The Dark Side Club

By Editorial Staff - 8 January 2010

Where can architects and visitors find a forum for critical debate at
the Venice Biennale?
2006 sees the launch of The Dark Side Club - a series of critical debates reviewing the work of up and coming architects from all over the world. The Dark Side Club is a brain-child of Paul Finch, Editor of the UK’s Architectural Review, Peter Cook, Odile Decq and White Partners, the international architectural corporate strategy consultants.
Only a small number of architects can, by definition, participate in the Venice Biennale itself, The Dark Side Club offers some of the most promising young architectural and urban planning studios the chance to present one of their works to key members of the Biennale audience. The series of three intellectually engaging after-dinner evenings will be held in the elegant surroundings of one of Venice’s finest houses - the Palazzo Contarini.
Selected schemes will be scrutinized by a panel of leading theorists and practitioners. Panel members will include: Peter Cook, Odile Decq, Paul Finch, Massimiliano Fuksas, Wolf Prix and Richard Rogers. These open crit evenings will be open to the public. The Dark Side Club is expected to be the after-dark meeting place during the opening days of the Biennale.
Architectural Studios are invited to submit for consideration one scheme relevant to any one of the following five categories: Urban identity, City-wide planning, City-quarter regeneration, Cities and culture, City sustainability. The panel will draw up a short-list of schemes and these will be considered over the three open crit evenings with the most persuasive schemes subsequently featured in a post-Biennale overview published by Architectural Review.