It’s a packed month at Open House!
May is a big month in the Open House network. Helsinki and Basel recently hosted their annual festivals and several are launching this weekend.
Get a preview of Open House Brno, Lisbon, Milan, Vilnius and Prague below, and stay tuned for details on Open House Rome, Rosario and Gdynia.
UPCOMING FESTIVALS
Hvězdárna Planetarium, courtesy of Open House Brno
OPEN HOUSE BRNO
BRNO, CZECHIA
13-14 MAY
Open House Brno opens up the Czech city for conversations and exploration about architecture and the technical foundations that make the city a vibrant place to live, work, and learn. Notable landmarks include Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich’s Villa Tugendhat and Reissigova Vila – the current seat of the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture. In addition to tours at almost 110 buildings and projects, the programme also includes talks about the role of women in architecture, concerts, workshops, audio walks, video tours, and more. Several locations will also offer English-language tours.
Ajuda Palace © Francisco Nogueira
OPEN HOUSE LISBOA
LISBON, PORTUGAL
13-14 MAY
In 2023, Open House Lisboa is titled “Time Matters.” Curated by architecture studio Embaixada, the festival invites participants to consider architecture as living entities and experience the birth, life, decline, and rebirth of buildings across the city. More than 70 spaces will be open for the festival, along with challenges for youngsters, accessible tours for people who are blind or have low vision, urban walks accompanied by experts, and a new narrated sound walk by the photographer Daniel Blaufuks.
MonteRossa91, courtesy of Open House Milano
OPEN HOUSE MILANO
MILAN, ITALY
13-14 MAY
From large urban redevelopment projects reconfiguring the city to inventive private homes and studios, Open House Milano opens up more than 100 spaces. The lineup includes landscape architecture attentive to biodiversity and climate change, co-working spaces that encourage sharing ideas and experiences, social housing that supports accessible and democratic communities, public art that grounds the value of place and enhances public spaces, and much more. Participants will also have the chance to preview two exciting sites: MonteRosa91, Renzo Piano’s complex currently under construction, and Scalo Farini, a former railyard part of Milan’s largest urban regeneration plan.
Educational media centre Lojoteka © Gytautė Akstinaitė
OPEN HOUSE VILNIUS
VILNIUS, LITHUANIA
13-14 MAY
The 2023 edition of Open House Vilnius takes a deep dive into what makes architecture “comfortable.” Why do some buildings make us feel good while others don’t? How has comfort in architecture changed over time? What does it mean for a building to be comfortable for families with children or people with mobility issues and other disabilities?
More than 50 buildings will be open for tours, including D9-Artsy Office, Vilnius Choral Synagogue, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, and ISM University of Management and Economics in the former Vilnius Central Post Office. To open up the programme to even more residents and visitors, the festival includes an expanded number of English language tours and will offer tours in Ukrainian for the first time.
Medialni dum Economia, Lukas Biba
OPEN HOUSE PRAHA
PRAGUE, CZECHIA
15-21 MAY
More than 100 buildings and spaces across Prague will be open for the 9th edition of the festival. The programme also includes three special anniversary celebrations to mark the contributions of architects Karel Prager, Věra Machoninová, and Antonín Viktor Barvitius. Several spaces will open their doors for the first time during the festival, including the former branch of Komerční Bank in Smíchov, the backstage of the New Stage of the National Theater, and the monumental Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.
Open House Prague is dedicated to making the festival as barrier-free to participants as possible. Admission is free, special activities for families are designed to engage children, accessible tours are offered for people with hearing or visual disabilities, and English-language tours help connect those from abroad with the city’s architecture.
COMING SOON
OPEN HOUSE ROSARIO: 20-28 MAY
OPEN HOUSE ROMA: 20-21 MAY
OPEN HOUSE GDYNIA: 26-28 MAY