
The Eameses' architecture promised good design for minimal cost through the use of prefabricated standardized parts. At the end of World War II, the Eameses joined a larger movement of architects and builders aiming to supply veterans with affordable housing. From their own house in Los Angeles to their proposal for the do-it-yourself Kwikset House, the Eameses sought to bring “the good life” to the general public by integrating high and low art forms, modern materials and construction technologies, craft, and design. They advocated mass-production of architectural components, furnishings, and accessories as the ideal way to spread low-cost, high-quality modern design throughout America. Although ultimately the Eameses designed few buildings, they popularized basic tenets of their architecture in their toys, furniture, films, and slide shows.
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Eames House Studio With Dried Desert Plants, circa 1950, photograph. © Lucia Eames, courtesy of the Eames Office. Photograph by Tim Street-Porter Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-32)
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Fashion Model in The Eames House. Published in Vogue. April 15, 1954. Photographic reproduction. Courtesy Vogue ©The Condé Nast Publications (B-32)
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The Case Study House Program, established in 1945 by the avant-garde Arts & Architecture magazine, sponsored the design and construction of a series of modern residences as prototypes for mass-produced housing. Case Study House #8—the Eameses' own steel-and-glass home in Los Angeles—used construction elements from trade catalogues and was intended to serve as a model for do-it-yourself modern design. The Eames House's studied contrast—between old and new, rich and humble, foreign and familiar, mass-produced and hand-crafted—personalized modern architecture. This aesthetic of collage became the Eameses' signature.
John Entenza's magazine Arts & Architecture sponsored the so-called Case Study House Program, under which the Eameses designed and built their house.
Charles and Ray with John Entenza, 1949, photograph. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-10)
The Eameses' storage units were fundamentally architectural. As their house was a “kit of parts,” the units were conceived as modules. They could be arranged to form room dividers and accommodate varied residential and work functions.
Eames Storage Unit, designed 1949-50, manufactured 1950-52, steel, laminated plywood, wood, plywood, fiberglass, lacquered Masonite, and rubber. Courtesy of Vitra Design Museum (B-19)
Created as a training film for the Clown College of Ringling Brothers' Barnum and Bailey Circus, Clown Face studies the ritual of the simple act of clowns applying their makeup.
Film frame from Clown Face, 1971, photograph. ©Lucia Eames dba Eames Office (B-42)
Co-authors Eames and John Entenza advocated innovative uses of wartime materials and technologies, as well as collaborations with sociologists, economists, and scientists, to solve the housing shortage.
For the Eameses, a house accommodates not only living but also work and play.
Charles's Diagram for “What Is a House?” an Article Published in Arts & Architecture, July 1944, photographed by Roger Foley. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (B-01)
Slides by the Eameses
Multi-screen slide shows were perhaps the Eameses most effective method for presenting everyday things in new ways and relationships. Encompassing an enormous breadth of subject matter, the slide shows were assembled for school courses and lectures as well as for corporate events. For these elaborate presentations, the Eameses drew upon their meticulously catalogued collection of approximately 350,000 slides: their very own “cabinet of curiosity.”
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Shelfscapes arranged and photographed by Ray Eames. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-26)
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Shelfscape arranged and photographed by Ray Eames. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-26b)
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Shelfscape arranged and photographed by Ray Eames. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-26c)
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Shelfscape arranged and photographed by Ray Eames. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-26d)
The Eameses' attempt to create a truly do-it-yourself house was almost realized in their prototype house for the Kwikset Lock Company. The Kwikset House was a low-cost prefabricated residence designed as a kit to be assembled by homeowners. Similar to the Eameses' own house and their furniture, the Kwikset House was an interactive product that encouraged its owner to engage directly in the process of its construction. Its kit-of-parts system allowed residents to customize the design for their own needs—a fundamental premise of the Eameses' philosophy. The company was sold, and the project never went into production.
The Eames House represented the fruits of postwar American life, combining living and working, indoors and outdoors, high style and popular culture.
Charles and Ray in Their Living Room, 1958, photograph. Courtesy Julius Shulman (B-14)
A steel-and-glass pavilion raised above the meadow, the house was designed by Charles and architect Eero Saarinen.
First version of the Eames House, circa 1945, pencil on paper. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-39)
The house for John Entenza, Case Study House #9, was designed by Charles and his Cranbrook colleague, Eero Saarinen. As publisher and editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, Entenza conceived the Case Study House Program and was an avid patron of the modern arts.
Entenza House Bathroom, circa 1949, pencil on paper with collage. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-03)
This painting by Ray's artistic mentor during the 1930s was one of two hung in the living room of the Eames House, initially on a wall and later from the ceiling.
Painting by Hans Hofmann, photographic reproduction. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-43)
The Eameses ordered structural steel parts for one house but redesigned it when the parts arrived, in order to create a house with more space. The exterior steel framing reportedly took only 90 man-hours to complete.
Ray and Charles on the Newly Constructed Steel Frame of the Eames House, 1949, photograph. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-11)
Freestanding walls and storage units divide the Kwikset House into various rooms.
Plan of the Kwikset House Project, circa 1951, colored pencil on paper. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-35)
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The Eames House living room with tatami mats, 1951. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-13)
A 1951 Japanese Tea ceremony at the Eames House, with actor Charles Chaplin at center. c. 1951, photograph, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-12)
“Life in a Chinese Kite,” published in Architectural Forum, September 1950, photographic reproduction. Courtesy of BPI Communications. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-15)
Drawing of a Kite by Ray, pencil on paper. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-17)
The Eames House kitchen with oriental kites, 1951. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-16)
Film Frame from “House: After Five Years of Living” (B-41)
House of Cards, designed 1952, contemporary edition, printed on paper. Courtesy of Vitra Design Museum (B-22)
Eames House Kitchen, circa 1949, pencil on paper with collage. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (B-02)