Eames Lounge Chair Wood - Design Development

Design Development

The entries Charles Eames & Eero Saarinen submitted into the Organic Furniture competition were designed with the seat and backrest joined together in a single 'shell'. The plywood, however, was prone to crack when bent into the sharp curves the furniture demanded. The competition entries were covered with upholstery to hide these cracks.

Through extensive trial and error Charles and Ray arrived at an alternate solution: create two separate pieces for the seat and backrest, joined by a plywood spine and supported by plywood legs. The result was a chair with a sleek and honest appearance. All of the connections were visible and the material was not hidden beneath upholstery. The seat was joined to the spine and legs with a series of four heavy rubber washers with nuts embedded in them (later these came to be called 'shock mounts'). The shock mounts were glued to the underside of the seat, and screwed in through the bottom of the chair. The backrest was also attached using shock mounts. From the front and top the seat and back are uninterrupted by fasteners. The rubber mounts were pliable, allowing the backrest to flex and move with the sitter. This unique technology is also one of the chair's greatest flaws. The shock mounts are securely glued to the wooden backrest, but may tear free if excessive pressure is applied, or if the rubber becomes brittle. A common response to this problem was to drill directly through the backrest and insert fasteners between the backrest and the lumbar support. This greatly devalues the chair and mars the original aesthetic of the smooth, uninterrupted wooden forms.

Even though the plywood chair was a compromise of the Eames' vision to create a single shell chair it constituted a successful design. In tandem with the LCW the Eames created a family of plywood chairs, tables, and folding screens. The all-plywood Dining Chair Wood (DCW) was constructed in the same manner as the LCW, but with a narrower seat, and longer legs to bring the seat up to dining height. The Lounge Chair Metal (LCM) and Dining Chair Metal (DCM) were constructed of the same plywood seats and backrests as the LCW & DCW set on a welded metal frame. The success of 'The Plywood Group' caught the attention of George Nelson, design director of Herman Miller. Nelson convinced D.J.DePree, the owner of Herman Miller, to hire the Eames Office as designers and bring on production of the Eames plywood furniture.

Coming out of an age where furniture was heavy and complex; made from multiple materials and then covered in upholstery, the Eames design was a striking new way of looking at furniture and furniture design. The chair was produced from 1946 until 1947 by Evans Molded Plywood of Venice Beach, California for the Herman Miller furniture company in Zeeland, Michigan. In 1947 Herman Miller moved the production of the chairs to Michigan and has continued producing them until present day (a brief period existed when the chairs were out of production). In Europe, Vitra became the producers of Eames furniture. Herman Miller and Vitra are the only two companies producing chairs licensed by the Eames estate as represented by the Eames Office.