The Eames Houses - by Eckart Maise (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Eames Houses is the first comprehensive overview of Charles and Ray Eames's residential architecture. It includes several previously unpublished buildings and places the powerhouse couple's architectural work alongside their widely known designs in furniture, exhibitions, and film, showing how they carried consistent design principles across different disciplines.

Charles (1907-1978) and Ray (1912-1988) Eames's residential architecture is defined by their human-centered approach to modernism. Their work demonstrates a deep commitment to structural clarity, user-centered functionality, and the intelligent use of prefabrication. Rather than focusing purely on aesthetics, the Eameses approached architecture as a form of problem-solving, aiming to create flexible systems that offered a background for life and work in all its expressions.

This book presents all eight houses they designed between 1945 and 1955, featuring sketches, drawings, letters, and photographs - many of which have never been published before - alongside newly produced diagrams and models that offer further insight into their design process.

The book is organized into six chapters, one of which is entirely dedicated to Case Study House No. 8 with newly commissioned photography, together with a wealth of materials from the archives of the Eames Office - many of which are published here for the first time. The book further contextualizes the couple's thinking about domestic living in related fields such as furniture, toy, textile, and graphic design, anchoring the house projects within their work at large.

The book accompanies an exhibition in Milan in April 2026 that is planned to travel internationally.

Review Quotes

' Will keep your curiosity engaged.' - Docomomo US

' Expands the thinking around their architectural frameworks beyond their most famous structure.' - CNN Style

'A landmark sourcebook that reveals the full scope of the Eames vision.' - Cool Hunting

'Details Charles and Ray's relationship with the tribulations of residential architecture, and how it led them to the ideals of prefabrication.' - Dwell

'Breathtaking...[A] delightful peek at yet another facet of the couple's limitless creativity.' - AIR MAIL

About the Author

Catherine Ince is an independent curator and the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation's inaugural Research Fellow.

Norman Foster is Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners and President of the Norman Foster Foundation.

Eames Demetrios is the Director of the Eames Office in Los Angeles and a grandson of Charles and Ray Eames, about whom he has published widely.