2015
Edited by Eva Franch i Gilabert, Ana Miljački, Ashley Schafer, Michael Kubo

9.75 x 6.5 x 2.25 inches
1232 pages, 1416 illustrations
hardcover

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.” This book functions as the repository, presenting 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” present at the Biennale engaged these projects, revisiting their premises and conclusions. It functioned as a laboratory staffed by a diverse group of resident design partners collaborating with outpost offices and a rotating cast of visiting experts. The OfficeUS project created both a historical record of the U.S.’s contribution to global architectural thought, and a petri dish in which that record was submitted to contemporary agents of disruption and critique.

The outcome of the OfficeUS exhibition in Venice resulted in three publications: the Agenda, the Atlas, and the Manual.