Take Your Pleasure Seriously by Xavier Butcher

Take Your Pleasure Seriously â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

The Work of Charles and Ray Eames

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Designed by Xavier Butcher Swinburne University Press 2013

Take Your Pleasure Seriously First Published in 2013 by Swinburne University Press PO Box 218 HAWTHORN VIC 3122 Australia ISBN 3-931884-63-5 Designed by Xavier Butcher xavierbutcher.com Typeset in Linotype Avenir by Adrian Frutiger Printed in Australia by Print Corner 1/153A High Street Prahran Vic 3181 Australia Phone: 03 9533 9999 Fax: 03 9533 9933

Contents 7

– Introduction

– De Pree House

– La Chaise

– Tandem Sling Seating

– The Eames Couple

– Furniture

– Plastic Armchair

– Chaise

– Charles

– The Eames Lounge Chair

– Plastic Side Chair

– Soft Pad Group

– Ray

– Plywood Lounge Chair

– Wire Mesh Chair

– Plywood Splints

– Architecture

– DCM

– Wire Sofa

– Plywood Sculpture

– The Eames House

– DCW

– Sofa Compact

– Plywood Screens

– Entenza House

– LCM

– Aluminium Group

– House of Cards

– Kwikset House

– LCW

– La Fonda Chair

– Bibliography

Introduction

“Take Your Pleasure Seriously” is a retrospective of the Eames couple and their work from the 1930’s to the 1980’s. This exhibition presents a broad selection of the Eames’ most important pieces, ranging from architecture, to films, furniture and toys. The Eames’ have had a huge impact on the design world, particularly through their innovative manufacturing and furniture. This exhibition pays homage to these masters of 20th century design, presenting a comprehensive record of their legacy.

The Eames Couple Not only did Charles Eames (1907– 1978) and his wife, Ray (1912–1988) design some of the most important examples of 20th century furniture, they also applied their talents to devising ingenious children’s toys, puzzles, films, exhibitions and such iconic mid-20th century Los Angeles buildings as the Eames House and Entenza House in Pacific Palisades. The last thing the landlord expected when he rented a modest Richard Neutra-designed apartment on Strathmore Avenue in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood to a newly married couple in 1941 was for the spare bedroom to be turned into a workshop. No sooner had Charles and Ray Eames moved in than they kitted out that room with a home-made moulding machine into which they fed the woods and glues that Charles sneaked home from his day job as a set architect on MGM movies like Mrs Miniver. It was on this machine — dubbed the “Kazam!” After the saying “Ala Kazam!” Because the plywood formed in the mould like magic — that the Eames produced their first massmanufactured product, a plywood leg splint based on a plaster mould of Charles’ own leg. A year later, the US Navy placed an order for 5,000 splints and the Eames moved their workshop out of their apartment into a rented studio on nearby Santa Monica Boulevard. The combination of visionary design and ingenuity that had prompted Charles and Ray Eames to prototype a mass-manufactured product in their spare room was to characterise their work over the next four decades.

Together they not only designed some of the most influential and innovative furniture of the late 20th century, but through their films, teaching, writing and their life together in the house they designed in Pacific Palisades, they defined an open, organic, emotionally expressive approach to design and lifestyle. Both Charles and Ray were the youngest of two children in middleclass families and gifted students with a flair for art: otherwise their backgrounds were very different. Born in 1907, Charles Ormand Eames grew up in St Louis, Missouri where his father, a keen amateur photographer, worked in railway security. When Charles was eight, his father was injured in a robbery and died four years later. Charles helped to support the family with part-time jobs, but still excelled at school. His class yearbook described him as “a man with ideals, courage to stand up for them and ability to live up to them.” After high school he met a fellow student, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. Her father paid for them to honeymoon in Europe where they saw the work of Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Back in St Louis, Charles opened an architectural office which won commissions for houses only to fold in the depression. After eight months away on what he called his “On The Road tour” in Mexico, Charles set up another practise in 1935 and was asked to design a house for the Meyers, friends of Catherine’s. He sought the advice of the architect Eliel Saarinen who offered him a fellowship to study architecture and design at Cranbrook Academy.

There, Charles deepened his friendship with Eliel and his son Eero - with whom he won the 1940 Museum of Modern Art Organic Furniture Competition - and found new collaborators notably Harry Bertoia and, later, Ray Kaiser. Born in Sacramento, Calfiornia in 1912 as Bernice Alexandra Kaiser, Ray came from a close, creative family. Her father was a theatre manager-turned-insurance salesman and both parents encouraged her love of art, film and dance. After her father’s death in 1929, Ray and her mother moved to New York to be closer to her brother, an army cadet at West Point. Ray enrolled at the Art Students League and studied painting under Hans Hoffman. When her mother died in 1940, Ray moved to Cranbrook, where she met and fell in love with Charles. He divorced Catherine in May, 1941 and married Ray in Chicago a month later. They set off for a long honeymoon drive to their new home in Los Angeles. On the journey, they picked up a tumbleweed from the road which still hangs from the ceiling of the Eames House today. In LA, Charles found work at MGM and Ray created covers for California Art & Architecture magazine. At night, they conducted plywood experiments in their apartment. The US Navy order enabled the Eames to rent an office on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1942 and to gather a group of collaborators including Harry Bertoia (who had designed Ray’s wedding ring) and Gregory Ain. Continuing their experiments, they produced sculpture, chairs, screens, tables and even toy animals in plywood. Herman Miller, the US furniture group, was persuaded to put some of these pieces into production by George Nelson, its head of design. All the Eames’ plywood combined an elegant organic aesthetic with a love of materials and technical ingenuity.

These qualities were also apparent in the showroom they designed for Herman Miller in 1949 and the Case Study Houses, a low cost housing project sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine which included the Eames House, a steel structure with sliding walls and windows. Designed for cheap, speedy construction, it took five men 16 hours to raise the steel shell and one man three days to build the roof deck. Spacious, light and versatile, the vividly coloured Eames House was described by the design historian Pat Kirkham as looking like “a Mondrian-style composition in a Los Angeles meadow”. Unsurprisingly, the house and its contents epitomised Charles and Ray’s approach to design and their “good life” concept of celebrating the beauty of everyday objects as well as precious ones. The dried-out tumbleweed from their honeymoon hung alongside a Robert Motherwell painting. Toys, masks and other folkloric souvenirs collected from their travels were laid out on tables next to stones, buttons, pieces of bark and favourite books. The British architects, Peter and Alison Smithson, described the house as “a cultural gift parcel”. Its fusion of the massmanufactured and folkloric appeared in the Eames’ films and graphic projects, like their 1952 interlocking House of Cards game, for which Eliel Saarinen coined the term “spiritual function”. Charles and Ray sustained this spirit in the way they dressed: he in open-necked shirts and loose pants, she in a bohemian version of a conventionally feminine wardrobe of short-sleeved blouses and full skirts. The film director Billy Wilder and his wife Audrey, who befriended the Eames after commissioning a sadly unbuilt house from them, remarked that Ray’s idea of formal dress was to put on a clean blouse and Charles’ take on black tie was literally to wear a black tie. Ray’s self-consciously feminine guise underscored the role she adopted within their relationship of Charles’ younger, adoring protégé and underplaying her contribution to their work, which contrasts with the picture of painted by Charles himself of a gifted, energetic woman. After plywood, the Eames focused on equally zealous experiments with other materials by creating furniture in fibreglass, plastic, aluminium and, for the 1956 Lounge Chair, leather and a very opulent plywood.

