A. R. T.
Office US Atlas
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OfficeUS, the U.S. Pavilion for the 2014 International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, reframes the history of U.S. architecture through the lens of export in two interrelated constructs: “The Office” and “The Repository”. The “Repository” presents 1000 projects designed by 200 US offices working abroad in a chronological archive of the last 100 years. Collectively these projects tell multiple, imbricated stories of U.S.
firms, typologies, and technologies, as well as a broader narrative of modernization and its global reach. The “Office” engages these projects, revisiting their premises and conclusions over the
course of the Biennale. It functions as a laboratory staffed by a diverse group of resident design partners collaborating with outpost offices and a rotating cast of visiting experts. Together, these two halves of OfficeUS create both an historical record of the U.S. contribution to global architectural thought, and a petri dish in which that record is submitted to contemporary agents of disruption and critique.