Molded Plywood Lounge Chair Prototype

Ray and Charles Eames embraced inexpensive plywood in their earliest furniture experiments, developing what they initially called the “Eames Process”⁠—a method for molding plywood into complex forms. This process allowed them to pursue a clear objective: to harness industrial production in order to create standardized components that could be assembled into chairs that were lightweight, affordable, and comfortable through their shape rather than added upholstery.

This prototype represents one of the most expressive and ambitious explorations of that idea. It pushes plywood to its limits, transforming it into something almost sculptural. Here, a single flowing form provides back support, arms, and a sense of enclosure for the sitter⁠—collapsing multiple functions into one continuous surface.

The breakthrough was not just bending plywood, but achieving compound curves⁠—forms that move in multiple directions at once⁠—something unprecedented in furniture at the time. In this chair, those curves extend fully into three dimensions.

Gift from Ilana Drummond and Sharon Dulberg in memory of Gilbert and Elaine Drummond.