Eames House
Site#S0019
DescriptionLike 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. 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 and a living space.
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). This design was known as the Bridge House. After the parts were delivered, however, Charles and Ray realized 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 basically the same pile of parts, and, according to Esther McCoy only had to order one extra beam.Legal NotesThe outside of the house can be visited by appointment only. The inside is off-limits to visitors.