The Lounge became an icon of the 1960’s and 1970’s - no ambitious executive had made it until there was one in his (or very occasionally) her office - but Charles always expressed a preference for his earlier, less expensive plywood designs. Their collaboration with Herman Miller continued and extended to Vitra, its European partner. The Eames also began a long-lasting relationship with IBM for which they made films and designed exhibitions. Like all important designers, the Eames were blessed with good timing. There were no shortage of empathetic corporate partners in the expanding US post-war economy at a time of rapid advances in materials and production processes and their democratic view of design struck a chord in an era of growing affluence. Throughout the 1950’s, their furniture was exhibited in the Good Design shows with which MoMA, New York sought to raise the public’s awareness of design. The Eames’ furniture, especially elegant office chairs such as the Lounge and Aluminium Series, now seem synonymous with mid-20th century Corporate America, but Charles and Ray equally influential at making respectable the then-neglected folkcrafts not only in the US but in India, for which they produced the 1950s Eames Report on raising standards of design training. These concerns dominated their later work in the 1970s when, able to live comfortably on their Herman Miller and Vitra royalties, they concentrated their creative energy on propagating their ideas in exhibitions, books and films.

Work remained the centre of their lives - with working days running from 9am to 10pm and a full-time cook on hand so they needn’t leave the studio to eat - until Charles’ death in 1978. Ray then worked hard to complete any unfinished projects but, having done so, did not seek new ones. She devoted the rest of her life to communicating their ideas through talks and writing. Ray Eames died of cancer on 21 August 1988, ten years to the day after Charles.

Charles “I was born in St. Louis in 1907, on the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. The first thing I can really remember is my mother and father stopping in the middle of a piano-violin duet and going out to see Halley’s Comet. The next real thing ... that I remember taking part in was watching the survivors of the Titanic come in. And if that isn’t enough to sort of link me to the turn of the century, I had a father who was much older than I was. But really, he was about the age I am now when I was born. I was raised by my mother, sister, and two aunts that are ... were still at the time reliving the [1904] World’s Fair in St. Louis, and I couldn’t wish any young man a better raising situation. There are a lot of things I do remember in terms of books, like Etidorhpa, Aphrodite spelled backwards, which was a great science fiction story and I tried for years to hypnotise myself by looking past a candle in the mirror. But there ... there was George M. Hopkin’s ‘Elementary, Practical and Experimental Physics,’ illustrated with 680 engravings, Munn, New York, 1890. Whether it was this or Bulwer-Lytton, I don’t know, but I developed an absolute passion for reading instructions. I read instructions about anything. Particularly, at that time, instructions were given in maybe twenty or thirty languages, and half of those in different scripts, but it was usually about patent medicine, and stuff. However, in 1919, my father died and the instruction reading paid off when I got to be browsing into boxes of photographic chemicals, plates, a Corona four or five by seven with a rapid rectilinear lens, and everything ... and soon I was making ... mixing

emulsions and photographing on wet plates. I did it for a year before I discovered that Eastman had already invented film and this wasn’t necessary. This led to a sort of sequence of events, that completely spared me from adolescence. I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad ... I wouldn’t want to risk it myself. I drew an awful lot. And, well, between 1914 and 1918 my pictures of Kaiser Wilhelm were very much in demand. This led immediately to architecture. Architecture ... this is of course the architecture of the Ecole des Beaux Arts ... this is Washington University in St. Louis and it was a Beaux Arts school. One of the nicest parts of it that ... about half my classes were held in a half-scale reproduction or replica of the Temple of Karnak, and believe me the Temple of Karnak at half-scale is still great and big, and schools should be so good as working in the building. There I had the great teacher one runs into: Professor Lawrence hill, he was a teacher in architecture. He taught a combination of elements of architecture and history, which is a marvellous kind of combination. The fact that by the beginning of my second year Professor Hill was instrumental in having busted out of school, as they say, didn’t in any way dampen my ardour for him. We were great friends later on. I went directly into architectural work — I was working in an office, this was 1917 ... 1927 and 1928. Boy, those were, they were sort of lush years. I saved my ill-gotten gains, went to Europe - it was 1929 in the fall, crashed, I spent everything I had.

I came back, I was broke, but everybody else was broke, too. But I had had the work in Europe. The only thing to do then is to go into practice. Now going into the practice of architecture in 1930 is really something. And it’s the greatest thing that could happen, because you practice architecture and you have to do everything. And we did some little churches, we did some houses and residences, and if there was sculpture to do, you carved the sculpture. If there was a mural to paint, you painted the mural. We designed vestments, we designed lighting fixtures and residences, rugs, carving ... and you helped build the building.”

“Take your pleasure seriously.”

Ray Ray-Ray was the nickname given to Bernice Alexandra Kaiser by her family. Beyond that, little is known of her childhood in Sacramento, although Ray’s artistic talent was evidently recognized early on. After high school she left California with her widowed mother for New York City, where she studied with the German Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann and exhibited her paintings. After her mother’s death, Ray left New York for further training at the Art Academy in Cranbrook, Michigan, where Charles Eames was one of her teachers and mentors. After divorcing his first wife, Charles married Ray in 1941 in Chicago. The couple left immediately for Southern California, where they opened a design office. An extraordinary personal and artistic collaboration began with this move, an unusually creative partnership that resulted in innovative designs for furniture, houses, monuments, exhibitions - even toys. Their aim was to utilize new materials and technology, so that everyday objects of high quality in both form and function could be produced at reasonable cost. Many of their furniture designs have become contemporary classics. Moreover, they altered our way of viewing the world by their use of multi-media presentations as they developed multi-screen slideshows for schools and corporations that presented everyday objects in startling new

ways. Together they designed countless exhibitions and directed over 80 experimental films. Ray and Charles Eames developed several new production processes. At first they supplied the American Navy with leg splints and stretchers during World War II. But it was the chairs they designed from this moulded plywood that brought a break-through after the war. In the first years, Ray was still painting and designing textiles and title illustrations for the journal “Art and Architecture,” but after 1947 she devoted herself entirely to the teamwork needed to run and expand their design studio. Before long Eames Design, especially the furniture of moulded plywood, fiberglass–reinforced plastic, bent and welded wire mesh, and cast aluminium—distributed by the manufacturer, Herman Miller— brought them an international following. Already in 1949 the couple was able to build their dream house on a beautiful meadow overlooking the ocean in Pacific Palisades. Charles was the more charismatic partner that gave the firm its public face, but the photographic record of their work—there are few written documents—makes clear that this diminutive, energetic, witty woman was an equal partner in their projects. Ray was co-director of almost all of the films, for example. Every project was in fact a team effort, and by the 1960’s the couple had over 50 co-workers in their employ. By the 1970’s Ray was taking an increasingly public role and feminist art critics were drawing attention to her contributions to Eames Design,

but there is a great deal of difficulty in isolating her “oeuvre” within the complicated design process. The socalled “Time-Life chair,” for example, is often attributed specifically to her. But asked about any specific piece of furniture, Ray herself maintained that she had contributed to details of the design in a “million ways” and to the overall form by looking at the whole critically, but that was something that everyone in the office did. It is said that Ray had an exceptional visual acuity and memory. Although it was sometimes hard for her to make a choice, it was often her obsessive attention to every last detail in the

choice of colour, material or even the basic form of a piece of furniture that led to the pleasing overall result. Ray adored found objects of all kinds, and she lovingly collected items for display, arranging them in a room or an exhibition in such a way that they created a special visual effect. After Charles’ sudden death in 1978 the office was disbanded, although Ray finished several large projects that were already underway, for example the German version of “Mathematica,” an exhibition originally designed for the California Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles.

