Following the screening of the opening film at the ‘ ’ festival, ‘Melbourne: The Lost City’ , we will discuss ways of realising the desire for beauty across different periods of history – globally, but above all in our own country. Thanks to the presence of experts who study various architectural styles, we will delve into the past. We will consider what sort of buildings we have in mind when we think and say that something in our city is beautiful, or when we sigh at how beautiful it could be but isn’t.

The following speakers will take to the stage: architectural historian Anna Syska, heritage expert Jerzy Serafin, cultural studies scholar Aleksandra Litorowicz and practising architect Szymon Ciupiński. They will be invited by Kuba Żary, an architectural exhibition curator and journalist, to join in a collective exploration of the characteristics of ‘truly beautiful’ buildings – characteristics linked not only to aesthetics, but also to the values upheld within a given cultural circle or architectural style period.

The event will also provide an opportunity to reflect on heritage, which we often only come to appreciate once it begins to disappear. We will examine buildings lost in the name of modernisation and the pursuit of new, trend-driven definitions of beauty. In doing so, we will not demonise either functionalism – which, after the Second World War, contributed to the disappearance of historic architecture in many countries – nor historicism, often associated with a conservative turn. Will we find ourselves in the ‘beautiful middle ground’? We shall see! One thing is certain: you will not hear that good architecture is a matter of taste.

This event is organised in collaboration with SARP Wrocław.