Open House Praha 2025 landed under the title of ‘Past Heritage, Future Challenges’, amazing visitors with cutting-edge, sustainable transformations of historic buildings. Focusing on railways and schools, festivalgoers were spoilt for choice to visit 123 open buildings and enjoy the week-long programme of 180 accompanying events, including lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, guided city walks and a cycling tour.

Architect Osamu Okamura, this year’s guest curator, astutely connected the dots between students and the spaces they inhabit. Projects such as the Secondary Vocational School on Českobrodská Street or the new Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences inspired visitors to see how investing in the potential of young people helps shape a brighter future for everyone. In total, the festival had 14 buildings showcasing the Open House Europe Annual Theme, Future Heritage. Here are three highlights from the programme.

Secondary Vocational School – Vocational Training Centre & Grammar School

The revival of the 1970s Secondary Vocational School on Českobrodská Street, Hrdlořezy, shows how an outdated floor plan can host cutting-edge sustainability. Architects Pavel Šulc, David Nývlt, Patricia Sičáková and Karolína Vojáčková remade it into Central and Eastern Europe’s most advanced public building, now energy- and carbon-positive. Smart insulation, photovoltaics and battery storage let it export power; an on-site treatment plant and rainwater harvesting cut water demand. Lights, temperature and ventilation adjust automatically, with classrooms pre-conditioned 30 minutes before lessons. Roof gardens and vegetated walls tame heat and add biodiversity. The building itself doubles as a teaching tool: by simply using it, students intuitively absorb principles crucial for a climate-resilient future.

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences

The DRNH studio adopted a plant-based climate strategy for the new Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Suchdol. While the façade echoed the rhythm of the 1960s original, its materials and detailing were thoroughly contemporary. Along the sunny south face, the team erected a steel trellis that supported fast-growing bamboo: the living screen shaded lecture rooms, provided informal seating terraces, carried monitoring equipment and offered a test bed for botanical research. Greenery also colonised the rooftop, letting students observe first-hand how vegetation can replace energy-hungry mechanical systems. Completed in 2020, the “green pavilion” finally gave the faculty a dedicated home and became Europe’s first purpose-built centre for tropical-agriculture teaching with state-of-the-art infrastructure. The project later won an Adapterra Award for showing how intelligent use of plants can improve microclimate and reduce operational energy in the face of climate change.

Braník Brewery

Sustainability and respect for resources and limited urban space is also characterised by conversion, i.e. the transformation of buildings for a purpose other than their original use. The reconstruction of the Braník Brewery proves that it is possible to create an inspiring learning environment even from a building that was formerly used for brewing beer. The listed building has been transformed into the Dance Art Centre, which houses a number of artistic institutions such as a conservatory, ballet companies, agencies and others. A conservatory preparatory school has also been established on the site and community activities take place. Milan Melicher’s design, in accordance with the requirements of the conservation area, did not interfere in any way with the volume of the original building, and in addition, many of the original features were repaired or retained. The site with its distinctive genius loci serves its purpose perfectly—creative activities—and the aesthetics of the neo-Renaissance building itself creates an inspiring, stimulating environment.

Parallel Activities

The festival also had complementing activities that further explored the theme. Panel discussions such as The School as a Power Plant and Prague Schools of Tomorrow explored how schools can go beyond education to become role models in sustainability, acting as energy-active buildings and vibrant community hubs. In Learning Through Play, participants discussed how educational spaces can convey cultural values, aligned with modern teaching methods and projects like the Reggio school in Spain. Finally, the Open Generations: School of Life interactive trail, created by students from the University of Economics, connected generations through creative tasks. The route passed through educational institutions in Prague’s Dejvice and Suchdol districts, encouraging families to pause, reminisce, and share stories in buildings rich with history.