In her later years Ray also functioned as the chief archivist of their legacy and collaborated on a number of books about Eames Design. Her creativity and productivity were so intertwined with that of her partner, it hardly seems a coincidence that she passed away on the same day as Charles exactly ten years later. Always a stickler for detail, even a decade had not been enough for Ray to order the archives meticulously.

“What works is better than what looks good. The looks good can change, but what works, works.”

Architecture

Charles Eames considered everything the Eames Office did as an extension of architecture and as early as 1937 Ray wrote, “Modern architecture—not a style. A philosophy of life.” Nevertheless, the list of their built — or even designed — buildings is short indeed. Like with most finished products, especially with those that have become famous or familiar or treasured by people, the Eames House exists for most as a snapshot of when they first encountered it.

Another goal was to try to use some of the technologies that had evolved from the war for something besides killing people. The Eames House was designed to be made entirely out of off-the-shelf pre-made parts to show that a house could be prefabricated and still be a successful home. The initial design of the Eames House was actually designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen in their only other architectural collaboration besides the Entenza House (next door to the Eames House).

But, in fact, it went through a fair amount of transformation. The house was commissioned as a part of the Case Study House Program, sponsored by Arts and Architecture Magazine, publisher John Entenza. One of the goals of the case study program was to find ways to house the GIs who were expected to deluge America after World War II. In the program, every house had a hypothetical client. In the Eames House, Charles and Ray made sure they were the client, therefore the house was designed for a working couple with grown children, who needed a studio space.

This design was known as the Bridge House. After the parts were delivered, however, Charles and Ray realised that they had made the classic architectural mistake of choosing a beautiful site, and wiping it out with a building. Therefore, Charles and Ray decided to pose themselves a new problem: how to enclose the maximum volume with the same elements. It is this design, which was eventually built, and it is this design that is properly credited to Charles and Ray. As it happens, they did build it out of the same pile of parts, and only had to order one extra beam.

The Eames House 1949 The Eames House, Case Study House #8, was one of roughly two dozen homes built as part of The Case Study House Program. Begun in the mid-1940s and continuing through the early 1960s, the program was spearheaded by John Entenza, the publisher of Arts and Architecture magazine. In a challenge to the architectural community, the magazine announced that it would be the client for a series of homes designed to express man’s life in the modern world. These homes were to be built and furnished using materials and techniques derived from the experiences of the Second World War. Each home would be for a real or hypothetical client taking into consideration their particular housing needs. Charles and Ray proposed that the home they designed would be for a married couple working in design and graphic arts, whose children were no longer living at home. They wanted a home that would make no demands for itself, and would serve as a background for, as Charles would say, “life in work” and with nature as a “shock absorber.” The first plan of the Eames’’ home, known as the Bridge House, was designed in 1945 by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.

The design used pre-fabricated materials ordered from catalogues, a continuation of the idea of massproduction. The parts were ordered and the Bridge House design was published in the December 1945 issue of the magazine, but due to a war-driven shortage, the steel did not arrive until late 1948. By then, Charles and Ray had “fallen in love with the meadow,” in Ray’s words, and felt that the site required a different solution. Charles and Ray then set themselves a new problem: How to build a house that would: 1) not destroy the meadow and, 2) “maximize volume from minimal materials”. Using the same off-the-shelf parts, but notably ordering one extra steel beam, Charles and Ray re-configured the House. The new design integrated the House into the landscape, rather than imposing the House on it. These plans were published in the May 1949 of the magazine. It is this design that was built and is seen today. Charles and Ray moved into the House on Christmas Eve, 1949, and lived there for the rest of their lives. The interior, its objects and its collections remain very much the way they were in Charles and Ray’s lifetimes. The house they created offered them a space where work, play, life, and nature co-existed. The House has now become something of an iconographic structure visited by people from around the world. The charm and appeal of the House is perhaps best explained in the words of Case Study House founder, John Entenza, who felt that the Eames House “represented an attempt to state an idea rather than a fixed architectural pattern.”

Entenza House Built for the editor and publisher of Arts & Architecture magazine John Entenza, Case Study House #9 was the twin to its predecessor CS #8. The two homes, both designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, sat on adjacent lots and although they shared similar construction materials and methods, their overall scheme and sensibility was quite different. The interior structure of CS #9 was concealed within plastered and woodpaneled surfaces and much emphasis was placed on extensive areas for entertaining as dictated by the client, with very little space devoted to private rooms. CS #9 was one of the first steel-framed houses of the program and unlike most of the other homes, the original design and vision underwent very few changes.

1949

Kwikset House 1951

Through an Eames acquaintance, Bernard Cerlin, the Kwikset Lock Company of Anaheim, California, commissioned the Eames Office to design a low-cost,prefabricated house to be constructed with off-the-shelf parts and hardware, manufactured in quantity, and sold as a kit. The office proposed a house that was modular in plan and design.

The front facade was designed as a modular metal framework into which the door and panels of translucent and wired glass were fitted. The one-story structure had a curved roof made of sections of plywood supported by curved and laminated plywood beams. The beams and other structural members were to be left exposed. The open plan of the interior was divided by free standing storage walls into a living and dining area, a kitchen, enclosed bathrooms, and two bedrooms. The kitchen and bathrooms were at the sides of the structure, and the utilities were grouped together. The large living room opened out to a garden. A one-inch scale model of the house was constructed and furnished with miniature Eames furniture. Soon after the model was completed, the Kwikset company changed hands,

however, and though the plan and the projected costs of construction met the conditions of the original proposal, a prototype house was not built,In the design of the Kwikset House, the Eames Office extended the industrial principles used in designing the two 1949 Case Study houses and the 1950 Billy Wilder House to satisfy the requirement that the house be entirely factory prefabricated. Unlike the Eames, Entenza, and Wilder houses, a minimum of interior finishing was called for and in theory, at least, could be done easily by the house owner. The house was designed for the mild Southern California climate; the openness of the interior, the wall and floor materials, and the detailing were similar in treatment to many of the Case Study houses of the time designed by other architects. The office also drew upon Don Albinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiences in living in a prefabricated house in the San Fernando Valley, which was designed by Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius and built by the General Panel Corporation of California. Kwikset locks and hardware, advertised in Arts & Architecture magazine, were part of the package.

