Prefab case study- Eames House

Eames house is one of the Case study house that were commissioned as part of an experiment into the prefabrication in post World War living. The experiment determined various briefs to stimulate a variety of solutions. The houses were to use the experiences of the war to create a series of prefabricated houses that were to embody the future of architecture. It is known as Case Study house number 8 first published in the December issue of Arts & Architecture in 1945 . The brief for Eames house was created by Charles and Ray Eames as a reflection of their needs as a married couple working in design. They wanted a home that would make no demands for itself instead serving as a background for day to day life. The initial design, known as the ‘Bridge House’ was created by Ray Eames with Eero Saarinen.

They designed the house in 1945 and ordered the parts that year. Due to the post-war shortage of materials they did not come until 1948 and by then Ray and Charles Eames had a completely different reaction to the site. They felt that the initial solution did not compliment the meadow and Charles went about redesigning. Using all the same part with the addition of one steel beam; he redesigned the building to be more harmonious with its setting. The new design consists of two simple boxes parallel to the meadow, one for living and one of studio space and is published the the May issue of Arts and Architecture in 1949.

A 60 metre long retaining wall extending along the hill acts as support so that the view at the front of the house is unobstructed.

Each of the two buildings is two stories high and made up of bays that are measured 7 1/2 ‘’ feet, approximately 2.3 metres wide. The residential part is made up of 8 bays, the studio is made up of 5 and the central court is made up of 4. The prefabricated steel sections, including 4 inches wide H-columns and 12 inches deep open web joists. The roof was made with exposed corrugated metal decking ceiling which allowed the main frame of the house to be erected in a single day. The Eames house was constructed with prefabricated and standardised industrial components including steel, factory windows, glass asbestos and cemesto board.

The facade is broken down into geometric grid with solid infill panels that are painted in bright colours like a painting by Mondrian. They correspond to the character of the functions taking place behind them in the house. The house was so sucessful that Ray and Charles Eames lived there for the rest of their lives.

Major prefabricated components

Investigating the mat-ability of the scheme

Using the plan of the Eames house, the grid is firstly simplified into even bays. The plan is made up of 4 bays of nine squares each. The first two bays are the house itself, the next bay is the courtyard and the next space is the studio.

The couryard space is treated as public space in the city scale. This formed the initial concept behind the layout because the plans are tiled to contain these public spaces.

The routes are layered through these public spaces to form hubs of transit whilst some remained.

Several ideas from the Eames house are used to convert the layout into a three dimensional model. The components originally from the Eames house are scaled up to use for the facade of the blocks. One of the Eames house bays is a covered external space which is transformed into covered streets in the three dimensional model.

The system creates a series of well linked public spaces that are formed by the undulating mass of the blocks.