THE EAMES HOUSE Architects Charles and Ray Eames
Clarissa Howard Hum 340 Karl Hakken Chicago Architecture Summer 2014
Charles Eames • Were American designers who worked in major • • • • •
contributions to modern architecture and furniture. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine arts, film. Charles Eames, Jr was born in St. Louis Missouri Charles was the nephew of St. Louis architect William S Eames Charles briefly studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1930, Charles began his own architectural practice in St. Louis with partner Charles Gray.
Ray Eames • Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames was an American
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artist, designer and filmakerwho, together with her husband Charles, is responsible for many classic, iconic designs of the 20th century . She was born in Sacramento, California in 1933 she graduated from Bennett Women's College in Millbrook, New York and moved to New York City where she studied abstract expressionist painting with. She was a founder of the American abstract artist group in 1936 In September 1940, she began studies at the Cranbook Academy of Art in Brookfield hills in Michigan. She met Charles Eames while preparing drawings and models for a competition and they were married the following year.
Eames House Exterior • The Eames house sits on a three-acre property in the •
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Pacific Palisade neighborhood of Los Angeles Has a grassy meadow landscape that lines with eucalyptus tress and a vast wildlife, looking over the Pacific Ocean. Eleven and a half tons of steel was ordered for the construction of the Eames house. The frame of the home was constructed of 4-inch H-steel columns, set 20 feet apart from each other with 12-inch open-web steel beams. The H-columns were set a certain distance apart to allow the interior to not have structural support. With an exterior constructed of glass, steel and a large concrete wall on one side. The steel columns and the concrete wall are painted gray to integrate and unify the home. Sheet glass were used on to the exterior of the home, including transparent, wired and translucent.
Eames House Interior • To provide the couple with the spaces they wanted, they • • • •
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built two different buildings. Each building provides public and private spaces. The first building is about 1,500 square feet. The main level incudes living room, dining room, kitchen and utility room. From the hallway there are two bedrooms with alcoves for changing rooms. One bedroom has a bathroom connected to it while the other is not. You can close one bedroom for more privacy but then it can be opened to the other room to create this spatial flow throughout the upstairs. The courtyard was placed between the residential building to the studio building. With the design of the home and materials used, the interior of the space gives off an very industrial look. Given the view of the prefabricated materials and open interior, the Eames had the opportunity to decorate they’re home however they wanted.
Bibliography • 1. Smith, Elizabeth, Blueprints for modern living: history
and legacy of the case study houses, Los Angeles: Temporary Contemporary of the Museum of Contemporary Art, 1989 • • 2. Koenig, Gloria, Charles & Ray Eames, 1907-1978,
1912-1988: pioneers of mid-century modernism. Germany: TASCHEN GmbH Hohenzollernring 53, 2005 • • 3. Steele, James. Eames House: Charles and Ray
Eames. London: Phaidon, 1994 • • 4. Demetrios, Eames. An Eames Primer. New York:
University Pub, 2001