Counting its second year, Open House Europe returns for a new season with more festivals and a focus on accessible and inclusive cities. Starting in mid-April, 14 partner festivals across the continent will open the doors to exceptional spaces in their cities, showcase quality architecture, and highlight the accessible and inclusive aspects of our built environment.

This year, we welcome two long-running Open House festivals, joining our cooperation project as new partners. 48h Open House Barcelona and Open House Praha will participate in our effort to promote high-quality architecture as a shared, yet diverse, European identity. We also welcome three newly established festivals joining the project as Guest Cities: Open House Copenhagen, Open House Tirana, and Open House Zagreb. The expansion of Open House Europe brings more diverse and contextualised perspectives on the different challenges highlighted each year in the project.

The 2024 Open House Europe programme will emphasise accessible and inclusive aspects of the built environment. The theme draws attention to how architectural design and urban planning can prioritise inclusivity and make cities more accommodating for all individuals, regardless of their varied abilities, appearances, social backgrounds, and other characteristics. Project partners will highlight accessible spaces, provide inclusive programmes, and introduce various other thought-provoking activities throughout the year. 

We are excited to announce our partnership with ArchDaily, the world’s most visited architecture website. This partnership will enable us to collaborate in spreading the word about quality architecture and reach wide audiences within and beyond the continent.

The new season of Open House Europe kicks off in April with festivals in Greece and Slovenia, featuring guided tours and parallel activities. Open House Slovenia, set for 12–14 April, will highlight accessibility as a right to the city, showcase various inclusive architecture typologies, and offer a diverse range of activities for different social groups throughout the year. 

Held on the same weekend, Open House Athens will offer guided tours of accessible buildings, enhanced experiences through livestreams, and an extended week-long programme for various target groups.

In May, five festivals will be held in Portugal, Czechia, Lithuania, and Italy, starting with Open House Lisboa on May 11–12. The festival will invite visitors to discover the constant impermanence of architecture amid social changes and expand its accessibility and inclusion efforts with specialised tours, workshops, and assistive tools tailored for audiences with various visual, cognitive, and other needs. 

Open House Praha will hold its festival between May 13 and 19. This week-long festival will offer specialised tours and workshops, fostering inclusivity through interactive games and debates on accessibility. 

During the weekend of May 18–19, visitors in Czechia will also have the chance to attend the Open House Brno festival, which will emphasise the importance of architecture in making spaces friendly for various social groups, including children, parents, seniors, and people with disabilities. 

The same weekend, May 18–19, Open House Vilnius will celebrate its 10th edition, inviting visitors to meet the people who are creating the city. The festival will pay special attention to accessibility for people with various mobility needs and language barriers, offering tours in English as well as Ukrainian—for a community that, in the face of war in Ukraine, found its home-away-from-home in Vilnius, fostering a sense of connection and cultural inclusivity. 

Open House Milano, which takes place from May 25 to 26, will wrap up the spring festival series. The festival will invite visitors to join discussions about accessibility and inclusion in contemporary architecture and aim to ensure language accessibility for the city’s various communities.

In autumn, seven more festivals will invite visitors to explore their cities. Early September Open House Essen will involve residents with diverse ethnic backgrounds and offer guided tours in English, Turkish, and Arabic. The festival will also invite visitors to join public talks on the accessibility of redeveloped industrial spaces translated into German Sign Language.

On the first weekend of October, Open House Bilbao will focus its event on diversity in society and diversity in architecture. The festival will aim to provide access for people with disabilities and craft a programme that is accessible digitally, physically, and linguistically.

The same weekend, Open House Stockholm plans to showcase best practices in contemporary architecture for making spaces accessible for people with various needs and provide activities for diverse audiences.

A week later, on October 12–13, Open House Tallinn will take place. The festival will prioritise inclusivity and diversity through multilingual tours, tours in Estonian Sign Language, and special tours and workshops designed for young people. The team also plans a satellite event in the city of Tartu in late April.

On the same weekend, Open House Dublin will kick off their nine-day festival, starting with the Junior programme, empowering young people to envision a more accessible world. The 2024 programme will feature Irish Sign Language-interpreted tours, sensory-friendly events, initiatives for neurodivergent and visually impaired audience members, and more.

48H Open House Barcelona will host its festival on October 26–27 with a series of integration and participation actions titled ‘Open Social’ and highlight architecture for marginalised or at-risk individuals, as well as cooperative projects based on proactive citizenship. The event will also include a roundtable discussion on ‘Accessible Architecture: Inclusive City’. 

Lastly, on November 24–26, Open House Thessaloniki plans to offer activities for the young and elderly, as well as accessibility for visitors with visual impairments. The festival will also feature online events and livestreamed tours, allowing a broader audience to engage with the programme.

Open House Europe’s programme will culminate with the Annual Summit in Dublin, hosted by the Irish Architecture Foundation, at the beginning of 2025. The event will gather the Open House community, architecture enthusiasts, professionals, and visitors of local festivals to share their experiences and insights about contemporary architecture’s role in making our cities more accessible and inclusive. 

Throughout the year, all visitors of local Open House Europe festivals are also invited to reflect on the theme, express themselves through drawings, photography, video, or any other visual art form, and submit their artworks to the Open Call for Visual Stories. The European-wide perspective of equity and inclusivity in architecture will be revealed during the Annual Summit, where a special exhibition and publication, comprising the best selected Visual Stories from each local Open House festival, will be presented to the public.