F-Arty Friday: Have a Seat!

The Husband and wife team of Charles and Ray Eames made huge contributions to architecture, photography, industrial design and furniture design. They are best known for the last, becoming two of the most influential furniture designers of the mid-twentieth century. Many of their sculptural chairs, made of plywood, plastic and metal, have become icons of modern interiors.

You will probably recognize more than a few of these as they’ve been widely replicated since the 1950’s.



Charles was an architect and photographer who also designed movie sets, while Ray was an artist, designer and filmmaker. They married in 1941, and together honed the technique of wood molding, using thin sheets of wood veneer formed under heated pressure. They were so successful at this that the US Navy commissioned them to make splints and stretchers during World War II.


In 1949, the couple designed and built their own home in California as part of the Case Study House Program, sponsored by Arts and Architecture Magazine. One of the goals of the study was to find housing options for all the soldiers returning to the US after the war. Each house was designed for a hypothetical client, and the Eames designed theirs to suit their lives at the time: a working couple with grown children, who required studio space and a living space. Another goal of the study was to use technologies that had evolved from the war for something besides killing people, so the Eames House was designed to be made entirely from off-the-shelf pre-made parts. It demonstrated that a house could be prefabricated and still be a successful home.

According to the website for the Eames Office: Their design and innovative use of materials made this house a mecca for architects and designers from all over the world. It is considered one of the most important post-war residences built anywhere in the world.

In the artists’ own words:

“Choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely and to the best of your ability and that way you might change the world.” -- Charles Eames


“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.”--Ray Eames