Modern Architecture
Architecture
Must-Know Modern Homes: Eames House
Highly idiosyncratic and personal, this home for two renowned designers shatters modernist stereotypes with its color and livability
Charles and Ray Eames were two of the most influential designers of the 20th century, having produced a number of iconic pieces of furniture that most modern homes cannot be without. The husband and wife team did not limit themselves to furniture, though. They produced films (the most famous is Powers of Ten), designed toys and games (House of Cards), and even designed multimedia environments (IBM Pavilion at the 1964–'65 world's fair). Of interest here is the house and studio that were an extension and impetus for much of their prolific output.
If very little is discussed about the architecture of the Eameses besides their own house, it is because they designed very little architecture besides their own house. Frustrated with the business of architecture and the cancellation of a couple projects, they abandoned architecture in favor of furniture shortly after their house was completed. Nevertheless their house and studio are as influential in architecture as their chairs are in the world of furniture design. The structures simultaneously embody the universal and the personal, pointing the way to how the steel and glass of modern architecture can be colorful, creative and, most important, lived in.
Eames House at a Glance
Year built: 1949
Architects: Charles and Ray Eames
Location: Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles
Visiting info: Reserved self-guided exterior tours only
Size: 1,500 square feet (house) and 1,000 square feet (studio)
More: 10 Must-Know Modern Homes
If very little is discussed about the architecture of the Eameses besides their own house, it is because they designed very little architecture besides their own house. Frustrated with the business of architecture and the cancellation of a couple projects, they abandoned architecture in favor of furniture shortly after their house was completed. Nevertheless their house and studio are as influential in architecture as their chairs are in the world of furniture design. The structures simultaneously embody the universal and the personal, pointing the way to how the steel and glass of modern architecture can be colorful, creative and, most important, lived in.
Eames House at a Glance
Year built: 1949
Architects: Charles and Ray Eames
Location: Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles
Visiting info: Reserved self-guided exterior tours only
Size: 1,500 square feet (house) and 1,000 square feet (studio)
More: 10 Must-Know Modern Homes
The full name of the project is Eames House, Case Study House No. 8. Charles started designing the house in 1945 with Eero Saarinen, when they were commissioned by John Entenza, the editor of Arts & Architecture magazine. The Case Study House program ran until 1966 and saw the realization of 23 modern houses that embraced industrialization.
Eames and Saarinen's initial design positioned the house and studio volumes in an L-shaped plan atop a hill on a 3-acre site in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, overlooking the Pacific. The house was to be dramatically cantilevered from the hill, away from the nearby Case Study House No. 9 (planned at the same time and also designed by Eames and Saarinen), but by 1947 the Eameses (no longer working with Saarinen) simplified the plan and tucked the home into the hillside along a long retaining wall.
The house is hidden among the trees in this aerial. Many of them were planted in a new mound constructed from the house's excavation, serving to block the views between No. 8 and No. 9.
The house is hidden among the trees in this aerial. Many of them were planted in a new mound constructed from the house's excavation, serving to block the views between No. 8 and No. 9.
In essence what Charles and Ray did with the second plan was to simplify it while still using the same standard steel structure that had been ordered before the redesign. This view of the west facade shows the 12-inch-deep joists that support the roof and are exposed inside. The house is organized around 7 1/2-foot-wide bays that are 17 feet high and 20 feet deep; one bay is outside on the west, but the rest are enclosed.
Both house and studio are aligned along a retaining wall on the north (left in this photo), with the studio on the east, the house on the west and a courtyard in between. The far east and west ends feature double-height spaces. Here we are looking into the living room's two-story space on the west.
Both house and studio are aligned along a retaining wall on the north (left in this photo), with the studio on the east, the house on the west and a courtyard in between. The far east and west ends feature double-height spaces. Here we are looking into the living room's two-story space on the west.
This view from atop the retaining wall looking west shows the east side of the house facing the courtyard and studio. Notice how it is more solid than the west facade. This is because the Eameses placed the service spaces along the retaining wall on the north but also along the courtyard, in effect freeing up the ends for the double-height spaces. (A floor plan can be found at the end of this ideabook.)
The courtyard separates the house and studio (the studio served as a home office until 1958, when the office was moved to Venice, California), but it also gives some relief to what would have been a cluster of service spaces if this were one long building. The courtyard was designed to be covered but was built as an open space, enclosed on three sides.
The courtyard separates the house and studio (the studio served as a home office until 1958, when the office was moved to Venice, California), but it also gives some relief to what would have been a cluster of service spaces if this were one long building. The courtyard was designed to be covered but was built as an open space, enclosed on three sides.
Eames saw the house as a progressive means of extending wartime industrial production to the problem of the housing shortage. In this sense the project was seen as a prototype for future houses scattered across the country, but it's clear upon approaching the house that it is highly idiosyncratic. Reyner Banham humorously described Charles as having a "hot-rodder attitude to the elements of building," customizing standard components in unexpected ways.
First glances may lead to comparisons with Piet Mondrian's paintings, but James Steele, in a book-length study of the house, talks about the house as a personal expression of a particular style. In their short film on the house from 1955, the Eameses present the building through snapshots of flowers, trees, toys, architectural details — just about everything but the wide-angle views of architecture we are used to today. The focus on details and moments in the film finds a parallel in the moments of color experienced on the facade and within the house.
This last view of the Eames House shows how the duo really lived in the house and used it as a shell that contained and worked with their furniture and possessions. The house was not a container to be kept minimally furnished. It was a total environment, where the smallest artifact was as important as the biggest pieces of architecture. It exudes the Eames style at all scales.
The exterior of the Eames House can be visited with reservations. Interior tours are available for members of the Eames Foundation.
The exterior of the Eames House can be visited with reservations. Interior tours are available for members of the Eames Foundation.
References
Eames on Film: The Architect and the Painter
10 Must-Know Modern Homes
- Banham, Reyner. Age of the Masters: A Personal View of Modern Architecture. Harper & Row, 1975.
- Banham, Reyner. Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. The Penguin Press, 1971.
- The Eames Foundation
- Frampton, Kenneth and Larkin, David. American Masterworks: The Twentieth Century House. Rizzoli, 1995.
- House After Five Years of Living. A short film by Charles and Ray Eames, 1955.
- Steele, James. Eames House: Charles and Ray Eames. Phaidon, 1994.
Eames on Film: The Architect and the Painter
10 Must-Know Modern Homes
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