Mysest56 
October 22, 2018
The other night I watched a new PBS documentary on Charles and Ray Eames, Branded Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter. While it traces their varied output — furniture and films, specifically — their influence on design is undeniable, despite the fact that they really only realized one construction in their career: the studio and house that the duo designed for themselves at Pacific Palisades, just outside Los Angeles.
Component of this Case Study series of homes sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine shortly after World War II, Case Study House #8 is a currently iconic piece of contemporary architecture that’s influential in myriad ways: its use of an industrial apparel of components, its use of color, its own plan and relationship to its site, and the method by which in which the home is a backdrop for the lives and belongings of its inhabitants.
This ideabook will look at several homes that seem to be influenced by the Eames House in a couple of ways, expounding upon its influence to following generations of architects.
Picture: Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
The Eames House is a linear, rectangular plan characterized by routine steel structural bays, which can be then infilled with various types of glass or coloured panels. The result is an industrial modernism that’s softened by the whimsical yet controlled usage of color and variety. A courtyard divides the long plan to two amounts: the bigger home and the smaller studio.
Landon Bone Baker Architects
One job that selects on both the linear plan and vibrant nature of the Eames House is the Worthington House by Chicago’s Landon Bone Baker Architects. The ends of the long facade are treated red and blue rectangles.
Landon Bone Baker Architects
Moving a little closer, we could observe the way the red broadcasts the corner and also how yellow is located in the middle of the long altitude and under the eaves. Note the way that the timber left natural contrasts between horizontal and vertical orientation, supplying a checkerboard effect that contrasts with glass expanses.
Landon Bone Baker Architects
The rear facade continues the same terminology as the front, with unique colours and windows of various sizes. Here the saying is much more subdued, as the roof is thrown into the rear, so therefore the elevation is slightly briefer and the eave is not as visible. Part Eames and component Mondrian, color accentuates an otherwise straightforward and contemporary wood box.
Sharon Portnoy Design
Color is also an essential component of the exterior of the residence by Sharon Portnoy Design, however on a much smaller scale. Rectangular patches of orange, blue, and crimson are added between windows around the top floor, above the expansive ground floor.
Sharon Portnoy Design
Portnoy also utilizes color in the entrance, where the same colors cover bits between vision glass. Color is utilized within this home to punctuate unique areas, especially the front doorway and the window upstairs; the latter provides the windows a horizontal continuity they might not otherwise possess.
David Churchill – Architectural Photographer
While built of wood rather than steel, this home remembers the Eames House in how it organizes itself through routine bays. This courtyard is located adjacent to a double-height living area; the latter is also a key part of the Eames House.
This home by Steven Ehrlich exposes a steel frame in front of this Cor-Ten steel enclosure facing the road. Orange fabric unrolls to color the swimming pool and provide provide splashes of color within the respective bays.
From this perspective we can see the pool between the fence and Cor-Ten steel wall, orange fabric unrolled overhead. Note also the CMU retaining wall observable left; this is related to the manner the Eameses utilized a retaining wall along the whole length of the home, to construct it upon a hillside. Here it provides privacy as it confronts the neighbors.
Jay Hargrave Architecture
This home, made by Cottam Hargrave, is a glass box that’s accessed via an opening in a concrete wall. While it’s a freestanding wall, not a retaining wall, the concrete coating acts as a backdrop for much of the home.
Jay Hargrave Architecture
From that side of the home we could view via two glassy elevations to observe that the concrete walls and opening outside. This wall can help to create privacy and orient views involving the garden and the pool.
Marmol Radziner
While the Eames House was built on-site, it tapped the modular structure with a kit-of-parts approach that combined steel and glass into a custom assemblage. In this regard they are an influence upon much of the prefab, which uses modular off-road structure to create customized programs and homes. This home by Marmol Radziner Prefab is a prototype that illustrates the possibility of the approach. Generous shaded outdoor spaces alternative with enclosed rooms.
Marmol Radziner
The exposed steel structure and decking in this view, as well as the sliding glass doors that unite outside and inside, connect this design together with the Eames House, which does not conceal the steel columns, joists, and roof deck.
All of this home needs is a splash of color to align it closer to the home Charles and Ray Eames known as home.
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Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
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