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Eames Case Study #8 House

Kristen Flores

TABLE OF CONTENTS ray+charles background Social + Historical context Location Site + context Materials spatial relationships program design + aesthetics Logistics drawings Renderings sustainability references

Ray + charles

In 1949, Charles and Ray Eames designed and built their own home as part of the Case

Study House Program, which was sponsored by Arts and Architecture Magazine. The Eames’ were at the forefront of the post-war Modernist movement in the United States, and did more than any other individuals to bring American modernism to the rest of the world. Their fur-

niture, toys, buildings, films, exhibitions, and books were all aimed at improving the lives of average people. More than designers, Charles and Ray Eames were communicators and

educators, always looking for inventive ways to share their ideas with broader audiences.

background

The Eames house became very popular and well known due to Charles and Ray’s design and innovative use of materials throughout the home. The home was designed to express a man’s life in the modern world. It is considered one of the most important post-war residences built anywhere in the world. This is the only home that Charles ever designed and actually lived in.

It also the work that most completely represents his close collaboration with his partner and wife. In 1945, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen designed the first plan of the home, which was known as the Bridge House, but because of a shortage due to war, the steel was not delivered until 1948. Charles and Ray were finally able to move into their house on Christmas Eve of 1949.

Social + Historical Context

Ray and Charles Eames were respected architects who were entrusted with creating a home that could be easily replicated for other American families. They created a home that would be functional + affordable for many people. The homes were designed to use materials that were readily available, and could be ordered from a catalog.

Design was formulated in order to preserve the trees that were naturally found on the site, such as the Eucalyptus trees. When they first started designing, they used the method of placement on the site, they later modified that design to integrate the structure with the site and nature, including a meadow that the designers fell in love with.

Designed to be economical to build, while also using affordable materials. Because it was taken into account that many soldiers returning home from World War II might be using this design in order to accommodate themselves and their families, the cost of building the home was taken into account during the design process.

location The home is located along the Pacific Coast between Santa Monica and Mal-

ibu. The property sits on a lower plateau on the northern edge of the Santa Monica Canyon. Because of the geographical area the home was in, they did not want to give up the beauty of the landscape. With this they brought upon themselves a new set of problems: not destroying the meadow as well as maximizing the volume of the space with keeping materials to a minimum.

The home sits on a 1.4 acre lot in the Pacific Palisades. The size of the residence area is 1,500 sq. ft. There is a grid of 7’-4” divided horizontally throughout the entire house. Vertically, the grid

site+ Context

In the interior, there is a recreation of the exterior colors within the house; the bold colored red, white, blue and yellow panels that are trimmed in black which make up the exterior wall.

is 6’-10”. Charles and Ray “fell

They also mimic the effect inside

in love with the meadow” on the

with use of natural materials and

site and wanted to integrate the

plants further more giving the

home with the landscape. This

representation that its brining the

was done through the use of glass

residence closer to nature, giv-

and white panels so that there is

ing an appearance that the build-

a strong feeling of integration into

ing is sitting gently on the earth.

nature, just as they had intended.

MATERIALS The Eames Case Study House #8 is constructed with the use of materials and techniques that resulted from the experiences of the Second World War. It was designed to use pre-fabricated materials that could be ordered from catalogs, which was meant to emphasize the idea of mass-production. The house’s main materials were concrete (for the foundation); glass, stucco, wood, asbestos, metal, and synthetics (for the walls); asphalt (for the roof); and metal through the use of a steel frame. The northernmost boundary of the home has a drive edges with a winding brick wall with mortar, designed by Richard Neutra. The southernmost edge of the property has a wooden fence. The house is made up of two volumes, one is the residential portion, and the other is the studio. The residential portion accounts for 1,500 square feet of the home, while the studio makes up the remaining 1,000 square feet. The home is made up of 20’ x 7’ 4”x 17’ bays. Individual bays are defined by steel frames which have two rows of 4” H-columns that are 20’ apart with a 12” open-web joint that forms top. The rear elevation’s vertical members are partially embedded into an 8’ high poured concrete columns. Steel decking forms the underside of the roof, which is flat, and runs perpendicular to the frames. The roof is then covered in a gravel material.

Each bay within the home is also infilled with materials, such as plaster, plywood, asbestos, glass, and pylon. There was a mixture of transparent and translucent glass used throughout the home, while the area in the studio used reinforced glass. Many of these glass areas create glass walls. The double height spaces throughout the home have solid rear walls. Exposed steel frames, steel-sashes, sub-dividers, and plaster panels are all painted in black, white, beige, red, or blue. On the exterior of the home, there is a visible diagonal cross-bracing, which provides structural stability for the frames.

SPATIAL

RELATIONSHIPS

The house is divided into two rectangular sections which create a residential area and as well as a studio area. The house was designed for a married couple that made up of two graphic artists, whose children no longer lived at home. The two separate buildings helps to keep the living space and the working space separate, but conveniently closely located. The house highly integrates the natural landscape which surrounds it, an aspect that was closely measured by the designers.

The materials within the home serve to emphasize the landscape, through the use of wood, a natural element; and glass, an element which allows for extreme transparency, the house almost becomes one with the natural landscape. The walls that face the rear of the house have a tendency to be solid, which allows for a greater amount of privacy within the home.

The two separate areas of the home are connected with the use of a courtyard, which helps to further the connection with nature the designers wished to establish. The interior of the home also connects these two seemingly separate spaces through the use of double height ceilings, which allow for a greater transparency and interconnection between the spaces.

