1. Biography
     Childhood    Education    Architectural practice    Ray Kaiser  

2. The Eames Office

3. Death

4. Philosophy

5. References

Charles Eames was an American designer, architect and film maker. In creative partnership with his spouse Ray Kaiser Eames he was responsible for groundbreaking contributions in the field of architecture, furniture design, industrial design, manufacturing and the photographic arts.

Biography

Childhood

Charles was born in St. Louis to Charles Sr., a railway security officer, and Marie Adele Celine Eames on 17 June 17, 1907. He had one elder sibling, a sister called Adele. Charles attended Yeatman high school and developed an interest for architecture.{{Ref}}

Education

Charles studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis on an architecture scholarship. After two years of study, he left the university. Many sources claim that he was dismissed for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright and his interest in modern architects. The university reportedly dropped him because of his "too modern" views.^[1] Other sources, less frequently cited, note that while a student, Charles Eames also was employed as an architect at the firm of Trueblood and Graf.^[2]{{unreliable source?|date=January 2019}} The demands on his time from this employment and from his classes led to sleep-deprivation and diminished performance at the university.

While at Washington University, he met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. A year later, they had a daughter, Lucia Jenkins.

Architectural practice

In 1930, Charles began his own architectural practice in St. Louis with partner Charles Gray. They were later joined by a third partner, Walter Pauley.

Charles Eames was greatly influenced by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At the elder Saarinen's invitation, Charles moved in 1938 with his wife Catherine and daughter Lucia to Michigan, to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. In order to apply for the Architecture and Urban Planning Program, Eames defined an area of focus—the St. Louis waterfront. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition.^[3] Their work displayed the new technique of wood moulding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto), that Eames would further develop in many moulded plywood products, including chairs and other furniture, splints and stretchers for the US Navy during World War II.^[4]

Ray Kaiser

In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married his Cranbrook colleague Bernice ("Ray") Kaiser, who was born in Sacramento, California. He then moved with her to Los Angeles, California, where they worked and lived until their deaths.

The Eames Office

From 1943 until his death Charles and Ray worked together with a team of staff and produced an unparalleled breadth of creative design work across many disciplines.

Full article: The Eames Office

Death

Charles Eames died of a heart attack on August 21, 1978, while on a consulting trip in his native Saint Louis, and was buried in the Calvary Cemetery there. He now has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.^[5]

Philosophy

In 1970 and 1971, Charles Eames gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. At the lectures, the Eames viewpoint and philosophy are related through Charles' own telling of what he called "the banana leaf parable", a banana leaf being the most basic eating utensil in southern India. He related the progression of design and its process where the banana leaf is transformed into something fantastically ornate. He explains the next step and ties it to the design process by finishing the parable with:{{quote|But you can go beyond that and the guys that have not only means, but a certain amount of knowledge and understanding, go the next step and they eat off of a banana leaf. And I think that in these times when we fall back and regroup, that somehow or other, the banana leaf parable sort of got to get working there, because I'm not prepared to say that the banana leaf that one eats off of is the same as the other eats off of, but it's that process that has happened within the man that changes the banana leaf. And as we attack these problems—and I hope and I expect that the total amount of energy used in this world is going to go from high to medium to a little bit lower—the banana leaf idea might have a great part in it.^[6]| Charles Eames}}

References

• J Electr Bioimpedance
• J. Electr. Bioimpedance
• J. Electr. Comput. Eng.
• J Electr Comput Eng
• J. Electr. Electron. Eng.
• J Electr Electron Eng
• J. Electr. Electron. Syst.
• J Electr Electron Syst
• J Electr Eng Electron Technol
• J. Electr. Eng. Electron. Technol.
• J. Electroanal. Chem.
• J Electroanal Chem
• J. Electroanal. Chem. Interfacial. Electrochem.
• J Electroanal Chem Interfacial Electrochem
• J. Electroanal. Chem. Interfacial Electrochem.
• J Electrocardiol
• J. Electrocardiol.
• J Electroceramics
• J. Electroceramics
• J Electrochem Soc
• J. Electromagn. Anal. Appl.
• J Electromagn Anal Appl
• J Electron Cool Therm Control
• J. Electron. Cool. Therm. Control
• J Electron Imaging