Most people think of Ray and Charles Eames as seminal furniture designers who also produced experimental films from time to time. They built their own home – the emblematic Eames House in Pacific Palisades, California – but the general perception is that it was a one-and-done. Few know that the influential duo designed a slew of homes and had a larger goal of developing a universal architectural system that could be accessible to almost anyone and introduced almost anywhere.
The Eames Pavilion System by Kettal: have your own Eames House
Debuting as part of a special Triennale di Milano exhibition – ‘The Eames Houses’ – opening during Milan Design Week 2026 in April, the Eames Pavilion System is a fully functional prefab home solution fulfilling that previously unrealised ambition. Developed by the Eames Office in partnership with Spanish outdoor furniture brand Kettal, the comprehensive kit-of-parts product stems from intensive research into the Eameses' overall vision. The project – one that’s both commercial and cultural – is particularly relevant in view of the worsening global housing crisis.
‘I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with the idea of the house being a singularity,' says Eames Demetrios, Ray and Charles’ grandson and director of the Eames Office, a continuation of their studio and a platform mandated with the preservation of their multifaceted legacy. 'It was such an integral extension of everything else they did. There’s always been this question out there: could the Eames House be copied, and the answer is yes, but the first thing one would need to do is build a hill so they could put it next to it. Is that really where they’d want to put their energy, and is creating a facsimile really the point?’ This fresh offering is much more of a reinterpretation of the Eames House, embracing the big ideas it represents.
It was originally developed as part of the Case Study Houses project – 30 or so distinct home concepts constructed throughout Los Angeles in the late 1940s using inexpensive materials. ‘The proposition was that one could visit different properties and have their builders collage elements from the different designs that worked best for them,’ says Demetrios. He notes that, between 1945 and 1948, more than 350,000 people walked through the first six prototype properties to be completed – a considerable proportion of the fewer than two million living in the city at the time. There was something inherently democratic and yet self-deterministic about the programme. The new Eames Pavilion System embodies that versatility and ethos.
Dissecting the principles of the Eameses’ architecture
Central to the initial research project – led by product strategist Eckart Maise – was the distilling of the fundamental strategies and components that not only define the original Eames House but also the surprisingly different in appearance Case Study House No. 9 (the Entenza), Shelter House, and De Pree House.
‘We did a typological study of all the homes the Eameses designed, even ones constructed using post and beam timber, and uncovered commonalities in modularity and segmentation,’ says Maise. ‘This allowed us to turn these prototypes into a product and system that’s actually more strict than the original Eames House. What we did is make it more universal and aligned with what Charles Eames is quoted as having said: that the rigidity of a system is responsible for opening up all the possibilities of working with that system afterwards.’
Harnessing Kettal’s expertise in metal fabrication – one it hones through its lesser-known outdoor pavilion business – all parts were brought up to present-day standards. Steel was replaced by far more weather-resistant aluminium, and single-pane windows were replaced by triple glazing.
The simplified yet more agile kit-of-parts product comprises aluminium ‘I’ and ‘H’ beams infilled by glass, polycarbonate, and wood insert panels. When fully available to the market in early 2027 – as a single unit, a double module, and a multi-bay configuration – the Eames Pavilion System will be fully insulated and conducive to various climatic conditions. A 2mx2m-grid room-with-in-a-room interior application will hit the market at the end of 2026.
As Demetrios notes, most prefab products available today are often sent to site and require bespoke alterations, which actually defeats the purpose. Factored into the Eames Pavilion System service is the attention of a well-trained Kettal expert, who will be sent out to assess conditions before the structure is configured and components manufactured.
To have the global design industry make the critical link between the Eameses’ architectural and furniture practice – one that actually transcended these limited disciplinary definitions – Eames Office and Kettal chose to launch the system during Milan Design Week 2026. The Triennale di Milano exhibition will feature a fully realised two-story structure and another 'exploded parts' version, demonstrating how the components can be assembled.
The former will be outfitted just as Ray and Charles Eames would have done it. Carefully selected archival materials –presented as reproductions – and a closely curated timeline will help contextualise everything. A soon-to-be released interior design book, The Eames Houses from Phaidon (available to pre-order), will do the same.
'Architecture was foundational to Charles and Ray’s practice,' says Maise. 'Their systemic architectural thinking shaped everything they did. Through rigorous, in-depth archival investigation, we uncovered a wealth of material – drawings, studies, and proposals – that had remained largely unseen. Introducing ‘The Eames Houses’ – both the exhibition and the book – and partnering with Kettal allow their ideas to move from the archive into contemporary living, situating their thinking firmly in the present.'
‘The Eames Houses’, 20 April – 10 May 2026, Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6