About the Symposium

The Australian Institute of Architects is proud to present Symposium - Lost Opportunities. Attendees will engage with some of the most highly regarded architects in the world. Topics will include the practice of architecture today, environment, ideas concerning the global future of the profession and significant projects. The Australian Institute of Architects Symposium - Lost Opportunities is not to be missed. In any successful architect’s career, there are many instances where great visions are unable to be realised. Architectural expressions develop more from those lost opportunities than from any other place; such is the pain of developing an unrealisable seminal work in our profession. Subject matters including the environment, architectural space, materials and society are often most developed in projects that are not realised. Kahn’s Synagogue, Corb’s Venice Hospital, Siza’s Alhambra Entry Building and Murcutt’s Broken Hill Gallery all come to mind. Lost Opportunities will provide the Australian architectural audience, open discussions about international and domestic projects and ideas that were significant to their author but were never realised; projects that represent Lost Opportunities not just for the architect but the entire cultures in which they would have existed. Ideas of mentorship and practice, in general, will be shared. Perhaps the symposium can suggest that unrealised projects are a crucial and universal aspect of practice; necessary for the development of important ideas in the work of all architects.