Case Study Houses and Eames House
Atsuko Tanaka  Professor, Shibaura Institute of Technology

In January 1945, John Entenza, the chief editor of the architectural magazine “Arts and Architecture” announced Case Study House (CSH) program in the magazine. The objective of the program was to have architects propose models of new living. The original plan was that eight architects including Charles Eames and Richard Neutra would design eight houses. The program was expanded to have 36 houses designed by more than 20 architects by 1966 and 25 houses were built. Among them Eames House (CSH #8) was outstanding not only in terms of architectural design but also of mass production feature of the house.
There was an urgent need in the United States of America after the world war II to solve the housing shortage for veterans and to build single family houses to promote conversion from military to civil industries. Many houses were built around that time including those in Levittown in the East and Eichler Homes in Northern California. CSH project tried to propose functional houses which could be prototypes for residential houses in California. What is unique in the project was that each architect presented a unique and innovative living space. For example, “Greenbelt House (CSH #4) by Ralph Rapson had the greenbelt of planting passing through the house, reflecting optimistic tenor of the time.
The modern architectural movement in Europe had been introduced by Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra in Southern California with its center in Los Angeles since 1920s. The architects there tried to develop standardized and mass-produced parts, functional planning and close relationship between interior and exterior spaces. Open structures were possible because of the mild climate of the region. Various experiments had been implemented included wooden sliding doors of Schindler’s Studio House (1922) and large steel sliding glass doors of Beard House (1935) and Garden House (1939) by Neutra. Harwell Hamilton Harris learned architecture under Neutra and designed Entenza’s House (1937) with the sliding glass doors between the living room and the terrace.
The manufacturers of steel fittings contributed to the program with novel sliding glass doors that were custom manufactured for CSHs. Approximately 90% of CSHs used sliding glass doors in their living rooms and/or bedrooms. Eames House used custom made sliding glass doors at the openings of both sides of the two buildings. Technology and concepts used in CSHs were in the extension of the designs of pre-war days. Neutra, for example, designed Lovel (Health) House in 1929. It was the first steel framed house in the US. It was not coincidental that the Eameses lived in Strathmore Apartments designed by Neutra (1937) for 8 years from 1941.
CSHs did not achieve the initial objective to create a generic model of residential houses. However, the glass box image of the Stahl House (CSH #22) by P. Koenig came to be widely known as a symbol of the new lifestyle in the US, and since the late 1950s, mass produced sliding glass doors became widely used in residential houses to promote indoor-outdoor integration. CSHs inspired a new lifestyle. Ever since it was first built, the transparent space of the Eames House, symbiotically integrated with the surrounding natural environment, has clearly communicated the ideal of CSHs pursuing better housing and living.