Visual
Stories
Every year, Open House Europe launches an international open call for visual stories, encouraging participants to share their views on architecture and reflect on the Annual Theme through photography, film, drawing and other visual art forms. The selected Visual Stories become an exhibition and travel across Europe to various Open House Europe partner organisations. Additionally, selected works are featured in a printed publication and online.

How to
participate?
Share your creative take on the 2025 theme 'Future Heritage', inspired by your experiences at your local Open House festival.
Gallery

Architecture in Transition: Navigating the Void Between Heritage and Future
Maria Gkoutra

This artwork explores architecture as a transitional medium between the legacy of the past and the aspirations of the future. It examines the concept of the “void”—not merely as absence, but as a generative space where heritage and innovation coalesce. The transition void of Veil Building in Athens becomes a bridge and a boundary, the metaphorical and physical space of change—a place where old forms are deconstructed or reinterpreted, and new ideas emerge. In this liminal space architecture becomes archive and prophecy.

Thiamidos 2
Andriana Fakinou

In a city where the old often gives way to the new, this work stands as a quiet tribute to the belief that the future’s legacy must include acts of care — gestures that restore, reframe, and revive buildings that hold our shared memory.
Thiamidos 2 (Oils on Wood) depicts a restored Athenian façade presented through the OPEN HOUSE program. Through minimal lines, soft reliefs and the glow of interior light, the painting captures a calm architectural presence.
By honoring urban regeneration, we let the past speak clearly to the future. These acts are more than architectural — they are cultural, safeguarding continuity and belonging in a changing city.
The spaces we choose to protect today shape the way we imagine tomorrow. They remind us that heritage is not only inherited — it’s actively built, reinterpreted, and kept alive through care and attention.

Stones Reborn, Cities Renewed
Athanasios Xenitidis
This video explores Athens as a city where the past and future intersect, focusing on four key themes: Preserved Heritage, Transformation, Sustainable Design, and Innovation Clusters. Through stunning visuals of historical sites, adaptive reuse projects, eco-friendly designs, and cutting-edge innovation hubs, the video showcases how Athens is evolving while honoring its rich legacy. It highlights how architecture can preserve history, meet present-day needs, and pave the way for a sustainable future, all within the context of Future Heritage.

Traces of Presence
Eleana Kitsiou





This series reflects on the idea of future heritage—how we carry architecture forward not only through restoration, but through everyday presence. In preserved factories, quiet ateliers, and intimate interiors, the images trace a continuum between past and present. Each frame captures a moment where human gestures meet aged surfaces: a hand reaching to photograph, a child walking into a repurposed industrial site, a warm lamp illuminating a forgotten studio corner. Patina, reflection, and soft light reveal how built environments shift roles over time—becoming archives, thresholds, and places of belonging.

Echoes of Bageion
Alexander Varouxis






“Echoes of Bageion” visual story contains images from Bageion , an old Hotel located in Omonoia Square. This series explores the theme future Heritage by contrasting the weight , the echoes of the past with the vitality of the present moment. The building itslef is an inheritance, its faded walls, its stairs, its structure that faced the testament of time. Yet it only comes alive thought the people who roam in its hallways, its stairs to this day. Those who preserve its memory by simply being there but at the same time creating new ones. Thats the future heritage of this place. Its connection with the past and the people who visit it nowadays. This series also questions where the building as a space ends and our memories – experiences begin ,suggesting that it lives as long as we (the people) carry it forward.

Little rascals
Jana Marincakova

The Atelier
Nelli Kritikopoulou

Timelines in Tension
GEORGINA MARK

A soft-hued composition where a neoclassical facade meets the sleek lines of contemporary architecture. This moment at dusk captures the tension and harmony between past and future, tradition and innovation, permanence and change.

European Parlament of Athens
Athina Louleopoulou

Calmness in the lobby of the European Parliament. Is it still calm inside the rooms?

Open house day one
Saviour Giyorges