Fundamentals in Digital Media: Eames House

EAMES HOUSE CASE STUDY HOUSE#8

LUDM I L L A B E L L E C A N T O

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE DESIGNERS Charles + Ray Eames THE HOUSE Making of an Icon Site Plan Floor Plans + Elevations ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN Structure Materials Sustainability Program Renderings

THE DESIGNERS CHARLES + RAY EAMES Charles and Ray Eames were American designers that contributed mainly to modern architecture and furniture.

Their progressive and playful perspective on life translated to their work. For the Eameses, the domestic space would make no demands for itself and would serve as a background for, as Charles would say, “a life in work”, and would work with nature a a “schock absorber”.

THE HOUSE MAKING OF AN ICON The end of WWII called for the construtive of innovative, low cost, prototypical modern houses that woud serve the needs of post war families. Arts & Architecture Magazine under the direction of the magazine’s publisher, John Entenza, spear headed the Case Study House campaign. Charles Eames and Ero Saarinen designed the 1945

THE HOUSE SITE PLAN The landscape of the site was so beautiful that the Eameses changed their original design of the Bridge House to create a stronger connection between the interior and the exterior eucalyptus tree. They redesigned the house to stack on the side of the concrete wall in order to

the site, the house runs parallel a central meadow giving the work verses play methodology of that time. There are eucalyptus trees that were originally planted as a screen to provide privacy and shade between the Eames and Entenza houses. Presently, the trees have grown to such an extent that they almost obscure the Eames House completely.

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THE HOUSE

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN STRUCTURE The Eames House has a modular design composed of 20’ consisting of two rows of 4-inch H-columns. The residence open court that separates the two structures is the equivalent of four bays in width.

The industrial design creates a grid using the steel frame structure with the exposed frames painted in black. In contrast, the diagonal cross bracing that is composed of metal cables which provide structural stability to the frame are white. The grid creates repetition and continuity not only within itself as a structural element but also emphasizes the aspects of industrial prefabrication.

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN MATERIALS the structural frame using prefabricated parts. The materials that were chosen for the structure were picked with the idea in mind that they would be exposed. They needed to mix well with the interior space and so the beams were painted black in order to make a better transition from just structure to visual aspect of the overall space.

ROOF: asphalt, exposed steel beams WALLS: glass, stucco, wood, asbestos, metal, synthetics FOUNDATION: concrete FRAME: steel

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY The overall cost was approximately $1 per square foot (or about $10 per square foot today – $1.50 less than the average home price in 1949!). They accomplished this remarkably low cost by using relatively inexpensive, sustainable, prefabricated materials, and compartmentalizing the design in order to simplify construction.

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN PROGRAM The Eames House is a beautiful continuation of space. and public spaces are not strictly divided.There are no major divisions other than the separation of the two boxes, which still merge into one another with the courtyard. The house is an unrolling scroll of a Mondrian materials to create beautiful endless space.

The solid panels that are painted in various primary colors on the exterior correspond to the character of the functions taking place behind them. This utilizes classic Japanese architecture by selectively framing views. The lyptus tree endlessly multiply and relocate. The Eamses even replaced a panel on the south faรงade with a phopanel should be understood as a photographic frame.

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE +DESIGN

INTERIOR DESIGN

REFERENCES Canales, Francisco GonzÆlezDe, Dorota Biczel, and Lucy Bullivant. Experiments with Life Itself: Radical omestic Architectures Between 1937 and 1959. Barcelona: Actar, 2012. Print.

Colomina, Beatriz. Domesticity at War. Barcelona: Actar, 2006. Print.

"The Eames House Sparked New Thinking in Modern Living." Inhabitat Sustainable Design. Inhabitat.com, n.d. eb. 18 Sept. 2015.

Steele, James. Twentieth Century Houses. London: Phaidon, 1999. Print.