CHARLES AND RAY EAMES

Case study house 8 Presented by:

Akash Dixit
Nirbhay nath Dixit
Palak Patel

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 Charles and Ray Eames … An Introduction

For more than four decades, American

designers Charles and Ray Eames helped shape
nearly every facet of American life.

Charles & Ray Eames contributed in many ways

to 20th century Architecture, furniture design,
industrial design and photography.

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 Charles and Ray Eames … Early Beginning

● Charles  Ormond  Eames  1907 Born and raised in St.

Louis.

● 1925 Enters Washington University on an Architecture

scholarship.

● 1930 opened an architectural office – Gray and

Eames.
● In the 1930s, where they collaborated with
Eero Saarinen on designs for furniture.

● 1935 opened a new architectural firm called Eames

and Walsh.

● 1938 Offered a fellowship to study architecture and

design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Cranbrook,
Michigan.

● Died 1978.

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 Charles and Ray Eames … Early Beginning

Ray Eames
● Born December 15th, 1912.

● Studied painting in new York with Hans Hofmann 1933-

1939 before moving to Cranbrook at about the same time
with Charles Eames.

● 1936 became a founding member of American Abstract

Artists.

● Died in 1988.

● Charles and Ray first met in 1940 at the

Cranbrook Academy of Art.

● Got marry on June 20,1941, moved to

Los Angeles and establish an office
together.

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DESIGN PHILOSOPHY AND CHALLENGES….

Design Philosophy…..
Along with other designers and architects after the war, the
Eames worked to encourage mass- production, which would
spread high quality, affordable modern design across the
country, and to integrate modern materials and construction
methods with good craftsmanship.

Although they built few houses, their ideas were spread

through their furnishings, toys, films and slide shows.

Design challenges …..

The Eames were driven to find answers to these
questions:
How do we produce affordable, high-quality furniture?
How do we build economical living and working spaces?
How do we help people see beauty in the everyday?
How do we promote cross-cultural understanding?
 How can we make fundamental scientific principles
understandable to lay people? Make design your life… and life, your design.

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WORKS.…. EXPERIMENTS WITH MATERIALS

MOLDED FIBERGLASS They make the experiments with

MOLDED PLYWOOD  molded plywood, which began
MOLDED REINFORCED PLASTIC  with Charles’ Cranbrook
WIRE AND PLASTIC 
collaboration with Saarinen.

They received a contract

from the U.S. Navy to
develop lightweight, mass-
produced molded plywood
leg splints for injured
servicemen, as well as
aircraft components. 

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR…. ARCHITECTURE

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR….. ARCHITECTURE
Eames House Case Study House 8

The Eames House was designed by Eero

Saarinen, Charles Eames and Ray Eames.
The house was designed for Charles and Ray
to serve as both their home and studio.

The house was made from 1945-1949 .

It was an experiment in American
Residential architecture undertaken by Jon
Entenza’s arts & architecture magazine.

Assigned to create inexpensive and efficient

homes for the emerging middle class after
world war two. It made its debut in the
magazine shortly after it was constructed.

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR….. ARCHITECTURE
•The combination of single and double height
spaces allows for a composition that breaks
the space up rhythmically and is read on the
exterior of the house revealing the matrix of
the home which allows a flow throughout
the home without unnecessary boundaries.

•The De-stijl movement was portrayed

through the color scheme used throughout
the house (Yellow, blue and red).

SITE RESPONSIVE
•The home was built on a 1.4 acre lot in
Pacific Palisades.
•It was site responsive because Charles and
Ray built along the ridge leaving the trees
and meadow intact.
•Clustered with four other single family case
study residences.
•It is on a hillside along the urban periphery
of LA.
•It is not visible from the street and accessed
through a private road from Chaut auqua
boulevard.

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR….. FURNITURE DESIGN

•With the technological process for molding

plywood resolved, Charles and Ray applied the
method to the design of domestic furniture.
•After an exhaustive program of prototyping
and testing, the first product was a simple
plywood chair with both the seat and back
supports gently curved so as to ergonomically
and comfortably accommodate the human
body.
•It was produced by the Herman Miller
Company of Zeeland, Michigan, and marketed
as an affordable, multifunctional chair suitable
for all modern households. Known as the ECW
(Eames Chair Wood) model, this chair is still in
production today, and has exerted a profound
and lasting impact on twentieth-century
furniture design in America.

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR….. STORAGES

•Following the success of their modern

furniture designs, Charles and Ray turned their
attention to domestic architecture to meet the
postwar housing demand.
•The housing shortage predated the Great
Depression, but the return of thousands of
World War II veterans, combined with
shortages in construction materials, created a
real crisis.
Modular storage ... Using plywood, laminate,
steel and masonite, the Eameses designed
modular storage that provided flexibility,
function and beauty

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR..Graphic and Textile Designs

Graphic Designs

Textile Designs

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR.. Exhibition & Event Design
Methematica
1961 – PRESENT
Mathematica, the first show organized by the Eames Office, is
on permanent display at Boston’s Museum of Science and the
New York Hall of Science.
More than 50 years after its original inauguration, visitors still
relish its beauty and multilayered exploration of how mathematics
shapes our world.
The Eameses pioneered the interactive exhibition format and
demonstrated the merit of experiential, accessible, and fun
learning environments.  
The Eameses revealed the genuine fun of math and science to the
broadest possible audience, letting “the cat out of the bag,” as
Charles said.
For decades, exhibition designers have looked to Mathematica as
a model.  Charles and Ray strived to develop an exhibition that
would “be of interest to a bright student and not embarrass the
most knowledgeable.”  They combined this with a deep
commitment to the Guest/Host Relationship, which was an
integral part of all their work.
Over half a century old, Mathematica is still more engaging and
accessible than many of its modern-day counterparts.  After it
reopened in New York in 2004, Edward Rothstein wrote in The
New York Times: Mathematica “still exudes confidence.  It invites
attention not by promising participatory sensation but by offering
beauty and elegance.  It spurs curiosity not by aiming for
simplicity but by offering hints of complexity.”
In 2012, in honor of Ray’s centennial, IBM and the Eames Office
introduced a free iPad App called the Minds of Modern
Mathematics.  It is based on the interactive “history wall”
from Charles and Ray’s 1961 exhibition. 

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR….. Other works

•In addition to graphic design, architecture, and furniture and product design, the
Eameses also created innovative and groundbreaking films.
•Many of these were produced as corporate communications projects, such as their
numerous films for IBM, while others were made at the behest of government
organizations. For example, Glimpses of the U.S.A., made for the U.S. Information Service,
was shown in Moscow in 1959, as was the exhibition and film, The World of Franklin and
Jefferson, created as part of the national Bicentennial celebrations.

•Beginning with the film The Information Machine in 1957, the Eameses helped IBM make
science and technology accessible to lay people through a series of more than 50 films,
exhibitions, and books.

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BECOME FAMOUS FOR….. Contribution in India

•Eames in India The Government of India asked for recommendations on a programme

of training in design that would serve as an aid to the small industries; and that would
resist the present rapid deterioration in design and quality of consumer goods.
•Charles Eames, American industrial designer and his wife and colleague Ray Eames,
visited India for three months at the invitation of the Government, with the sponsorship
of the Ford Foundation, to explore the problems of design and to make
recommendations for a training program me.
•The Eameses toured throughout India, making a careful study of the many centers of
design, handicrafts and general manufacture.
•They talked with many persons, official and non-official, in the field of small and large
industry, in design and architecture, and in education.

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