Material Mondays

My plan was to have the first Monday of every month be designated "Material Mondays" in which I talk about a different material used to make things. Yes, it's Thursday, but better late than never.

I'm going to use this first Material Monday to tackle a sometimes tough subject - the Eames Molded Plastic Chairs. You see, working at DWR I often hear people lament that the Molded Plastic Chairs are no longer made out of fiberglass. I've heard it all - from claims the fiberglass was more 'organic' looking to unequivocal assertions that it was the 'original material.'

It might surprise you to know that both claims are false.

As a material fiberglass is exactly what it sounds like: needle thin fibers of glass that are formed into a rough shape. That shape is drenched in a mixture of plastic resin and pigment, and squished between two sides of a mold that are coated with a special finish called a gel-coat which seals the fibers. The mold is subject to heat and pressure and voila! Out pops a shape - in this case the Eames Plastic chairs.

At one point, its true, the chairs were made out of fiberglass. In fact, for much of their production history - from 1950 to 1993 the chairs were made out of the material. It is easy to understand why people are nostalgic about it. Under the wear of many backsides most of the vintage chairs have acquired a brilliant glossy shine. The colorful chairs often reveal a unique translucency when put in front of a bright light. Unfortunately fiberglass has many problems. It's not a particularly healthy material -the American Lung Association lists it as a likely carcinogen. If you scratch through the gel-coat the glass fibers can be released, causing skin irritation and lung problems. The same risks are much greater to the workers making the chairs .

The chairs also posed a problem for the greater environment: until fairly recently fiberglass wasn't recyclable. Millions of chairs were created since 1950. Once an institution was done with them the chairs were scrapped into junkyards, creating huge amounts of waste. So, in 1993, the Eames family, along with Herman Miller and Vitra (makers of Eames' furniture in America and Europe respectively) ceased production of the chairs in fiberglass.

Before we get to the end of the story lets jump to the beginning. In the late 1940s Charles and Ray Eames were stuck. They wanted to make a chair that had a single shell to sit in. In 1946 they had developed and produced chairs out of a relatively new material: plywood. But during the process they discovered a problem: plywood can only be formed in so many directions before it breaks. Making a single shell of plywood proved impossible. Instead they compromised and split the chair seat and backrest into two separate pieces. The results were the enormously successful plywood lounge chair (LCW) and plywood dining chairs (DCM)

They continued experimenting with other materials, including stamped metal. By 1948 they had developed prototypes of chairs and submitted them to the International Competition for Low Cost Furniture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The Eames' entries were featured in the museum catalog, but the metal chairs didn't go into production. Each prototype was stamped by hand using a primitive pulley system. The metal was laid over a mold and a counterpart was then raised up high and dramatically dropped. Each chair shell was composed of three metal pieces that needed to be welded together, then ground smooth, then painted. It was simply too much work for a chair meant to be mass produced. The form of the chairs worked, but the material didn't. And so in 1950 the Eames moved on to fiberglass reinforced plastic.

It is here that you can start to see a pattern, right? The plywood material didn't quite work, and so the Eames moved to metal. And when that didn't work, they moved to fiberglass.

You see, the Eames were constant tinkerers, working to make things better. As the Eames found new materials, and new techniques they applied them. You can see this process in the EC127 chair from 1971. It is essentially a DCM, but it has evolved. Instead of plywood the seat and back are composed of injection-molded plastic with a fabric upholstery. The glued-on rubber bushings are replaced by integrated mounts. The same process happened with the plastic chairs where almost every component - from the rubber bushings to the plastic feet - was tweaked, changed, made better.


When Ray Eames died in 1988 her grandson Eames Demetrios took over the Eames Office. And in 2001 the Eames' legacy of making things better continued. Herman Miller, Vitra, and the Eames Office re-released the molded plastic chairs. This time, instead of stamped metal or fiberglass the chairs were made out of injection molded polypropylene. Polypropylene is very durable and colorfast. Because the chairs are one solid material they can be scrubbed clean without fear of scratching through the surface. Best of all, polypropylene is 100% recyclable.

So if you like the Molded plastic chairs you've got a couple of options - you can hunt around eBay and Craigslist for vintage ones (buying used is a form of recycling!) Or you can buy new molded plastic chairs, confident that you are buying a true original, made in the same spirit - and a much better material - as everything the Eames produced.

Sources:
Eames Office www.eamesoffice.com
Eames Design; Neuhart, Neuhart, Eames (c) 1989
Design Within Reach www.dwr.com
Herman Miller www.hermanmiller.com