Womb Sofa, 1948

Womb Sofa by Eero Saarinen for Knoll.

The Womb Sofa is a two-seater sofa designed by Eero Saarinen in 1948.

The Womb Sofa is a double-wide version of the iconic Womb chair, acclaimed as one of the most comfortable modern chairs produced. The Womb Sofa was developed for Saarinen’s first big architectural commission: The General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan – a twenty-five-building complex that required furnishings for over 5,000 people.

The Womb Sofa was designed to replace the clumsy, oversized sofa models of the time, Saarinen wrote: “These dreadnaughts [have] disappeared from modern interiors partly because they were designed for an era that tried to impress by sheer mass.” While such robust forms may have gone out of vogue, Saarinen saw their necessary function as timeless: “The need for such chairs has not passed. Today, more than ever, we need to relax.” After being out of production for six decades, Knoll brought the Womb Settee back into production in 2015.