De Pree House 1954

The classically modern structure of the Max and Esther De Pree House sits in a modest neighbourhood of small homes in Zeeland, not far from the headquarters of Herman Miller, Incorporated, the company that De Preeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father founded and that championed modern design beginning in 1930. The house is fronted by two symmetrical structures: one a single-car garage, the other a study. A covered walkway between the two leads to the house, a rectangular, flat-roofed, two-story building of two thousand square feet. Constructed of modules contained between vertical members, the exterior displays windows designed to maximise airflow and solid wood. For privacy, the natural cedar-clad sides of the house have no windows. Large windows at the rear of the house look out into a wooded area sloping down to a stream.

Furniture Recognising the need, Charles Eames said, is the primary condition for design. Early in their careers together, Charles and Ray identified the need for affordable, yet highquality furniture for the average consumer—furniture that could serve a variety of uses. For forty years the Eames’ experimented with ways to meet this challenge, designing flexibility into their compact storage units and collapsible sofas for the home; seating for stadiums, airports, and schools; and chairs for virtually anywhere. Their chairs were designed for Herman Miller in four materials—moulded plywood, fibreglass-reinforced plastic, bent and welded wire mesh, and cast aluminium. The conceptual backbone of this diverse work was the search for seat and back forms that comfortably support the human body, using three dimensionally shaped surfaces or flexible materials instead of cushioned upholstery. An ethos of functionalism informed all of their furniture designs. “What works is better than what looks good,” Ray said. “The looks good can change, but what works, works.”

The Eames Lounge Chair 1958 The long, fascinating history of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman actually begins many years before the chair was ever built, and many years before it was even thought of. Like all great products it was a mixture of inspiration, luck, good design, intelligent oversight, and a particular moment in history. The chair didn’t spring from whole cloth, nor was it born fully formed in the minds of its creators, leaping out of their heads like Athena. It was the product of long brainstorming sessions, testing, piloting, prototyping, and a generous love of design for design’s sake. The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman came out of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames, a legendary design institution that would incubate thousands of brilliant ideas, brainstorming sessions, toys, exhibits, and playful, beautiful, enduring design. The Office of Charles and Ray Eames was a safe haven, a playground for design oriented personalities, where they could explore their interests and ideas with a free rein. From this Eden-like studio, the very first moulded plywood chairs were built, and the first step in a long series

was taken into making the Eames Lounge Chair what it is today. The moulded plywood chair, nowadays most often referred to as simply the Eames Chair, was groundbreaking is several different ways, all of which are applicable to the Eames Lounge Chair. The moulded plywood material that was used had never been seen before, and was the product of a brand new process of super-heating the wood and then bending it into impossibly perfect and smooth curves. This had never been done before, and while the first moulded plywood chairs were quite simple (and are today mostly seen in children’s classrooms), they were nevertheless quite bold and unique. The undulating seat and the curved back both contributed to the paradox the Eames’ strove for with nearly all of their furniture; the balance between modern processes and natural forms and inspiration. The moulded plywood chair was one of the fathers of the Eames Lounge Chair, without a doubt, and the materials (moulded plywood), prestige, and inspiration were very similar, though the final looks were not.

Every great piece of art has a story, often one as interesting and instructive as the piece itself. The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman is no exception to this rule. Composed of moulded plywood and leather, made to accommodate the spirit of the time, designed to stand the test of time, and built to be the most comfortable, durable, elegant and well-used chair possible. The Eames Lounge Chair is a pillar of modern design that stands up to the inquiries of any critic with flying colours, existing comfortably in every era of design that has passed since its initial construction. How did this chair come to be what it is today? What was the inspiration? What was the purpose? And who was behind it? The design story of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman begins in Hollywood, takes a detour through the great outdoors, borrows a little from the great American pastime, and ends in the living room, simply comfortable and simply lovely. It includes a director, two designers, and the unseen hand of nature, and it tells you everything you need to know about the Eamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, and about just how to build that perfect chair.

Billy Wilder was one of the great directors of Hollywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heyday, back in the 30s, 40s and 50s. An icon, a stylist, a writer, he was justly famous and had a lot of friends in the art, film, and entertainment world. Two of these friends were Charles and Ray Eames, two of the greatest designers to work in this century. They built buildings, designed toys, chairs, tables, tops; they made films and wrote articles, they built whole dreamworlds and played out elaborate thought experiments in the playground of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames, ground zero for much of the best design work ever to appear on the American scene. One day, Charles and Ray were on the set of one of Wilderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s films. Directing is a difficult and exhausting process, and they noticed that Wilder was rigging up makeshift lounge chairs for himself in between takes, so he could take short naps and retreat for a few moments from the unending bustle of the film set.

The slap dash rigs he put together struck a chord with the Eames, and the setting (the noise and trauma of a modern world reflected in a harried film set) in combination with the object (a handmade retreat from said madhouse, built for comfort and relaxation) inspired them to begin thinking about a product of their own. A lounge chair that would embrace the ideals of comfort and simplicity (even elegance) and show in its construction and appearance the curves and forms of a the natural world, as means of escape from the modern one. After years of experimentation, cultivation, and inspiration, this idea would become the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, one of the greatest pieces of furniture ever made, and certainly tops in its decade and century.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as simply drawing up and producing a chair that reminded them of the constructions Wilder was making on his sets. Each piece of furniture the legendary husband and wife duo made invariably bore their unique, thoughtful, playful stamp. The real work of designing the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman began in the Office of Ray and Charles Eames, the little studio that could, the intellectual playground of the best designers in the country. The Office was the cradle of nearly every great idea the Eames’ would have in their long careers, and it was the incubator that spawned the careers of several excellent designers and artists. The list includes Harry Bertoia, Gregory Ain, Henry Beer, and Richard Foy, all of whom went on to do outstanding work on their own (Bertoia’s wire furniture set a new standard in an everexpanding field). Charles and Ray loved off-the-wall ideas, and encouraged their peers and office mates to come up with seemingly absurd possibilities and theorems, and believed that the playful struggle to deal with them led to great creativity and innovative solutions to problems. The idea for the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, the spark from which the design flowed, was seemingly simple but richly evocative and complex when translated to furniture; the idea was to make a lounge chair that resembled, in feel, emotion, and aesthetic, a well-used baseball mitt. One look at the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman and it’s obvious Charles and Ray succeeded in their quixoticat-first-glance mandate. The chair really does resemble that well-loved, broken-in, leather baseball mitt we’re familiar with from youth. It is therefore evocative of several competing ideas and feelings, including American tradition, comfort, reliability, familiarity and familiar materials, the advancement of age and the recession of childhood, and the juxtaposition of the modern world with the oft-dreamed-of old one. A worn baseball mitt is as American as apple pie, and so is the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. It’s also impossibly elegant, and in some ways a well-constructed contradiction.

