The Case Study House #9 designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen for John Entenza, has been considered -from a building point of view- as the #8 'twin' even though they fulfilled completely different needs. A contemporary journal defined them "technological twins but architectural opposites".
The Case Study House #9 took few years from the publication in 1945 to when it was actually built, but very little changed in its blueprint. This project was one of the first houses in the program to have a steel and glass structure with concealed within plastered and wood-paneled surfaces interiors.
Oriented on over an acre of meadow that looks to the sea, it incorporates the land as a part of the living scheme, depending upon this interrelationship for an extension of its space feeling and establishing an intimate association with its natural environment. There is a direct and unobstructed view across the meadow through old trees to the Pacific.
Starting point for the design of the house was to achieve a ample space with a minimal construction. Eames and Saarinen made it possible by placing four steel columns in the center of the house, allowing a construction of cross bracing and continuity with most of the joist load spread to the outside of the rectangle. This way all the carrying members inside bearing a fairly light and equal load.
The large social area has been designed to serve separate or organized activities and divides naturally into the basic requirements for eating, living, entertaining, and conversational exchange with few or many.
The house project turned out exactly the way how it was meant to be. Client Entenza got exactly what he asked for which is the quit remarkable. The route from the drafting board to reality became a coherent process.
As is usual in such projects, it has, of course, in the actual construction been subjected to innumerable vicissitudes and a host of the customary occurring and recurring problems. However; it is one of the wonders of all such undertakings that they get done at all, and in this case we are deeply gratified that, having done it, it is not only successful structurally but that it is also a beautifully created human environment.
Case Study House #9 as designed for John Entenza was very different from the Eames House -one is horizontal and one is vertical- yet similar in the structural system and the use of the same industrial materials and methods. The two houses were conceived by the architects to demonstrate the adaptability of modular steel to the various individual needs of the owners.
The roof is covered with a single flat slab of concrete and the interior ceiling made of birch wood strips. A wall of floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass doors opens the interior of the house to the exterior landscape of the meadow and the ocean beyond. The interior open-plan layout features a 36-foot-long living room with a decoratively painted freestanding fireplace, a dining room, two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, and a study.
Exception to the open-plan of the house was the study which was enclosed, cave-like with no windows and there fore no distractions from the outside world. It was exactly how Entenza wanted it because it would enable him to work secluded in the further open house. Despite the house turned out exactly how Entenza wanted, he only lived there only for five years. Ever since the house went through many changes to it's original to suit the needs of new residents.
The Case Study House #9 took few years from the publication in 1945 to when it was actually built, but very little changed in its blueprint. This project was one of the first houses in the program to have a steel and glass structure with concealed within plastered and wood-paneled surfaces interiors.
Oriented on over an acre of meadow that looks to the sea, it incorporates the land as a part of the living scheme, depending upon this interrelationship for an extension of its space feeling and establishing an intimate association with its natural environment. There is a direct and unobstructed view across the meadow through old trees to the Pacific.
Starting point for the design of the house was to achieve a ample space with a minimal construction. Eames and Saarinen made it possible by placing four steel columns in the center of the house, allowing a construction of cross bracing and continuity with most of the joist load spread to the outside of the rectangle. This way all the carrying members inside bearing a fairly light and equal load.
The large social area has been designed to serve separate or organized activities and divides naturally into the basic requirements for eating, living, entertaining, and conversational exchange with few or many.
The house project turned out exactly the way how it was meant to be. Client Entenza got exactly what he asked for which is the quit remarkable. The route from the drafting board to reality became a coherent process.
As is usual in such projects, it has, of course, in the actual construction been subjected to innumerable vicissitudes and a host of the customary occurring and recurring problems. However; it is one of the wonders of all such undertakings that they get done at all, and in this case we are deeply gratified that, having done it, it is not only successful structurally but that it is also a beautifully created human environment.
Case Study House #9 as designed for John Entenza was very different from the Eames House -one is horizontal and one is vertical- yet similar in the structural system and the use of the same industrial materials and methods. The two houses were conceived by the architects to demonstrate the adaptability of modular steel to the various individual needs of the owners.
The roof is covered with a single flat slab of concrete and the interior ceiling made of birch wood strips. A wall of floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass doors opens the interior of the house to the exterior landscape of the meadow and the ocean beyond. The interior open-plan layout features a 36-foot-long living room with a decoratively painted freestanding fireplace, a dining room, two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, and a study.
Exception to the open-plan of the house was the study which was enclosed, cave-like with no windows and there fore no distractions from the outside world. It was exactly how Entenza wanted it because it would enable him to work secluded in the further open house. Despite the house turned out exactly how Entenza wanted, he only lived there only for five years. Ever since the house went through many changes to it's original to suit the needs of new residents.
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