Kitchens by Riland

The Eames Plywood lounge chair is very popular and has a unique design. Charles and Ray Eames who is a husband and wife team who developed a technology for molding plywood and the result was this excellent range of plywood lounge chairs. Charles Eames started making during World War II, plywood stints which were molded. These stints were used in aircrafts of the US air force. This work gave him the opportunity to study the technique of molding plywood and making it better so that he could mold the plywood into more types of curves which were complex in design.

Eames had originally a desire to make furniture which was comfortable and yet affordable by the vast majority of people and at the same time could be produced on a large scale easily. The problem with Plywood is that it will crack when it is bent at sharp angles, and hence had to be covered with upholstery at those places. The husband and wife team set upon the task of finding the best method of molding plywood into the required shapes and after a lot of trials and mistakes, they hit upon a solution. Instead of having a single shell for the backrest and seat, they came up with a design that had the seat and backrest as separate pieces which were joined by a lumbar support made of plywood. The legs of the chair also were made of plywood. This design gave the chair a modern appearance and was also very comfortable.

The Eames plywood lounge chair uses a unique system for joining the lumbar support, seat and legs with shock mounts. These shock mounts are nothing but a series of four nuts embedded in rubber washers. These mounts are fitted to the seat’s underside with glue and screwed into place, and the backrest is also fitted using these same shock mounts. Rubber being a pliable material gives the mounts the capacity to flex when the chair’s backrest is pushed back when occupied. This unique design gives this plywood lounge chair to have a backrest which is responsive.

This design of Eames Plywood lounge chair is not strong enough to bear very heavy weights. Although securely fastened with glue the mounts can come off under excess weight and also the rubber can become brittle after some time under certain climatic conditions. But still the plywood lounge chair is preferred by many people as it has a very sleek and neat appearance.