Eames Chair: Modern Language in the World of Furniture

“Design is an expression of the purpose”– Charles Eames

And what higher purpose is there than forgetting the war pains and rebuilding the society? Charles and Ray Eames, the famous American architect-couple, are renowned for their architectural work and furniture design.

Eames chair, whose designs invaded both houses and offices, spoke a new language that suited the post-war era. Modern furniture was starting to grab attention with its sleekness and sophistication, and the Eameses delivered that. After World War II, the Eameses pioneered in making furniture, including equally functional and stylish chairs.

The designer-couple used molded fiberglass and bent plywood as materials to manufacture their chairs. Creating a better world through their designs was what they aimed for. Practicality and simplicity oozed from the furniture they created.

Here is a sample of the most highly-sought Eames Chairs:

1)    The DSR chair (1948)

The initials of the chair name D, S, and R are derived from Dining, Side, and Base. The DSR chair has a chrome base which makes it resemble the “Eiffel” tower. It was first made from fiberglass, but it is now manufactured from polypropylene.

2)    Wire chairs (1951)

This seriously-looking design can perfectly fit inside a house or an office with a wooden floor or a concrete wall.

3)    The Eames Lounge Chair Wood (1945)

Time magazine considered the Lounge Chair Wood to be the 20^th century’s best-designed chair. Created for the US air force, Charles Eames designed the curves of the chair to ideally suit the human body. Since plywood is known to break if bent to a great extent, the architect-couple manipulated the material to their best interest. They linked two plywood pieces by a plywood spine to achieve the desired curvature.

4)    La Chaise (1948)

The Eameses designed this chair for one of the Museum of Modern Art’s competitions. It is composed of a base of oak and steel mounted by a fiberglass body. It is quite uncomfortable, which is a far cry from the Eameses’ usual design style which prioritized comfort. Since it was an expensive item to produce, La Chaise wasn’t manufactured till the 1990s by the Swiss company for furniture and interior design Vitra.

5)     The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman (1956)

Charles Eames wanted to achieve a “warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman’s mitt”. This chair is a combination of leather and plywood. It is currently included in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

6)    Aluminum Group “Task” chair (1958)

The couple created this chair originally with a mesh seat which has now transformed into leather. It is a masterpiece in the world of office furniture.

7)    The Lobby Eames  Chair (1960)

This piece was specifically designed for the Time-Life building in New York. The chair was under the spotlight at the World Chess Championship Final Match in 1972. The match that was held in Reykjavik, Iceland, witnessed a duel between the American contestant Bobby Fischer and his Russian rival Boris Spassky. Fischer insisted on having the Lobby chair at the final match. He claimed he could focus more while sitting on it, which encouraged Spassky to insist on having one for himself as well.