American architect, designer, and film director Charles Ormond Eames , Jr., was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 17, 1907. He studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis until 1929.
Summary
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- 1 Your Professional Life
- 2 His Personal Life
- 3 Foundation
- 4 Release
- 5 Death
- 6 Source
Your Professional Life
He was already working as an architect when, through his work building the Meyer House in Huntleigh Village , he came into contact with Eliel Saarinen , director of the Leiter der Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan. Friendship with Saarinen’s son, Eero Saarinen , would have a formative influence on Eames’ later career.
In 1938 , Eliel Saarinen offered Charles Eames a scholarship to Cranbrook, where Eames studied design and architecture. In 1939 he began teaching design at Cranbrook and in 1940 he became head of the industrial design department.
Together with Eero Saarinen , Eames participated in the ” Organic Design in Home Furnishings ” competition launched in 1940 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York . Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen collaborated with Harry Bertoia , Don Albinson and Ray Kaiser on the designs they presented at the New York competition . Its main design, an armchair with a seat and back made from a single piece of plywood in a three-dimensional way, received an award, but it turned out to be unsuitable for mass production.
His personal life
In 1941 Eames divorced his first wife to marry Ray Kaiser and the couple moved to Los Angeles , where Charles worked as a set designer for MGM Studios while Ray designed covers for “Art & Architecture Magazine.” In their own apartment, they continued to experiment to develop an efficient and inexpensive method for molding plywood in three dimensions.
Foundation
In 1942 , Charles and Ray Eames founded the Plyformed Wood Company and made splints and stretchers of molded plywood for the Navy of EE. UU . Financial difficulties forced the Eames to sell the business to Evans Product Company , where Charles Eames became head of research and development.
In 1946 , the MOMA mounted a retrospective, “New Furniture by Charles Eames”, showing prototypes of the plywood furniture designed until then by Eames’ office. They included the “lounge chair, metal (LCM)” and the “lounge chair, wood (LCW)”, made from various molded wooden elements. The ” LCW ” was based on a 1940 design and its further development with armrests became the prototype for the famous and elaborate “N ° 670” lounge chair with the “N ° 671″ footstool ( 1956 ).
In the 1950s Ray and Charles Eames were experimenting with fiberglass. They created the revolutionary ” Plastic Shell Group ” and the elegant curvilinear chair ” La Chaise ” ( 1948 ), which Charles Eames submitted to the MOMA “Low-cost Furniture Design” competition, the “Dining Armchair Rod (DAR)”, and the “Rocking Armchair Rod (RAR) “( 1948 – 1950 ).
Launching
The year 1958 saw the launch of Eames’ ” Aluminum Group “. Furniture designed by Charles and Ray Eames is manufactured primarily by Herman Miller and Vitra .
Death
Charles Eames died of a heart attack on August 21, 1978 in his native Saint Louis ; he was buried in Calvary Cemetery. Eames has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