Buffed Wax Rosewood, Black and polished Aluminium, Down cushions. H 33” by W 34” by D 32” Weight 80 lbs. Seat Height 15”

Plywood Lounge Chair 1946

Raw plywood, polished aluminium, rubber spacers. H 33” by W 34” by D 32” Weight 80 lbs. Seat Height 15”

A number of experiments were conducted in 1945 and 1946 in an effort to arrive at a comfortable plywood chair for reclining and lounging. The problem of designing a new lounge chair form had been tackled initially by Eero Saarinen and Charles in their chair designs for The Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’ competition in 1940. In the 1946 lounge-chair studies, carried on by Don Albinson (an Eames staff member and former Cranbrook student), among others, the spine connecting the seat and the back became a major structural and aesthetic element that unified the three large pieces of moulded plywood.

The rubber disks that connected the back, the arms, and the seat provided flexibility and resiliency and became an important part of the design solution. In one prototype, the wooden shell was supported by a metal base and the spine was a metal strap; in other versions, moulded wooden legs, T-section supports, tilt-back frames, and a tubular metal base provided the leg supports. Though never manufactured, the plywood lounge chair also included in the three early showings of Eames furniture in New York City, was the forerunner of the Eames leathercushioned, moulded wood lounge chair produced in 1956.

DCM 1946

Black aniline dye on wood, chrome finish legs, domes of silence glides. H 29” by W 19” by D 21” Weight 17 lbs. Seat Height 18”

Charles and Ray established their long and legendary relationship with Herman Miller in 1946 with the boldly original moulded plywood dining and lounge chairs. Since then, the chairs’ aesthetic integrity, enduring charm, and comfort have earned it recognition as the best of modern design. Today, the Eames Moulded Plywood Dining and Lounge chairs use the same technique pioneered by the Eames’ to create an authentic design in an array of finish and material options. They work just about anywhere—from elegant dining rooms to eclectic bungalows, around conference room or kitchen tables. The Eames Office chose to dye the wood, instead of painting it, because of their commitment to honesty: What’s wood should always be revealed as wood. With dye, the grain of the wood is expressed through the dark finish.

DCW 1946

Hailed by Time magazine as the Best Design of the 20th Century, the iconic DCW or “Dining Chair Wood” (1946) began as an experiment in the Eames’’ apartment, where they were moulding plywood in what they called the “Kazam! Machine.” The machine pressed thin sheets of wood veneer against a heated membrane that was inflated by a bicycle pump. Humble beginnings for what would become one of the world’s most widely recognized and highly coveted chairs. Expertly crafted with a moulded seat and back (no bike pumps are used today), this chair supports you in a comfortable ergonomic position while rubber shock mounts buffer against jarring movement.

Moulded 5-ply seat and back; 8-ply legs and back brace; rubber shock mounts. Wood Veneer finish: cherry, walnut or santos palisander faceveneer, or ash veneer painted red or ebony. Aniline finish: aniline-dyed beech plywood veneer. H 29” by W 19” by D 21” Weight 17 lbs. Seat Height 18”

LCM 1946

This LCM was probably made by Evans Products in 1946. Note the round metal flattened plate which holds the back to the shock mounts. That is characteristic of Evans production. Note the way the vertical metal upright is welded to the horizontal bar. The metal of the upright has been hand carved to fit over the horizontal part. You can see this in silhouette in the profile view. In 1946 there were variations in how these chairs were put together and this is one of the early variations.

Moulded 5-ply seat and back, rubber shock mounts. Wood Veneer finish: cherry, walnut or santos palisander faceveneer, or ash veneer painted red or ebony. H 26” by W 21” by D 25” Weight 17 lbs. Seat Height 18”

LCW 1946 The unusual dimensions of this chair, particularly the low seat height, the composition and thickness of the plywood elements, the deep contours of the moulded seat and the exceptionally rare duel circular shock mount assembly on the chair’s back, all serve to date this example to earlymid 1946 — a time of intense activity in the development of the plywood chairs. In late 1945, the Detroit-based Evans Products Company took the decision to begin marketing the Eames’s designs. Manufacture of display models for showrooms began at Evans’ Venice California subsidiary (Moulded Plywood Division) in early 1946 while production processes were still being refined. Fine-tuning the design of the chairs for mass-production proved difficult; from the outset, one of the greatest problems was perfecting the method by which the wooden chair backs were joined to the spine. Flexible rubber discs (shock mounts) were used to provide resiliency but attaching them to the wooden chair parts posed many technical problems. Different kinds of glues and other methods were tried and discarded, including electronic cycle-welding a lozenge shaped rubber shock mount to the wooden back and spine. The glued, duel disc and screw attachment assembly, as used on the present chair, was an early attempt at solving the connection problem but was abandoned when Charles and Ray Eames developed their own shock mounts, with integral metal parts.

Moulded 5-ply seat and back; 8-ply legs and back brace; rubber shock mounts. Wood Veneer finish: cherry, walnut or santos palisander faceveneer, or ash veneer painted red or ebony. H 26” by W 21” by D 25” Weight 17 lbs. Seat Height 13”

La Chaise 1948

This chair was originally designed in 1948 for the Museum of Modern Art’s “International Competition for Low Cost Furniture Design.” Another Eames design in that same competition, the armshell, won a prize and eventually went in to production in fibreglass, to great success. The play on words of the name “La Chaise” references both the furniture form and an observation by Charles and Ray that a floating sculpture by Gaston LaChaise could fit in this chair. In 1948 and for decades after, “La Chaise” proved too expensive to produce. In the 1990’s, in response to public interest and demand, long-time Eames partner, VITRA of Germany, started to make and distribute this chair. This example was produced in June, 1998. A proposal panel prepared for the MOMA competition gives an historical context for this design: “Conversation, rest & play. Gondola, Comfortable, Duchesse, Psyche, Kangaroo: are some of the names of the past for a type of seating that fills a difficult-to-define need of the time.”

Two bonded fibreglass shells, chromed rod base with natural oak cruciform foot. H 34” by W 59” by D 35” Weight 25 lbs. Seat Height 16”

Plastic Armchair 1950 The Eames Plastic Chairs are renewed versions of the legendary Fibreglass Chairs. The original, which was the very first industrially produced plastic chair, was jointly developed with Zenith Plastics for the‚ LowCost Furniture Design‘ competition organised by the Museum of Modern Art. In the current version made of polypropylene, these chairs are even more comfortable. With its integrated armrests, the organically shaped shell of the Plastic Armchair offers superb comfort. The wide selection of bases makes it possible to use the chairs in a variety of settings: from the dining room or home office to the garden. Shells come in a broad range of colours and upholstery versions, so that components can be mixed and matched to find the perfect chair for individual needs. The Eames Plastic Armchair is complemented by the Eames Plastic Side Chair without armrests. A landmark design from Charles and Ray Eames, these were the first industrially manufactured plastic chairs. Their clean, simple forms cradle the body. Today’s chairs are authentic original design with updated, eco-friendly materials and manufacturing and a large selection of base, shell, and colour combinations. More than accent pieces, they are comfortable, durable performers in homes, offices, libraries, museums— just about everywhere.

