OfficeUS, the U.S. Presentation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, explores the last 100 years of United States architectural production abroad and the ways in which the U.S. architecture office has exported architecture around the globe.
Call for Outpost Architects
OfficeUS is seeking 90 architects worldwide to become members of a global architectural office and participate at the U.S. Pavilion at la Biennale di Venezia 2014.
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- 25 April 2014
- Venezia
Curators Eva Franch i Gilabert, Ana Miljački and Ashley Schafer re-imagine the U.S. Pavilion as an active, global, experimental architecture office that researches, studies, and remakes projects from an onsite archive of 1,000 buildings and the 200 U.S. based architecture offices engaged in their construction. Collectively, the projects in the archive tell multiple, imbricated stories of U.S. firms, typologies, and technologies. The office consists of 8 architects selected from an international open call, visiting experts, and outpost offices distributed worldwide. Over the 25 weeks of the Biennale, OfficeUS will revisit the projects in the archive, their premises and conclusions, to construct an agenda for the future production of architecture.
Collectively designed by New York based architects Leong Leong, graphic designer Natasha Jen / Pentagram and technology consultants at CASE, OfficeUS dwells on fundamental aspects of historical office corporate identity and design. The design features a wall of project binders housing architectural documentation of each project and disrupts the classical floorplan of the pavilion through a large, collective work-space that moves through each room — inverting interior and exterior — presenting a depth to collect and display historical materials and work produced by the partners working in the office. OfficeUS looks simultaneously backward and forward, rethinking both historical material and office protocols from the archive, while using the U.S. pavilion-based office, OfficeUS, to develop new work and as a portal to host discussions and workshops.
OfficeUS is inviting 90 architects worldwide to participate in the activities of a global architectural office. Members contribute their voices, expertise and skills to OfficeUS on a regular basis at a level of engagement they specify–from full time to a few hours a week.
Participation in OfficeUS is an act of architectural generosity towards the production of ideas and projects beyond current social, economical, pedagogical and disciplinary constraints. Eligible applicants are highly skilled, speculative and visionary architects. Applicants must have a professional degree in architecture or a demonstrated ability within the field of architecture, design, urban planning, engineering and/or city planning. They could be working within corporate offices, small firms, government agencies, universities or independently.
Powered by an online platform, and under the direction of OfficeUS Partners, the OfficeUS Outpost Architects will provide key expertise, skills, production capabilities and strategic local knowledge for the development of projects during the Venice Biennale.