Design Dynasty

The Eames name is a familiar presence in Milan. Yet at this year’s Milan Design Week, the breadth of exhibitions, partnerships and launches represents more than a legacy on display. From architecture and lighting, to textiles and a new book, the family and the institutions behind the name continue to shape the Eames story. “As beautiful as the objects designed by Charles and Ray are, the ideas behind them are just as beautiful,” says Eames Demetrios, the Eameses’ grandson and current director of the Eames Office. “We really want to expose people to the rich tapestry of Charles and Ray’s work.”

At the centre of the Eames ecosystem is the Eames Office, the studio Charles and Ray Eames founded in 1941. It remains the custodian of the designers’ intellectual property, overseeing manufacturing relationships and new collaborations. Alongside it sits the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation, reconstituted in 2025 as guardian of the Eames House in Los Angeles, while the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity operates separately as a public charity focused on archives, exhibitions and public engagement, with plans for a museum in Novato, California.

The centrepiece of the Eames presence at Milan this year is The Eames Houses, an 800-square-metre exhibition at the Triennale Milano where the Eames Office and Kettal are unveiling the Eames Pavilion System. Rather than simply reproducing the iconic Eames House, the project distils Charles and Ray’s architectural thinking across multiple residential projects from the 1940s and 50s into a modular architectural system. 

The exhibition features two full-scale Eames Pavilions alongside archival drawings, films and scale models of eight residential projects. A companion book by Phaidon devoted to the Eames houses will be previewed at the Triennale bookshop, and Vitra has supplied Eames furniture for the installation.

“What I loved when I first saw the built pavilion was that it didn’t look like a copy but it totally felt like an Eames House,” says Demetrios. “Charles and Ray wanted the family to make these kinds of decisions. It’s a big responsibility, but they wanted it to be done thoughtfully.”

That same sense of stewardship shapes a new collection of rugs by Spanish brand nanimarquina, which draws on the motifs of Lucia Eames, Charles’s only child and Ray’s stepdaughter. Lucia’s distinctive creative practice – which spanned cut-steel sculptures, photography and hundreds of sketch-filled steno pads – was largely unknown during her lifetime. Her daughter Carla Hartman, however, spent three years archiving her mother’s work during the pandemic, uncovering a practice rich with recurring motifs: butterflies, birds, suns and abstracted organic forms.

“I was able to spend that time with Mum after her death and really know her in a deeper way,” says Hartman. “I have a much broader appreciation of her, both as a woman and as an artist. That’s been my gift from doing the archive.”

The collection translates Lucia’s motifs into seven rug designs, crafted from hand-knotted Afghan wool, hand-braided jute and embroidery by artisan communities in India and Pakistan. The collection debuts at both the Salone and a more immersive exhibition at nanimarquina’s Via Statuto showroom, where videos of Lucia will also be shown.