HISTORY OF THE EAMES OFFICE CHAIR |
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"We must be committed to a concern for quality in everything in the world around us. We must learn to care deeply."
- Charles Eames from slide show "Excellence", 1967 |
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| Charles Eames (1907-78) and Ray Eames (1912-88) embraced the visionary concept of modern design as an agent of social change - they believed that excellent design could improve people's lives. Their unique blend and breadth of interests, ranging from engineering and architecture to modern art and design enabled them to solve each design challenge with an unrivalled combination of imagination, practicality and elegance. |
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With a legacy of more than 224 groundbreaking designs for furniture, toys, exhibitions, films, graphics and architecture, developed over a 45-year collaberation, Charles and Ray Eames had an unparalleled impact on 20th century design. Their focus and insistence on beauty through functionality has meant that their designs have endured and the majority of their chair designs are still produced by Vitra today. |
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| In the field of furniture design, Charles and Ray Eames collaborated closely with a series of industrial partners over a period of forty years, to create affordable, yet high quality furniture for a wide variety of settings. The Charles and Ray Eames Office experimented with new ways to create furniture, embracing new materials and developing new production techniques. The foundation of this work was ergonomics - design around the human form. They were particularly interested in creating three dimensionally shaped surfaces or flexible materials that could comfortably support the human body, without the need for traditional cushioned upholstery. |
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During World War II, Charles and Ray Eames were commissioned by the federal government to design leg splints and stretchers made out of moulded plywood. They later put this expertise to use to create their first commercially produced, moulded-plywood furniture. |
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Eames Plywood Chair
The Eames's moulded-plywood chair was their first attempt to create a single shell that would be comfortable without padding and that could be quickly mass-produced. It was developed on the basis of the chairs that Eames and Saarinen entered in the Museum of Modern Art's 1940 "Organic Design" competition, in which they took first place. The chairs and moulded plywood tables and wall screens were unveiled to the public in 1946 and are still in production today - Vitra are the authorised manufacturers for Europe and the Middle East. The moulded plywood chair was called "the chair of the century" by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. |
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La Chaise
La Chaise was created for the 1948 "International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design". The name "La Chaise" was both a reference to sculptor Gaston Lachaise and a pun on his name. Vitra has produced this chair since 1990.
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Plastic Chair
The Eames fibreglass chair solved the problem of how to make a seat out of a single body-fitting shell. In 1950, as plastics began to take centre stage as the material of choice, Charles and Ray Eames partnered with Zenith Plastics to create one of the first one-piece plastic chairs with an exposed rather than an upholstered surface. |
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Wire Chair
Inspired by trays, dress forms, baskets and animal traps, the Eames Office investigated bent and welded wire mesh as the basis for furniture designs. Designed in 1950, the wire chair shell could be adapted to various base configurations and upholstery types. Ingenious techniques were developed to mass-produce suitable upholstery, and special moulds were created as forms over which to weld the wire shells. The office adapted a resistance welding technique used for making drawers and developed an innovative method for reinforcing the shell's rim with a double band of wire. |
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Lounge Chair and Ottoman
The Eames Lounge chair and Ottoman were released in 1956 and were made of moulded plywood and leather. The use of "shock mounts" - a method of connection developed by the Eames Office - allows the headrest and backrest to flex when the chair is in use. The chair has been in continuous production since it's release in 1956 by Herman Miller in America, and later under license by Vitra for the European market from the 1970s. |
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Aluminium Chair
The Aluminium Group chair was originally developed in 1958 by Ray Eames as a special project - an exterior chair for a private residence being designed by Eero Saarinen and Alexander Girard. The seat design was a radical departure from the traditional concept of the chair as a solid shell. The seat-back is made of a continuous piece of upholstery stretched taut between two aluminium ribs. This allows it to subtly conform to the shape of the user's body and makes it wonderfully comfortable. |
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The Aluminium group chair range was first manufactured by Herman Miller in America, who later granted four manufacturers a license to produce in Europe.
The four original companies were Vitra in Germany, Hille in the UK, ICF in Italy, and Mobilier International in France, of which only Vitra still retains a license today to manufacture for the European market, having been given an exclusive license in 1984. |
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True "Original" Aluminium Group chairs were manufactured using the same base as the Lounge Chair, as can be seen above on this genuine original, which is still in use today by a Scott Howard customer in London, 50 years on.
The base was revised later to the current style of base, as seen on the current Aluminium Group chair. |
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Lobby Chair
The first Lobby Chair was designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1960, for the lobby of the Time Life Building in New York City. It's generous size, high quality construction and sumptuous cushions mean that it has now become associated with the boardroom.
The Lobby Chair was to become famous during the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, when the chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer insisted on using one of these chairs during the competition. |
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Herman Miller despatched two chairs to the championship - one for Bobby Fischer and one for his opponent in the final, Boris Spassky.
Pictured here is Mr. Boris Spassky receiving his Lobby Chair from Mr. Fred Appleton, who was then Managing Director of Herman Miller Europe. Mr. Appleton went on to found Scott Howard Office Furniture a few years later. |
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Tandem Sling Seating
Throughout the 1960s, the Eames Office produced a range of sturdy, comfortable and elegant designs for office chairs and public seating for airports, stadiums, and schools. The aluminium chair's concept formed the basis of the Eames Office's 1962 Tandem Sling Seating, an institutional multiple-seating system designed for Dulles and O'Hare airports, that is still in use in airports around the world today. |
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Soft Pad Chair
In 1969, eleven years after the aluminium group chairs originally went into production, Charles and Ray Eames extended the original design by adding plush, individually upholstered cushions, to produce the Soft Pad chair.
On the left is an original 1960's Soft Pad chair produced by Herman Miller showing the Aluminium frame and single wheeled castors. This chair is still used by a Scott Howard customer 40 years on.
This design of chair has become synonymous with the highest standards of executive chair design and Vitra still produce this range under license for the European market today.
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| All of the furniture designed by the Eames Office is beautiful in form and elegant in execution. However the real reason that the chairs produced by the Eames Office have endured as icons of twentieth century design can be summed up in the words of Ray Eames - "What works is better than what looks good, the looks good can change, but what works, works.". |
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