What's in an Elevation - Eames House

In an article about their house “LIFE IN A CHINESE KITE - Standard industrial products assembled in a spacious wonderland” Charles noted that “there was no reason for a house to not be spacious—space being the greatest luxury there is; a sophisticated industrial product; and as light and airy as a suspension bridge—as skeletal as an airplane fuselage." Having asked himself these questions he pondered, "How cheap is space? How industrial is our building industry? How light is steel?"

Like a weightless, delicate Chinese box kite, the Eames house frame is assembled with lightweight steel turnbuckles, L angles, open truss joists, and welded-plate connections. The skin of the kite is made of thin steel prefabricated windows, cemestos panels, glass, and metal panel. With their house, the Eames wanted to show industrial materials could be assembled to create a lively warm residential space. 

In the Architectural Forum article the house was poetically described: “As the spare steel skeleton shot up between the retained hillside and the eucalyptus trees, the house assumed that wonderful constructivist look that every sidewalk superintendent recalls with nostalgia long after the frame had been dressed up and disguised. . . .Into the frame of his steel box kite he fitted sheets of glass, wire glass (‘to make people realize it is there’), asbestos, plywood, or plaster in varying colors. Some of these sheets were fixed in place—fixed at least until Eames should decide to knock them out and replace them with some material of different texture or translucency. Others were set into projecting sash, ready to be opened to the breezes from the sea. All combined to create an ever-changing play of light and shadow, a series of surprise vistas, of sudden planes of color suspended in mid-air. What did it all prove? To Charles Eames it proved that life could be beautiful, and that industrial precision as the designer’s ally could make it so.”

By correlating the elevation to the section and plan behind, you can see the Eames' underlying logic for their dynamic facade. Similar to the clarity by which they detail the building, where each component of the assembly and structure is exposed, each type of space is assigned a material on the facade to optimize its function. That is, there is a legibility on the facade that tells the visitor what activities, levels of required light and privacy, and functions are behind it. 

Living space:
1) provide spandrel glazing/cemestos panels for rooms with low furniture like the bedroom and dressing rooms 
2) provide spandrel cemestos panels to mask the 2nd floor assembly
3) use infill black painted stucco panels with lateral bracing turnbuckles in front of closet spaces
4) use a large white stucco panel high on the east living room floor to prevent glare
5) use clear glazing with sliding plyon panels for bedrooms and dressing areas
6) use clear glazing for living room, and kitchen areas.
7) use translucent glass for entry, dining areas for semi-privacy
8) use painted stucco panel for the upper floor of the stair to focus people's attention to the light a the top of the spiral stair

Work space:
1) provide spandrel glazing/cemestos panels for rooms with low furniture like the art studio rooms
2) provide spandrel cemestos panels to mask the 2nd floor assembly
3) use infill black painted stucco panels with lateral bracing turnbuckles in front of storage spaces
4). use white opaque panel to mask the dark room 
5) use chicken wire glazing to denote art studio function on the first floor
6). use large north window areas with less mullions for the studio area.