For this year’s Open House Dublin free festival of architecture, taking place 11th-19th October, the Irish Architecture Foundation is inviting people to explore how the design of our built environment can shape a better world for generations to come

Celebrating its 20th year, this year’s festival joins the continent-wide Open House Europe programme exploring the theme ‘Future Heritage’, with Dublin’s O’Connell Street, a place where the past, present and future converge, serving as the focal point of the visual campaign.

The Open House Dublin programme features more than 200 events for everyone to experience free of charge. This year’s festival promises to be the most exciting and accessible yet, with guided tours of landmark buildings, outdoor spaces, private homes, and architects’ studios alongside exhibitions, conversations, a weekend of family-friendly events, and much more. The packed line-up also includes unique Open House events at IAF House, Charlemont Square.

Among this year’s new additions to the Open House Dublin 2025 programme are guided tours of some of the city’s most iconic and rarely accessible spaces. Highlights include the General Post Office (GPO), Dublin’s landmark civic building, the Docklands Municipal Water Sports Centre and Docklands Office, Dublin Airport’s Old Central Terminal Building, the Europa Experience Dublin on Chatham Street, Dublinia, and the French Ambassador’s residence on Ailesbury Road, among others. New guided walking tours invite participants to explore the contradictions, character, and potential futures of O’Connell Street, and heritage highlights on strolls from Sydney Parade to Ranelagh and from the Rialto Luas Stop to Grand Canal Harbour.

Housing, community, and neighbourhoods take centre stage in this year’s programme, with engaging walking tours led by Dublin City Architects – offered both in English and as Gaeilge – showcasing how thoughtful design is shaping the future of Dublin city, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. Tours of renowned OPW buildings – including Áras an Uachtaráin, The Four Courts, The Custom House and Áras Mhic Dhiarmada (Bus Áras) – will focus on how these landmarks are being preserved, revitalised, and adapted for contemporary use.

IAF House, a free, accessible temporary public venue for architecture and culture, returns to Charlemont Square this autumn. It will serve as the Open House Info Hub and host the Open Table series, informal conversations exploring timely and relevant topics. Democracy, led by Professor Jane Suiter, Director of DCU’s Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society, will explore how people can become more actively involved in shaping the present and future of Dublin, while Diaspora, led by young architecture graduates who have left the city, will examine why so many young people are choosing to leave Dublin today. IAF House will also host exhibitions, including the work of HouseEurope!, an award-winning activist campaign to change European law to prevent unnecessary demolition of existing buildings.

Open House Dublin once again offers visitors a rare opportunity to step inside imaginative homes across the city, while Open Studios returns with in-person tours and talks with architects in their design studios. The programme also includes a talk by Belgian architect An Fonteyne and a workshop by Spinal Injuries Ireland exploring accessibility in the built environment. The festival opens with Open House Junior on October 11th & 12th – a weekend of free workshops and events for children, teens, and families across the city and county.

All Open House Dublin events are free. Pre-booking is required for many of the events. Pre-booking for ticketed events goes live at 10:00am on 24th September on OpenHouseDublin.com, where full details of the 2025 programme, including which events require pre-booking, can be found.

We invite all visitors of Open House Dublin to participate in the Open Call for Visual Stories—an opportunity to creatively interpret the festival experience and this year’s Open House Europe theme, “Future Heritage”. Submissions can take any visual form, including photography, short film, drawing, or other artistic expressions.