EAMES
1907 – 1978
Charles Eames was born in St. Louis in 1907. He soon began to work as a designer, and by the age of 14 he was working in the laboratories of the Laclede Steel Company.
He studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. He was greatly influenced by the work of Finnish architect Eeero Saarinen, with whom he later worked and who became a great friend. In 1938, at Saarinen’s invitation, he moved to Michigan where he studied architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art; he subsequently became a teacher at the Academy, and finally Head of the
Industrial Design Department. In 1941 together with Saarinen he won the New York MOMA competition for the “Organic Design in Home Furnishing”. His work showed a new way of making furniture of wood, experimenting with the use of curved plywood. In the same year he married Ray Kaiser, also an architect and designer.
They worked together, founding in Los Angeles what became known as the “Eames” school.
Compromising with official institutions, the Eames sought to establish and communicate their creative ideals. Inspired in the work of European designers, they established a school of work in which their philosophy was based on their awareness of pleasure between functionalism and successful product designs, designed to benefit society through the creation of value. To them it was important to produce high quality designs at low prices, creating a broad range of articles to be used in the home, which were sold in great quantities.
At the end of the 1940s they were involved in the experimental Case Study Houses residential building program, designing among others their own home, described as a forerunner of high-tech architecture.
The versatile Eames production developed in various fields, including design, architecture, as well as movies.
Winner of many prestigious prizes, he died in 1978.
