Product Story
Timeless Elegance 
Expanded Options 
Innovative Comfort
Durability 
Earth-Friendly Product Story
The lithe chairs of the Eames Aluminum Group have been a popular design since their introduction in 1958. And no wonder. The graceful silhouette sits equally well in all kinds of home and workplace interiors. And a wide range of material options lets you create the chair you want. Wherever you place them, these chairs make a statement of enduring design excellence.
Product Group
Environment
95%recyclable
LEED Calculator
See how this product can contribute to your environmental goals.
Certifications
-
Eames Aluminum Group recognized with ICFF Editors' Choice Award for Best Outdoor Furniture.
2011
What's In It For You
Timeless Elegance
It's uncanny. A chair designed in 1958 as outdoor seating still manages to look both classic and contemporary in 21st century interiors. The chairs' clean, trim lines make them appropriate for all kinds of places, from classic and contemporary homes to elegant offices to hip startups.
Aluminum Group, also upholstered in traditional fabric or leather, is ribbed at 1 7/8-inch intervals for a clean, refined appearance. The Cygnus mesh option has a lighter-scaled, translucent quality.
Expanded Options
We've added a number of new options to let you create the perfect dining chair, lounge chair, or office chair.
If you choose leather upholstery, you can opt for our contract-grade or our new premium MCL Leather, a semi-aniline, dyed leather with 100 percent natural full grain. Color variations and surface marks are an inherent characteristic of this material, which will acquire wrinkles and creases and develop a rich patina over time.
To complement lighter materials, we are offering powder coat finishes on the base and frame in white and graphite satin, along with traditional polished aluminum. And we are reintroducing the 4-star base on chairs with glides. Chairs with casters have a 5-star base.
Innovative Comfort
Never being ones to favor style over substance, Charles and Ray Eames gave both chair designs an innovative suspension that creates a firm, flexible "sitting pocket" that conforms subtly to the body's shape. They created that suspension by stretching a continuous piece of seat-back upholstery tautly between lightweight aluminum side ribs.
Aluminum Group seat pads have layered construction with fabric or leather upholstery. Cygnus mesh is a self-contouring, flexing material available on Aluminum Group chairs to provide aeration, even weight distribution, and long-term comfort. Designed specifically for Eames Aluminum Group, Cygnus is an elegant option.
Executive and management models have seat-height and tilt-swivel adjustments.
Durability
With one-piece, curved aluminum side ribs and die-cast aluminum base, the chair is strong, yet lightweight and easy to move.
Earth-Friendly
Aluminum Group chairs are made of 61% recycled materials and are 95% recyclable at the end of their useful life.
Design Story
Aluminum Group chairs began as a challenge among legendary designers. Eero Saarinen and Alexander Girard were designing the Columbus, Indiana, home of industrialist J. Irwin Miller. They wanted a high-quality seating product for outdoor use and asked Charles and Ray Eames to develop one.
Known for their honest use of materials, the Eameses constructed their chairs with cast aluminum and a seat frame meant to support a stretched synthetic mesh. The seat-back suspension was a major technical achievement and represented a departure from the concept of the chair as a solid shell.
Those chairs became the Aluminum Group, which we began manufacturing in 1958. And while they have been in continuous demand, the line has changed and grown a lot over the years. The original mesh meant for outdoor use was discontinued, along with the 4-star base and painted arms on the early designs.
In 2001, we introduced a new mesh material for the Aluminum Group. Called Cygnus, it is similar to the Aeron chair's Pellicle fabric in its aeration and translucent qualities. Now, the lounge and side chair models will return to the 4-star base and bring back a look that is appropriate for the home. You will also see new white and graphite satin powder coat frames as options, along with polished aluminum.