Four-legged wire base with crossstruts, chrome-plated or powdercoated. H 26.5” by W 24.5” by D 27” Weight 12 lbs. Seat Height 13”

Plastic Side Chair 1950 True to the original, but now made with eco-friendly materials, the Eames Moulded Plastic Side chair is what it has always been—a comfortable and durable art object for your home. The organic shapes and sophisticated lines of this chair work anywhere—in the dining area, living room, family room, home office. The formality of the dowel legs is especially appropriate in traditional décor and in dining and living room settings. The Eames Plastic Chairs are renewed versions of the legendary Fibreglass Chairs. The original, which was the very first industrially produced plastic chair, was jointly developed with Zenith Plastics for the ‘LowCost Furniture Design’ competition organised by MOMA.

In the current version made of polypropylene, these chairs provide even greater comfort. With its simple organic shape, the Plastic Side Chair now seems like an archetype of the genre of chairs whose shell can be combined with diverse bases. The selection of bases makes it possible to use the chairs in a wide variety of settings: from the dining room or home office to the garden. Shells come in a broad range of colours and upholstery versions, so that components can be mixed and matched to find the perfect chair for individual needs. The Eames Plastic Side Chair is complemented by the Eames Plastic Armchair with integrated armrests.

Polymer shell, Four-legged wire base with cross-struts, chromeplated or powdercoated. H 26.5” by W 24.5” by D 27” Weight 12 lbs. Seat Height 13”

Wire Mesh Chair 1951

Medium painted steel, jute, oily cattle body hair. H 24” by W 23” by D 15” Weight 12 lbs. Seat Height 13”

Having achieved success with their plywood and moulded plastic chairs, Charles and Ray Eames challenged themselves to make a reasonably priced, strong but lightweight, quality chair out of bent wire. It was an immediate hit. Distinctively, unmistakably Eames, the wire chair has stood the test of time and is as popular today as it was half a century ago. In the Eames design studio, new materials were the name of the game. After all, it was Charles and Ray who had developed new ways to mould wood that were so successful that their discoveries were used in numerous ways by the US Navy during World War II. That same moulded plywood, and then moulded plastic, ended up as materials in innovative chairs produced in the 1940s. Never content to repeat themselves, in the early 1950s, the Eames’ and their design staff turned to bent and welded wire.

Inspired by trays, dress forms, and baskets, the designers developed a variety of pieces, including Eames wire chairs. To achieve the desired shape and strength, while keeping costs low (because affordability was a major criterion of Eames designs), they made the rim of the chair a lightergauge wire and doubled it. This advance won them the first American mechanical patent for design. They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use cross-weaving on the outer edges, which made the chair lighter in weight and less expensive to produce. The original chair padding was fabric, not leather, and the first attempts at making it hit a snag: The padding slid around too much on the wire network. To solve the problem, the Eamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; took a quintessentially Eames approach; working with a design school, they developed equipment and methods to make the padding they wanted, moved the equipment into their studio, and produced the padding on the spot.

Wire Sofa 1951

Using the same materials and technology developed for the wire chair, Eames Office staff member Don Albinson produced a prototype for a folding sofa made of wire mesh. It was designed for assembly by the buyer: a series of four collapsible wire struts on runners supported the sofa framework, three clothhinged cushions with button-tuftedupholstery were attached to the metal framework at the back of the top and the front and back of the seat. The high back of the sofa was removable for shipping. The wire sofa had a lightweight, airy quality and a whimsical appearance, especially when seen without its cushions. Although all of its specifications met the time honoured Eames requirements for furniture design and the office and the Herman Miller Furniture Company were enthusiastic about its sales potential, the sofa was never manufactured. Although it was conceived as an economical, knockdown item made of industrial materials,the actual factory construction of the sofaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wire frame work required too much labour to be practical for mass production. Only the prototypes of the two sizes of sofa illustrated here were produced. The concept and basic form, however, were used later in the design of the Eames Sofa Compact.

Steel rods, plywood base, down cushion. H 34” by W 55” by D 25” Weight 130 lbs. Seat Height 15”

Sofa Compact 1954 Why “compact” for a sofa that’s six feet wide and seats three? The clean profile of the Eames sofa compact is perfectly scaled for spaces too small for a traditional sofa—in executive suites, lounges, and homes. But you lose none of the comfort associated with the word couch. Impact and seating space in a sleek, slender, minimalist piece of classic midcentury furniture. The Eames sofa compact started out as a built-in sofa in the Pacific Palisades home that Charles and Ray Eames designed for themselves in the 1940s. They liked the sofa so much that they developed a freestanding version—first in wire, then the current model, which has been in continuous production since 1954. With all the comfort you expect from cushy, heavy sofas, the Eames sofa compact sits well where bulky traditional sofas can’t. In your home’s vestibule, study, craft or sewing room, or home office. In executive suites, lounges, and reception areas. In small apartment living rooms, where it provides plenty of seating without ruining the scale of the room.

The two foam pads that constitute the sofa back feature a reinforcing cord welting detail. Urethane foam seat cushions are supported by fabricreinforced rubber webbing on a steel and wire-spring armature. The steel frame is black enamel, and the tubular steel legs are chrome plated. Stainless steel glides have rubber bases. The design, which looks nothing like the big, plush traditional sofa, is crisp and light scaled. And while it’s perfect for smaller rooms and smaller spaces—in which a traditional sofa would look bulky and out of place—it also lives beautifully in larger rooms in which an airy, modern look is desired.

Alexander Girard Checker upholstery. Flat black enamel steel frame with polished chrome plated steel legs. H 38” by W 72” by D 29” Weight 140 lbs. Seat Height 15”

Aluminium Group 1958 The Aluminium Chair is one of the greatest furniture designs of the twentieth century. It was originally designed for a private residence in Columbus (Indiana, USA), which was built by the architects Eero Saarinen and Alexander Girard in the mid-1950s. For the construction of this chair, Charles and Ray Eames abandoned the principle of the seat shell, instead stretching a panel of fabric or leather between two aluminium side members to create a taut but elastic seat. The various versions of the chair oscillate between strict function, structure, human anatomy and machine-like rationality. The chair adapts to the body of the sitter and is exceedingly comfortable, even without elaborate upholstery.

Aluminium, Brown leather with back covers in Plano nero 72% PVC, 28% Polyester. H 30” by W 14” by D 30” Weight 90 lbs. Seat Height 22”

La Fonda Chair 1961

Originally designed by the Eames Office as a special commission for Alexander Girard’s New York City restaurant, La Fonda Del Sol. Girard requested chairs with backs that would not protrude above table tops. The Eames Office re-sculpted the original fibreglass arm chair, lowering its back and raising its arms into this new form. This is from a set of six La Fonda chairs, two arm chairs, and six side chairs, which came on to the market en suite with a table. The Eames Office also took the occasion of this commission to devise a new cast aluminium base, which made its debut in 1961 with this chair.

