The Architecture Symposium: How new is now?

^{Program Information}

This edition of The Architecture Symposium will explore the theme of the 2021 Asia Pacific Architecture Festival, “How new is now?”

Is there any such thing as a new idea? The cyclic nature of the world can make it difficult to distinguish innovation from iteration. Though we may think something is new, is it really new? In response to changing times, including a global pandemic, economic crisis and climate emergency, architectural and design agency has the potential to be applied in different and exciting ways. In this program, we will simultaneously learn from the past and optimistically look forward to the next decade of design with a careful balance of vision and pragmatism.

Presented over four days from 16 March, the program includes three hour-long speaker sessions and concludes with a plenary discussion. Choose the sessions that are most valuable to you, capped off with an engaging interactive live discussion, Dissection: How new is now?

Program

Tuesday 16 March, 12.30 to 1.30 pm AEST

Session 1: New Opportunities
Christopher Lee, Serie Architects (Singapore, India, UK)
Karamia Muller, University of Auckland (New Zealand)
Samaneh Moafi, Forensic Architecture (UK) 

Thursday 18 March, 12.30 to 1.30 pm AEST

Session 2: New Needs
Stephanie Larassati, At-Lars (Indonesia) 
Yuri Uno and Toshiharu Naka, Naka Architect's Studio (Japan)  
Gong Dong, Vector Architects (China)

Tuesday 23 March, 12.30 to 1.30 pm AEST

Session 3: New Urban
Rahul Mehrotra, RMA Architects (India, USA) 
Mark Middleton, Grimshaw (Australia, UAE, France, US, UK) 
Joshua Bolchover and John Lin, Rural Urban Framework (China) 

Thursday 25 March, 12.30 to 1.30 pm AEST

Plenary session
Dissection: How new is now?
A panel discussion with Gong Dong, Stephanie Larassati, Mark Middleton and Karamia Muller. This session will be moderated by 2021 Asia Pacific Architecture Festival co-curators Georgia Birks and Cameron Bruhn.