Eero Saarinen, born in 1910 in Kirkkonummi, Finland, as the son of the architect Eliel Saarinen, studied sculpture in 1929 and 1930 at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris before studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven until 1934.  

A Yale fellowship enabled him to travel in Europe. In 1936, he returned to the USA and worked in his fathers architectural practice and also taught at Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills. 

It was here that Eero Saarinen met Charles Eames. Together they experimented on new furniture forms and produced the first designs for furniture made from moulded plywood. In 1940, they submitted a join entry to the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 

Eero Saarinen went on to design numerous iconic furniture pieces, most notably for Knoll International. The TWA Terminal at John F Kennedy's Airport in New York is considered to be his architectural masterpieces. He was working on the building of Dulles International Airport in Washington at the time of his death in 1961.