Designer:Charles Eames & Ray Eames
Year:1969.

CHARLES and RAY EAMES were the dream couple of American design and are perhaps its greatest exponents. They were not only successful photographers, film makers and architects but also talented furniture designers.
CHARLES EAMES was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. After attending Washington University for two years and being thrown out for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, he began working in an architectural office. In 1930, Charles started his own architectural office. He began extending his design ideas beyond architecture and received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he eventually became head of the design department.
RAY KAISER EAMES was born in Sacramento, California in 1912. She studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen.
Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. Charles’s first moulded plywood chair, designed in collaboration with Eero Saarinen for the Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’ competition in 1940, was an instant success. The LCW (Lounge Chair Wood), with its rounded forms, is an example of the shift away from the angular Bauhaus style towards a functionalism that was tempered by more organic elements.
During the war they were commissioned by the Navy to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers and experimental glider shells. In 1946, Evans Products began producing the EAMESes' molded plywood furniture. Their molded plywood chair was called "the chair of the century" by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. Soon production was taken over by Herman Miller, Inc ., who continues to produce the furniture in the United States today. Vitra manufactures the furniture in Europe. In 1949, Charles and Ray designed and built their own home in Pacific Palisades, California as part of the Case Study House Program sponsored by Arts and Architecture Magazine. 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.
Over a period of forty prolific years they produced shelving systems, stackable chairs, folding sofas and multi purpose furniture as well as the iconic Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Aluminium Group Chair collection and Hang It All Coat Rack – all still manufactured as authorized originals under licence by Vitra. These are all noteworthy for their versatility and technological finesse.
The couple were to find themselves at the centre of an intellectual circle that was to redefine American design. Indeed, their work was so significant, that the Museum of Modern Art devoted a special exhibition to Charles EAMES in 1946. Ray’s contribution was for a long time ignored, as was her artistic career, which had its roots in the bohemian world of New York’s immigrants.
Charles died in St. Louis in 1978 and Ray survived him until her death in Sacramento, California in 1988.

Charles & Ray Eames, 1958

The chairs in the Aluminium Group are the most famous creations by Charles and Ray Eames. Designed in 1958 they rate amongst the great achievements in the design history of the 20th century.

An important characteristic of the Aluminium Chair is the intelligent combination of materials. It has a clear, transparent form and its construction is clearly visible. Aluminium sections lend the chair both stability and lightness. The material is fixed into the side sections, yet fitted loosely so that it follows the line of the body and is comfortable without requiring extensive upholstery. This material is not a cover but an integral part of the design.

Chairs and armchairs with medium-high or high backrests, with or without armrests, also available in leather. Side sections, flexible metal elements, armrests and base in die-cast aluminium, polished or chrome-plated. Upholstery electronically sewed; cover in Hopsak (100% polyamide), netweave (100% plastic- illegible-polyester yarn) or cowhide nappa leather. Base available as four-star base, in a swivel or non-swivel version, with glides for soft or hard flooring. Armchair with high backrest and tilting mechanism, with or without adjustment feature. Office swivel chair with adjustable tilting mechanism and locking feature in the forward tilting position; height adjustment via a pneumatic safety spring; five-star base with castors in compliance with DIN 68131, for hard or soft floor surfaces. Stool: matching the armchair with high backrest, no swivel feature.