First Office
First Office
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Rock Paper Rock

First Office

Stonehenge rendering, after illustrations by William Stukeley.

Year: 2025

Location: 19th Venice Biennale, ed. Carlo Ratti, Padiglioni dei Libri Pavilion, Giardini, Venice, Italy

First Office Team: Anna Neimark, Andrew Atwood, Aram Radfar

Exhibition: Rock Paper Rock, The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements

Curator: Sylvia Lavin

Research: Maxwell Smith-Holmes

Exhibition Design: A/P Practice, Maya Alam & Daniele Profeta

Exhibition Photography: Marco Zorzanello

Model Photography: Cooper Bluhm

 

The exhibition was supported by La Biennale di Venezia, Princeton University School of Architecture, and Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

First Office

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's mountain diagram hovers above William Stukeley's Stonehenge formation.

Initiated by La Biennale di Venezia 2025 Director, Carlo Ratti, and curated by the theorist and historian Sylvia Lavin, the group show The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements took over the padiglioni dei libri (book pavilion) in the Giardini. The exhibition was divided into two parts: a display of books and an installation of models. Two models by First Office were fabricated in Los Angeles and shipped to Venice to illustrate rock elements from the books: William Stukeley, Stonehenge, a Temple Restor’d to the British Druids (London: W. Innys and R. Manby, 1740), and Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Le massif du Mont Blanc: étude sur sa constitution géodésique et géologique, sur ses transformations et sur l'état ancien et moderne de ses glaciers (Paris: Libr. Polytechn. Baudry, 1876).

First Office

Paper mountain.

First Office
First Office
First Office

Paper mountain, carta azzurra and rubber cement.
Photography Cooper Bluhm.

Sylvia’s curatorial intention was to bring all models into dialogue with one another through one shared material: carta azzurra. This Venetian Blue paper was a commodity during the Renaissance when it was fabricated from common rags. Today, the Paper Foundation in England continues to make the blueish tinged sheets with this traditional method.

First Office
First Office

Sylvia Lavin's The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti. Stonehenge and Mont Blanc models by First Office are just two among many.

The blue laid paper, formed of linen and cotton, set the cool tone for all materials. We specified a dovetail grey dye, light Valchromat fiber boards, off-white filament, and rubber cement for the monochromatic palette.

First Office
First Office

Cooper shooting Stonehenge at SCI-Arc.

Andrew and Aram arranging the models.

First Office

Sylvia Lavin's Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti. Models by First Office among others.

First Office
First Office
First Office
First Office

CNC-milled Valchromat wood fiber boards pose as West Wales Bluestones. Photography Cooper Bluhm.

Rock Paper Rock

First Office

Stonehenge rendering, after illustrations by William Stukeley.

Year: 2025

Location: 19th Venice Biennale, ed. Carlo Ratti, Padiglioni dei Libri Pavilion, Giardini, Venice, Italy

First Office Team: Anna Neimark, Andrew Atwood, Aram Radfar

Exhibition: Rock Paper Rock, The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements

Curator: Sylvia Lavin

Research: Maxwell Smith-Holmes

Exhibition Design: A/P Practice, Maya Alam & Daniele Profeta

Exhibition Photography: Marco Zorzanello

Model Photography: Cooper Bluhm

 

The exhibition was supported by La Biennale di Venezia, Princeton University School of Architecture, and Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

First Office

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's mountain diagram hovers above William Stukeley's Stonehenge formation.

Initiated by La Biennale di Venezia 2025 Director, Carlo Ratti, and curated by the theorist and historian Sylvia Lavin, the group show The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements took over the padiglioni dei libri (book pavilion) in the Giardini. The exhibition was divided into two parts: a display of books and an installation of models. Two models by First Office were fabricated in Los Angeles and shipped to Venice to illustrate rock elements from the books: William Stukeley, Stonehenge, a Temple Restor’d to the British Druids (London: W. Innys and R. Manby, 1740), and Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Le massif du Mont Blanc: étude sur sa constitution géodésique et géologique, sur ses transformations et sur l'état ancien et moderne de ses glaciers (Paris: Libr. Polytechn. Baudry, 1876).

First Office

Paper mountain.

First Office
First Office
First Office

Paper mountain, carta azzurra and rubber cement.
Photography Cooper Bluhm.

Sylvia’s curatorial intention was to bring all models into dialogue with one another through one shared material: carta azzurra. This Venetian Blue paper was a commodity during the Renaissance when it was fabricated from common rags. Today, the Paper Foundation in England continues to make the blueish tinged sheets with this traditional method.

First Office
First Office

Sylvia Lavin's The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti. Stonehenge and Mont Blanc models by First Office are just two among many.

The blue laid paper, formed of linen and cotton, set the cool tone for all materials. We specified a dovetail grey dye, light Valchromat fiber boards, off-white filament, and rubber cement for the monochromatic palette.

First Office

Cooper shooting Stonehenge at SCI-Arc.

First Office

Andrew and Aram arranging the models.

First Office

Sylvia Lavin's Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti. Models by First Office among others.

First Office
First Office
First Office
First Office

CNC-milled Valchromat wood fiber boards pose as West Wales Bluestones. Photography Cooper Bluhm.

First Office was founded in 2011 by Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood to create a dialog between architectural practice and academic discourse. Their collaborative work spans buildings, exhibitions, and publications, all rooted in the belief that architecture is a form of cultural production.

The practice has engaged with leading institutions, including the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, the Chicago and Venice Biennials, MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program, and the Architectural League of New York. The projects and essays of First Office have been recognized with awards and compiled in Nine Essays (Treatise Press, 2015), as well as in Andrew’s publication Not Interesting: On the Limits of Criticism in Architecture (Applied Research and Design, 2017).

Anna Neimark
Design Faculty and Visual Studies Coordinator, SCI-Arc
anna.neimark@gmail.com

Andrew Atwood
Licensed Architect and Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
w.andrew.atwood@gmail.com

Logo and La Grotesque typeface by La Bureau.
Site: Mr. Wren & Friends. 

First Office was founded in 2011 by Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood to create a dialog between architectural practice and academic discourse. Their collaborative work spans buildings, exhibitions, and publications, all rooted in the belief that architecture is a form of cultural production.

The practice has engaged with leading institutions, including the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, the Chicago and Venice Biennials, MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program, and the Architectural League of New York. The projects and essays of First Office have been recognized with awards and compiled in Nine Essays (Treatise Press, 2015), as well as in Andrew’s publication Not Interesting: On the Limits of Criticism in Architecture (Applied Research and Design, 2017).

Anna Neimark
Design Faculty and Visual Studies Coordinator, SCI-Arc
anna.neimark@gmail.com

Andrew Atwood
Licensed Architect and Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
w.andrew.atwood@gmail.com

Logo and La Grotesque typeface by La Bureau.
Site: Mr. Wren & Friends.