3. LIFE
• Eero was the son of the noted architect Eliel Saarinen
and Loja Gesellius, a sculptor. The Saarinen family of
four, including a sister, Eva-Lisa, moved to the United
States in 1923.
• Eero attended public schools in Michigan. In 1929 he
studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grande
Chaumière in Paris but, as he recounted years later, “it
never occurred to me to do anything but follow in my
father's footsteps.
4. LIFE
• .” Between 1931 and 1934 he studied architecture at Yale
University, where the curriculum was untouched by
modern theories.
• His father's architecture in Finland had focused on a free
adaptation of medieval Scandinavian forms, and in the
United States he designed various private school
buildings from 1925 to 1941, including Cranbook
Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., following
this loose, romantic style.
5. PROFESSIONAL PHASE
• Eero Saarinen's professional work in the United States
began in 1936 with research on housing and city
planning with the Flint Institute of Research and
Planning in Flint, Mich.
• He joined his father's practice in Bloomfield Hills in
1938, and one year later their collaborative design—
tranquil yet monumental—for the mall in Washington,
D.C., won first prize in the Smithsonian Institution
Gallery of Art competition. Unfortunately the design
was never executed.
6. PHILOSOPHIES
• He was taught that each object should be designed
in its "next largest context - a chair in a room, a
room in a house, a house in an environment,
environment in a city plan."
• For him, "The major concern ...was to create a
monument which would have lasting significance
and would be a landmark of our time...
• His opinion was that, "...all parts of an
architectural composition must be parts of the same
form-world."
7. EERO’S WORKS
• In the 11 years that he survived his father,
Saarinen's own work included a series of
dramatically different designs that displayed a
richer and more diverse vocabulary.
• He introduced sculptural forms that were rich in
architectural character and visual drama unknown
in earlier years. The exciting results were welcomed
by many who were bored by the uniformity of the
International Style of modern architecture
8. EERO’S WORKS
Trans World Airlines (TWA) terminal
at John F. Kennedy International
Airport, New York City
Dulles International Airport
10. DULLES INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT
This airport was
designed to provide a
modern gateway to the
capital of the nation and
building it for the
federal government.
The site was a flat plain.
11. The main terminus is a single
, compact structure , not
entirely free from formalist
tendencies but one which is
technically exciting.
The final design concept
arrived at was a suspended
structure, high at the front
,lower in the middle ,slightly
higher at the back , generated
by a rectangular plan.
The building is thus capable
of lateral extension .
12. • The 16 pairs of pylons curve
upwards and support the
hammock-like roof in tension.
• Passengers are brought into
the building at 3 levels and
circulation is made to coincide
with the system of mobile
lounges which take people to
air craft on the two-mile-long
runway.
DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
13. • A corner of the building
with the reinforced
concrete pylon carrying
the cable on which the
roof is supported.
• The design included a
landscaped man-made
lake to collect rainwater,
a low-rise hotel, and a
row of office buildings
along the north side of
the main parking lot
20. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES (TWA)
TERMINAL AT JOHN F.
KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT, NEW YORK CITY
21. T.W.A. TERMINAL AT NEW YORK
Building type ----airport terminal
Construction system ---concrete
One of the most self-assured, self-confident— even self-conscious—buildings
to emerge as a result of the interplay of the architectonic and engineer-
inspired buildings was Saarinen's TWA Terminal Buildings at New York.
22. T.W.A. TERMINAL AT NEW YORK
It alarmed the remaining purists of modern architecture.
Its bird-like symbolism, exciting forms and cavernous
interior were not simply a casual reminder of the
changes that had taken place in architectural thinking
in the 1950s, but a demonstration of the architect's role
as an originator .
23. T.W.A. TERMINAL AT NEW YORK
This is surely one of the world's most dramatic airline
terminals.
Few straight lines here: approached head on, its curving
contours uncannily suggest a bird in flight.
Inside, the main lobby's soaring, swooping walls, its
carefully modeled staircases, seating areas, and many
other features are a blend of graceful sculptural forms
selected 'to suggest the excitement of the trip.'
24.
25.
26.
27. Saarinen's terminal for TWA is sculpted as a symbol of
flight - abstract, and not intentionally as a landing
eagle as it has often been described.
28. T.W.A. TERMINAL AT NEW YORK
The expressive curves of the design create attractive,
spacious halls and a rare degree of exhilaration for an
airport terminal.
The period bright orange carpets are gone, and the
atmosphere is a more contemporary cool with the tone
set by the purple-tinted glazing, but the romance of
flight is very much alive.
29. View of exterior overview approaching
terminal
View of exterior, base of flying roofs
View of interior, sitting area at
mezzanine roof meeting
View of interior detail, ventilator by
entry doors
30. Location Terminal 5, John F. Kennedy International
Airport, Queens, New York 11430
United States
Area 17.6 acres (7.1 ha)
Architect Eero Saarinen and Associates
Architectural style Neo-futuristic
31. • According to him, it was '...a building in which the
architecture itself would express the drama and
specialness and excitement of travel... a place of
movement and transition... The shapes were
deliberately chosen in order to emphasize an upward-
soaring quality of line.
T.W.A. TERMINAL AT NEW YORK
34. Opened: 1955
Architectural
style: Modern
architecture
Owner: Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Height: 15 m
Kresge Auditorium is an auditorium
building for the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, located at 48 Massachusetts
Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts
35.
36.
37. Sitting on a circular red brick platform,
the dome contains a concert hall (with
seating for 1226 people), plus a lower
level that houses a
small theater(seating 204), two
rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms,
offices, bathrooms, and lounges.
The main stage is paneled with warm-
colored vertical wood elements that
echo the vertical glass panels of the
building's facade.
40. The auditorium is defined by an
elegant thin-shell structure of
reinforced concrete, one-eighth of
a sphere rising to a height of 50 feet,
and sliced away by sheer
glass curtain walls so that it comes to
earth on only three points. Thin-
shelled concrete technology was
innovative for the times.
The dome weighs only 1200 tons and
is currently clad with copper. It was
originally covered with smooth,
bright, orastone which was then
replaced with lead sheeting attached
with stainless steel wires.
In 1980, cracks were found in the
supporting structure and the
auditorium was closed immediately
for repairs. Copper replaced the lead
at that time.
41. Every seat in the concert hall has an
unobstructed view, since there are no
interior supports for the overarching
dome. Working with renowned
acoustical architects Bolt, Beranek
and Newman, architect Saarinen
employed free-hanging acoustic
"clouds" that absorb and direct
sound, instead of a traditional plaster
ceiling. These clouds also contain
lights, loudspeakers, and ventilation.
While standing on either side of the
entry lobby, one can distinctly hear
people on the other side speaking in
as low a voice as a whisper. This so-
called whispering gallery effect is
produced by the geometrical shape
and hard surfaces of the space.