Charles & Ray Eames: La Chaise

plastic chairs

Another famous creation from the Eames office is the one-piece molded fiberglass-plastic shell chair. Plastic, which is less rigid than plywood, can be molded with greater freedom. In the late 1940s, Charles Eames designed two types of shell chair, with and without armrests, and with several types of legs, including legs that allowed the chairs to be stacked. In the 1950s and 1960s, these chairs also inspired designers around the world.
 

DSR Side Chair
Photo courtesy of Vitra

DAR Armchair
Photo courtesy of Vitra

Herman Miller advertisment of Eames plastic chairs
Photo courtesy of Herman Miller

DSS stacking chairs and DAX armchair
© Vitra Design Museum
 

Eames plastic chairs
Photo courtesy of Vitra

Charles Eames at the table
© Eames Office LLC

lounge chair

The last piece of Eames plywood furniture came in 1956. This was lounge chair No. 670, which is made of five flexibly-jointed plywood plates, the construction suggesting an insect’s exoskeleton. 

Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman
Photo by Hans Hansen © Vitra
 

Photo of Eames Lounge Chair for a promotional brochure for Herman Miller
© Eames Office LLC

Charles Eames in the Lounge Chair, 1956
© Eames Office LLC

laChaise Floating Figure
Copy

la сhaise

The most complex of the molded plywood chairs, LaChaise, resembles a sculpture of a woman’s torso. It is always so with chairs and couches: the more comfortable, the more suggestive they are of the human shape. Eames furniture is clearly linked to the work of sculptors who preferred a balance between abstraction and figuration. The resemblance of LaChaise to the abstract sculptures of Barbara Hepworth is even more striking.
While the Eameses knew both Hepworth and Moore, their work actually quoted their fellow countryman, an American of French descent, Gaston Lachaize (died in 1935). The lower outline of LaChaise is quite similar to Lachaize’s “Floating Figure” (1927). One of the molds of this sculpture is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. LaChaise itself was made for MOMA and was entered in the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design in 1948. It did not win, but the jurors admired the design, deciding, however, that the chair was not in close enough accord with the goals of the contest. The Eameses did take home a prize in that competition with their prototype metal chair.
 

Gaston Lachaize, Floating Figure
Photo courtesy of NGA

La Chaise
Photo courtesy of Vitra

Charles Eames "flirting" with La Chaise he designed and decorated, 1960
Photo by Peter Stackpole

toys

The Eameses also often turned their attention to the creation of children’s playthings. In 1951 they created a colorful system of triangular building blocks, which they called The Toy. It was commercially produced for several seasons. The Eameses’ most successful undertaking along these lines was their House of Cards, which used slotted playing cards. Between 1952 and 1970, four versions of House of Cards were produced.
 
 

The Eameses were in the habit of photographing anything they found interesting: 

shells, stones, feathers, ornaments, examples of typography. 

They used such photographs for the cards of House of Cards. When the cards are put together, the images combine in a random way, not unlike the way in which computers process information. It is no accident that the last version of House of Cards was made in 1970 for the IBM pavilion at the World’s Fair in Osaka.
 
 

House of Cards
Photo courtesy of Wright Auctions

House of Cards

House of Cards

storage

A series of storage units designed by Charles Eames

The Eameses’ marvellous storage system, the ESU (Eames Storage Unit), uses the connection principles of a children’s construction set, consisting of easily combined vertical and horizontal elements. The parts come in many different finishes and colors. 

Storage units
Photos courtesy of Vitra

Storage unit
Photo by 
Marc Eggimann 
© Vitra