If you compare this base to the previous cast aluminium base, the contract base, you see what a breakthrough is represented by this base. The “contract” base comes in three distinct parts, each requiring a separate manufacturing process: the cast aluminium base, the pole, and the spider which cradles the shell or seat. The La Fonda base has four identical component parts, welded (in the case of this example) and later bolted together. There by, in one manufacturing step, the making of the four quarters of this base, the Eames Office had a base which: cradled the seat, elevated the sitter, and securely rested on the floor.

Steel legs, polymer body, charcoal naugahyde upholstery. H 25” by W 15” by D 22” Weight 70 lbs. Seat Height 18”

Tandem Sling Seating 1962

Eames tandem sling seating serves millions of travellers every day and does it comfortably and reliably. Designed for Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare International Airport in 1962, the sleek, contemporary design remains in style for all kinds of public transportation stations. Around the world, people find it a comfortable, inviting place to wait. And terminal operators appreciate its space-saving flexibility, durability, and easy maintenance. Charles and Ray Eames designed their tandem sling seating for Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare International Airport in 1962 to address the need for comfortable, attractive, and sturdy public seating. They based the design on the sling system developed for their aluminium group chairs.

Aluminium, Brown leather with back covers in Plano nero 72% PVC, 28% Polyester, rubber joints. H 30” by W 30-150” by D 20” Weight 80 lbs. Seat Height 15”

In 2009, the Chicago Architecture Foundation mounted an exhibit, ORD: Documenting the Definitive Modern Airport, and included a pair of Eames tandem sling seats along with an acoustic installation of airport sounds and historic photographs of the airport by Hedrich Blessing and Robert Burley. Although it was designed almost 50 years ago, this seating is hard to improve upon. In 2005, the Sydney Morning Herald asked a selection of designers and architects to nominate the best and worst of design. Some of the “best” choices were the Jaguar E-type from the 1960s, a toothbrush, and the classic Coke bottle. But Che Wall, founding chair of the World Green Building Council, chose the Eames tandem sling seating as the design he loves most: “Ray and Charles Eames designed them for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 1962. There are horrible airports and the seats are their saving grace. Seriously elegant, they are also simplistic and do their function well. They don’t have any seams, so they are low maintenance. And they are comfortable.”

Chaise 1968

In 1955 while filming on location, director Billy Wilder discovered he could take quick naps on a plank held up by sawhorses. This prompted Wilder to tell his friends Charles and Ray Eames that he needed a narrow office couch. The Eames’ remembered that conversation and in 1968 introduced the Eames chaise, giving the first one to Wilder. It has been produced by Herman Miller ever since. The Eames chaise is soft, comfortable, and just 457mm wide. Stable and durable. Die-cast aluminium frame and base. Six 64mm-think foam cushions are upholstered in leather. The cushions are joined by flexible zippers. The Eames Chaise is soft, comfortable, and just 18 inches wide. When you lie on it, you naturally fold your arms over your chest. Should you doze off, your arms soon fall to your sides, waking you up. It’s a beautiful place to relax for a spell in a study, den, or executive office. In 1955, while filming on location, director Billy Wilder discovered he could take quick naps on a plank held up by sawhorses. This prompted Wilder to tell his friends Charles and Ray Eames that he needed a narrow office couch. The Eames’ remembered that conversation and in 1968 introduced the Eames chaise, giving the first one to Wilder. It has been produced by Herman Miller ever since.

Structural members of cast aluminium alloy, designed, engineered and tested for strength and freedom from distortion. Finished in egglplant colour, electrostatically applied nylon coating. Soft cushioning of flexible urethane foam encapsulated with polyester fiber, nominal two inch thickness. Continuous length, non-stretch nylon fabric sling member. Heat-tempered nylon glides. H 28” by W 75” by D 17” Weight 60 lbs. Seat Height 20”

Soft Pad Group 1969 Structurally the same as the Aluminium Group chairs produced ten years earlier, the Eames Soft Pad Group of chairs has the added feature of upholstered cushions. A side chair (low back), executive chair (high back), two lounge chairs, and an ottoman make up the Soft Pad Group. They were designed to complement the Eames Lounge Chair and the Chaise. As in the Aluminium Group chairs, a fabric sandwich is stretched tautly between the die-cast aluminium side members of t he Soft Pad Group and held in place by two spreaders. In the Soft Pad chairs, however, fabric shells are sewn to the stretched membrane. Each shell is provided with a zipper so it can be filled with two inch-thick urethane foam wrapped in polyester fiber batting. The number of back cushions varies with the height of the chair. Like the Aluminium Group chairs, all the chairs in this group have cast aluminium pedestal bases, either in swivel or tiltswivel versions with casters. Herman Miller, Inc., began offering the Soft Pad Group in 1969. The original group was upholstered in black leather and had polished aluminium frames. Today, Herman Miller manufacture s the chairs in many different fabrics and leathers. The cast aluminium is also available in a cool tone, a warm tone, or in the eggplant-coloured coating developed for the Chaise.

Eames Soft Pad Tilt Swivel Desk Arm Chair with casters. Herman Miller best aucht “Natural Tan” leather upholstery with Sienna light nilo backing. Arms are with clear cellulosic coating. H 31” by W 22” by D 22” Weight 32 lbs. Seat Height 18”

Plywood Splints 1943

During World War II, the U.S. Navy called upon Charles and Ray Eames to create a lightweight, inexpensive leg splint. The resulting design is a highly sculptural yet functional device that could be mass-produced and, being modular, conveniently and inexpensively transported. Access to military technology and manufacturing facilities allowed the Eamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to perfect their technique for moulding plywood, which they had been working on for several years. In its three-dimensional, biomorphic form, the leg splint suggests the Eamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; subsequent, highly influential plywood furniture designs.

Plywood Sculpture 1943 History has confirmed Charles & Ray Eames as amongst the most influential creative partnerships of the twentieth century, their rational yet playfully eloquent designs emblematic of postwar optimism, yet robustly grounded in democratic pragmatism. Crucial to their evolution as designers were the experimental plywood sculptures and objects developed at their Venice, California, workshop in the early 1940s, of which the present sculpture, created in 1943 and exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art the following year, is the definitive representation. Of biomorphic form and choreographed profile, the sculpture unites the parallel narratives of fine art, sculpture and industrial design. Ray Eames, a painter and sculptress, trained under Hans Hofmann, and her husband Charles, who during this period was developing plywood structures and components for the U.S. Navy and the military aviation industry, were here able to synthesise their talents to create a work of outstanding technological and aesthetic importance.

