal turn as it follows the architect’s son, director of photography Eric Saarinen, who shot the film in 6K and with drone technology that brings a stunning new perspective to his father’s iconic architecture. Dramatic cinematography heightens the futuristic, almost alien quality of certain designs. “That’s the sort of the feeling you get in some of the Saarinen works, that they are really from some other place,” Rosen told Business Insider.

Eero Saarinen and Florence Knoll prototyping the Pedestal Collection. Image from the Knoll Archive.

Seeking to escape the rectilinear confines of the modernist tradition, Eero Saarinen introduced America to the expressive delights of the curve, championing a daring approach to design. Having known Florence Knoll from his days at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the designer was invited to develop new furniture for Knoll in the 1940s, where he spent years pushing the boundaries of material and aesthetics to produce the revolutionary Pedestal Collection—a series of chairs and tables that remain classics to this day. It is this interdisciplinary commitment to innovation that is celebrated in Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future.

Peter Rosen; Micheline Valenti, KnollStudio; Eric Saarinen (son of Eero Saarinen); and Robert Ziegelman, FAIA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art premiere of Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future on September 9, 2016.