PROGRAM

The program outlined specific objectives which included the integration of outdoor and indoor living spaces, the application of the techniques of mass production to integrate into the process of home building, creating a unique design for a home by using prefabricated, standard, and off-the-shelf parts, promoting Modernism through simple form, and trying to avoid referencing any historical styles. Not only did the program do all of this, but it also sought to have customers not only be intrigued by it’s beauty, but also by it’s livability, practicality, and affordability, which would in turn bring a positive exposure to modern houses.

The designer and client in this project were one in the same, though the design was meant to be used repeatedly by other American families. The design supports the separation of work and home life, while also allowing them to be integrated enough to increase comfort. The rear (westernmost) wall’s solidity provided for a much more private house, while the large glass walls allowed for high integration with the natural surroundings. The size of the studio relative to the home shows a hearty of the studio space, despite the fact that it is smaller, because the rest of the living space integrates spaces that are meant to be used for different purposes, while the studio space is on its own in both the ground and first floors.

The spaces, including the courtyard between the two structures were all designed to provide a dialogue between interior spaces and the exterior.

Design + Aesthetics

The look and feel of the project is displayed throughout the house in unique ways. Panels resemble Mondrian paintings that are attached to the prefabricated materials within the house. Colors of black, white, blue, red, and yellow are used as the panels throughout. The panels are also influenced by a Japanese theme. These panels are placed strategically in order to allow light to flow in to the house, and the trees in front allow for shade to help keep the inside cooler. The house is situated on a threeacre site on top of a 150-foot cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The site is a flat parcel, on otherwise steep land, that creates a retaining wall to the west. The north side of the lot slopes up to a wooded bluff; in the middle is a grassy meadow. Their desire to maintain the meadow allowed for the mixture of inside and outside through the mixture of the materials. Influence to connect the inside and the outside was created by the courtyard that is divided between the living area and studio. On the interior, double-height, glass-paneled spaces occupy the outermost portions of each component. That creates alternating positive and negative spaces. Smaller interior spaces, like the upstairs bathrooms and bedrooms, have well placed glazed panels that provide light without compromising privacy.  The design of the house as a whole reflects space, light, and flexibility. The double height spaces allow for certain spaces to be created while also creating multipurpose spaces. There is a rhythm between double height and single height spaces, creating public and private spaces within the living area and the studio, but not strictly.

Ray and Charles came up with various schemes in order to allow lighting into certain spaces at certain times of the day through color, transparency, and placement of the wall panels. The main steel frame itself is purposefully thin in order to give the impression of uninterrupted space going from the exterior into the interior. Contrast to the cold steel framing that forms the structure, the interior of the house is warm and comforting with its woodblock floor and the soft light penetrating into each room through each day. The Eames House is a beautiful continuation of space. The rooms are liberating, flowing into one another even between floors through the double-height spaces. Private and public spaces are not strictly divided. For example, the bedroom on the upper level overlooks the public living room with a short terrace that connects the rooms. There are no major divisions other than the separation of the two boxes, which still merge into one another with the courtyard.

Large open spaces in the interior spaces are purposefully open to not force a certain use into each space but rather them all be multi purpose spaces. The site is a flat parcel on otherwise steep land that creates a retaining wall to the west. The response to the flat plot of land was a concrete retaining wall that ties together the two boxes separated by a courtyard that make up the parti of the residence. The two boxes serve two different functions. One is for the residence itself and the other is a studio. Both provide double-height spaces at the corners and outer ends of both programs.

This allows for a composition that breaks the space up rhythmically, and is read on the exterior of the house with the exterior courtyard serving as a double-height space in between both boxes.

Logistics

Drawings

It is evident throughout the floor plans that although there is a grid throughout the entire structure there is a differeciation of space through the changing of floor materials. The living area mainly consists of white square tiles throughout which then transitions to brick in the patio. The studio is all parquet wood. It is interesting to see not only that the colors change completely but so does the material, a clear delineation of space.

drawings

RendeRings

The Renderings focus on the effect of natural lighting not only on the exterior but the interior as well.

Through the use of materials on all facades of the home, the natural lighiting plays a big role in the experience of the home.

Ray and Charles Eames sought to maintain the environmental integrity of the land which they used to build this home. They worked with the site in order to incorporate the existing landscape and natural greenery that was already on the property, most notably, the eucalyptus trees. The Eames House was a house that was designed to use prefabricated materials, an aspect which allowed both material cost and labor costs to be lowered. In fact, at the time of building, the home only took about a day and a half to built, which assuredly lowered the labor costs. The idea behind the design was to provide easy and cost effective housing to accommodate the numerous amounts of soldiers who were returning home from the World War II.

S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y The design of the home also endeavored to incorporate the natural landscape as much as possible, including working with the site in order to not have to relocate any of the trees found on the site.The inclusion of glass surfaces allowed for much more natural light than most homes, which in turn, allowed for a lower energy cost. The materials found within the site have remained virtually intact, with the only real change being the maturation of the natural landscape. The integrity of the materials has much to do with the fact that the house has been well maintained, allowing for fewer repairs than would normally be expected in a house that was constructed 70 years ago.

References

http://www.archdaily.com/66302/ad-classics-eames-house-charles-and-rayeames http://eameshouseresearch.weebly.com/blog http://www.eamesfoundation.org http://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/ca/Eames.pdf