04.13.2015Architecture, For Fun
#Archweek Day 2: Charles and Ray Eames
Architecture is often thought of in styles; is it tudor, is it modern, or is that art deco? However, architecture is much more exciting when viewed as a solution to a question or design problem. Once architecture and design are evaluated on their merits of answering a question, you may find that a new appreciation forms. Your aesthetic preferences might even start to change.
We continue to celebrate National Architecture Week all week by highlighting an architect and a selection of their work that successfully answers the question below.
Question: How do architects and architecture impact and improve our daily lives?
Answer: Through Experimentation.
Charles & Ray Eames were pioneers in experimentation to validate design’s worth. From the 1940s to the 1970s, this husband and wife designed and fabricated everything, such as objects, furniture, graphics, films, and even houses. They set a new tone of modern architecture and showed us that design is for everyone.
A Project to Discuss: Powers of 10.
While this isn’t a piece of architecture, it’s used in architecture schools as a reference. Charles and Ray Eames worked with IBM to take cutting edge technologies and communicate complex scientific ideas in a very understandable way. Powers of 10 has been used as a tool for understanding scale for almost 40 years, and remains as relevant today as it did in 1977.
“To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number, to the specialist of an enlightened matter, to a privileged social class? Design addresses itself to the need.”
-Charles Eames
