Eames Molded Plastic Chair

Overview

The Eames Molded Plastic Chairs are the plastic-shell members of the Eames shell chair family, credited to Charles and Ray Eames. Herman Miller's product sheet dates the design to 1950 and says its most recent step is a molded plastic shell made with 100 percent post-industrial recycled plastic with a subtle matte texture. The range includes side chairs, armchairs, rocking chairs and stools.

Construction

Two shell shapes, a side chair and an armchair, can be combined with a choice of bases: wire, low wire, dowel, 4-leg, stacking, rocking, and counter- or bar-height stool bases. Shells can be left plain or upholstered on the seat and back, and the side chair also takes a seat pad.

Specifications

• Side chair, wire base: W 18 in (457 mm), D 21.5 in (546 mm), H 31.5 in (800 mm), seat height 17.5 in
• Armchair shell: 25 in wide on the 4-leg, dowel and wire bases; 31 to 31.75 in high
• Shell colours: 12 in the Herman Miller collection
• Base finishes: white, trivalent chrome, black; dowels: white ash, natural maple, natural white oak, walnut, ebony

One shell, many chairs

Herman Miller says Charles and Ray Eames spent their careers exploring the chair as a single-shell form, beginning in 1950 with the Molded Fiberglass Chair. The page traces the molded chair to Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen's early investigations of molding plywood at Cranbrook Academy in 1939, continued by the Eames studio in Venice, California.

From fiberglass to recycled plastic

The page explains that after plywood and stamped metal the Eameses turned to fiberglass and experimented with bent wire, and that when fiberglass production proved unhealthy for the environment the decision was made to switch production to a safer plastic. Herman Miller's timeline lists the Molded Plastic Chair made with 100 percent recycled plastic under 2022, and the Herman Miller x HAY Collection, which updates colours and materials of eight Eames designs, under the same year.