What come round …

Architectural Review, The, July, 2004

Biennales are springing up everywhere. We had one in London last month, originally billed as the Clerkenwell Biennale. Clerkenwell, the London district on the north edge of the City and bang next door to Smithfield meat market, has become something of an architectural enclave but was deemed a tad parochial for the purposes of attracting sponsors.

So it became the London Biennale complete with Zaha and a cast of similar luminaries. And very good it was too. Now the French city of architecture, Orleans, is running its own biennale, Archilab 2004. Actually, until this year Archilab was a yearly event: I hope that the change in frequency doesn't mean that it is losing its head of steam. Vienna-based Dutchman Bart Lootsma is curator, and artistic manager is Maric-Ange Brayer, director of the French Centre Regional Contemporary Art Collection (FRAC Centre). The new date is October to catch the architecture schools and the website is at www.archilab.org. The biennale will feature 30 young architects emerging on the international scene and Lootsma has already chosen them so don't bother writing in.