Eight to twelve ply laminated woods, walnut-faced plywood laminate variable from 7/16” to 5/16”. H 37.5” by W 27” by D 13”

As with any creative partnership, it is difficult to segregate the contributions offered by the individual contributors, however the playfully serpentine outline of the structure is clearly related to the mobiles, sculptures and graphics of Ray, and in particular to the covers that she designed for the magazine ‘Art & Architecture’ that same year, 1943. Recalling the biomorphic massing characteristic of Jean Arp, or the meandering calligraphy of Joan Miró, Ray Eames’ drawings delivered the informal aesthetic that would soon translate into the experimental DCM and DCW chairs of 1945. By 1943 Charles already had over a decade’s experience in architecture and design, including the exposure of furniture created together with Ray and Eero Saarinen at the Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’ exhibition of 1940. Despite their furnishings being successfully received, Charles remained frustrated at the absence of suitable plywood moulding technology -- a situation that was to alter when, in early 1943, the Eames’ received a commission from the U.S. Navy to produce lightweight plywood leg splints -- the first ever fully threedimensionally moulded plywood structure. Embracing the opportunity to experiment with professional industrial moulding equipment and

high-strength waterproof adhesives, the Eames’ created a series of hand-guided machine-made forms, structures and sculptures, including the present example, that must be regarded not solely as experimental industrial products, but as resolved artistic expressions that were to define the identity of post-war design. The present sculpture, whilst superficially appearing to have been constructed from a single sheet of plywood that simply was cut and moulded, was in fact the consequence of an extensively laborious handcrafted process. This commenced with the cross-layering of extremely thin plies of wood, glued and heat-sealed utilising the Eames’ self-built moulds to ensure that sufficient and even pressure was maintained throughout the four-to-six hour moulding process. Careful examination of the edges of this sculpture reveal that the laminate thickness varies from twelve to eight laminations, corresponding with the regions of the sculpture that were to either remain rigid and robust, such as the legs, or were to be subject to more complex curvature. The careful and specific layering of these laminates would have to have been identified at the start of the

design process, confirming that the undulations, curves and planes of the sculpture were predicted and mathematically calculated in advance of construction. Once formed and sealed, the sculpture was delivered from the mould, the edges trimmed with a hand-saw to the desired finished shape, and the surfaces sanded by hand. Included in the seminal exhibition ‘Design for Use’, Museum of Modern Art, 1944, this wholly hand-crafted work endures as the perfected synthesis of aesthetic intuition allied to experimental yet rigorous technical expertise.

Plywood Screens 1946

As Charles and Ray Eames saw it, designers just want to have “serious fun.” This 68-inch-high, undulating screen resulted from their play. It’s a portable, foldable, enjoyable way to divide space, provide a backdrop, and add privacy. The screen was designed as a complement to other Eames moulded plywood creations. It’s also a stand-alone piece distinctive in all kinds of settings. Charles and Ray Eames noted that U-shaped cross sections of plywood from their early moulding experiments were stable enough to stand alone. To make their screen, they joined the sections with canvas hinges and a synthetic adhesive developed during World War II. Today, a polypropylene mesh held securely by a new process ensures a longer life without compromising the integrity of the 1946 design.

House of Cards 1952

The Eames Office actually produced 5 different sets of the House of Cards: The small house of cards is the original, made in 1952. It actually had two decks: the picture deck and the pattern deck. It is the picture deck that we manufacture today in conjunction with MOMA. From that, a medium House of Cards was made that is set of selections from the pattern and picture deck.

That too is still available. The images are of what Eames’ called “good stuff “, chosen to celebrate “familiar and nostalgic objects from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.” The six slots on each card enable the player to interlock the cards so as to build structures of myriad shapes.

Bibliography Images –

Eames design: the work of the office of Charles and Ray Eames. – Neuhart, J., Eames, C., Eames, R., & Neuhart, M. (1989). New York, USA: H.N. Abrams.

Eames : beautiful details. – Eames Demetrios, Gloria Fowler, & Crist, S. (2012). Ammo Books.

The work of Charles and Ray Eames: a legacy of invention. – Albrecht, D. (1997). New York, USA: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Library of Congress and the Vitra Design Museum.

Text –

The Eames Couple – http://designmuseum.org/design/ charles-ray-eames

Charles Eames – Demetrios, Eames, and Gloria Fowler. Eames: beautiful details, pp12, 17. Los Angeles, CA: Ammo Books, 2012. Print. Ray Eames – http://www.fembio.org/english/ biography.php/woman/biography/ ray-eames/

Architecture – http://eamesoffice.com/architecture/

Eames House 1949 – http://www.eamesfoundation.org/ eames-house-history/ Entenza House 1949 – http://www.housing.com/categories/ homes/-architecture-case-studyhouses-1945-1966/case-study-house9-entenza-house.html#ixzz2eYCOSJb8

Kwikset House 1951 – Neuhart, John, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, and Marilyn Neuhart. Eames design: the work of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989. Print. De Pree House 1954 – http://michiganmodern.org/buildings/ max-and-esther-de-pree-house Furniture – http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/ furniture.html

The Eames Lounge Chair 1958 – http://www.smartfurniture.com/ products/Eames-Lounge-Chair/ designstory.html

Plastic Side Chair 1950 – http://livingedge.com.au/shop/224eames-moulded-plastic-side-chairdowel-leg-dsw-.html

Tandem Sling Seating 1962 – http://www.hermanmiller.com/ Products/Eames-Tandem-SlingSeating

http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/670-lounge-chair-1958-video/

http://www.smow.com/en/ themenwelt/design-classics/eamesplastic-side-chair-dsr.html

Chaise 1968 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/es-106-eames-chaise-video/

Plywood Lounge Chair 1946 – Neuhart, John, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, and Marilyn Neuhart. Eames design: the work of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989. Print. DCM 1946 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/dcm-1952/http://2.bp.blogspot. com/-D1awi4Asj5Q/TaCGABNfOLI/ AAAAAAAAAMY/er6xzvG52TU/ s1600/Eames%2Bdcm.jpg DCW 1946 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/dcw-1946/ http://www.dwr.com/product/eamesmolded-plywood-dining-chair-dcw.do LCM 1946 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/lcm-1946/ LCW 1946 – http://www.design-museum.de/ en/collection/100-masterpieces/ detailseiten/lcw-lounge-chair-woodeames.html La Chaise 1948 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/la-chaise/

http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/product/ eames-plastic-side-chair Wire Mesh Chair 1951 – http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/col/ work/59090 http://www.hermanmiller.com/ products/seating/multi-use-guestchairs/eames-wire-chairs.html Wire Sofa 1951 – Neuhart, John, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, and Marilyn Neuhart. Eames design: the work of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989. Print. Sofa Compact 1954 – http://www.hermanmiller.com/ products/seating/lounge-seating/ eames-sofa-compact.html Aluminium Group Furniture 1958 – http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/product/ aluminium-chair-group http://www.smow.com/en/rooms/ office/executive-s-office/aluminiumgroup-ea-116.html La Fonda Chair 1961 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/1730-1-la-fonda-arm-chair-1961/

http://livingedge.com.au/products/ eames-chaise Soft Pad Group 1969 – http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/product/ soft-pad-group Plywood Leg Splints 1943 – http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ works-of-art/1984.246 Moulded-plywood sculpture 1943 – http://eamesdesigns.com/catalogentry/sculpture/ Plywood Screen 1946 – http://www.hermanmiller.com/ products/accessories/screens/eamesmolded-plywood-folding-screen.html House of Cards 1952 – http://eamesoffice.com/toys/ Plastic Armchair 1950 – http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/product/ eames-plastic-armchair http://www.hermanmiller.com/ products/seating/multi-use-guestchairs/eames-molded-plastic-chairs. html