Proudly presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation, Open House Dublin is a free festival of architecture with 150+ guided tours and events taking place October 7th to 15th across the city and county.
People build cities, but cities build people too. This year Open House Dublin delights in and debates the everyday and energetic exchange between Dublin and the people who build it. Dublin is a city and county built of rooms, buildings, streets, railways, pitches, parks and more.
Together, these built parts of Dublin shape and guide the public and private lives of nearly one and a half million people. In turn, the city is formed and changed by millions of individual imaginations, countless conversations, and ordinary, daily actions.
Through tours, talks, exhibitions, workshops, podcasts and more, Open House Dublin will reveal how Dublin and people reflect and depend on each other. When it comes to Dublin, we are in it, together.
The festival kicks off with Open House Junior, a weekend of free tours, workshops and activities specially designed for young people and families on October 7th-8th. Explore, draw, design and imagine Dublin with the whole family.
‘Open Table’, a new series of lunchtime conversations, runs during the week, and from October 13th-15th architecture tours and events will take place across the city and county.
There are historical and contemporary tours of iconic buildings, private homes, exemplary social housing projects, sustainable buildings, public spaces and parks. Drop in to exhibitions and join cycling, boat and walking tours.
Secure your spot on a tour of Glentora with Brennan Furlong Architects, a new home on the hill of Howth. Join GKMP Architects to tour a new house constructed in the side garden of an Edwardian house in Dartry and visit Apple Tree House in Dublin 6 with Scullion Architects.
Visit the new Housing project Cornamona Court in Ballyfermot with DCC Architects or take a tour of the Dominick Street Regeneration project with Cotter and Naessens Architects, who co-designed this project with Dennis Byrne Architects.
Grab your walking shoes for ‘Housing at the Heart of the City’, a unique walking tour visiting six regenerated housing projects and six public spaces. This tour will reflect on the role of social and affordable housing in contributing to the vibrancy and viability of the city.
Meet under the Clock at Clerys for a first glimpse inside the new Clery’s quarter centred around the refurbishment and extension of the historic Clerys Building, originally constructed in 1922, and head to Dame Street to experience the newly renovated Central Plaza which reimagines Sam Stephenson's former Central Bank completed in 1978.
Dublin City Council will take you on behind-the-scenes tours of Kimainham Mill. The Mill complex, which dates from 1800, has fallen into dereliction since its closure in 2000. Dublin City Council recently purchased the Mill and are developing a design process for the future reuse of Kilmainham Mill for public, cultural use.
Scott Tallon Walker will take you on a tour of Miesian Plaza on Baggot Street, a Dublin landmark. The refurbishment of the complex, completed in 2018, demonstrates the successful conversion of a 1970s iconic modern building into a future-proofed Grade A 21st-century office building that maintains and preserves the architectural heritage of the city.
Architectural historian Emma Gilleece will host a one of a kind walking tour of 20th-century Kildare Street starting off at No. 4 Kildare Street and ending at the iconic Stephen Court at Stephen’s Green.
Open House Dublin will also host a special evening event called ‘Cities Have Feelings’. Through conversation and film, Finn Williams, City Architect of Malmö and artist, poet and broadcaster Rhael ‘LionHeart’ Cape from London will unearth how emotional, physical and social connections between people and their cities are formed and sustained. ‘Cities Have Feelings’ takes place at Lighthouse Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7 on 14 October. Lighthouse Cinema will also be hosting tours of their building during the festival including a guided tour of the projection room.
This event is part of the New Now Next series, a partnership between the Irish Architecture Foundation and Arup that presents a season of live talks disseminating new ideas and ways of acting in architecture that are relevant to the world today and the society of the future.
New to the festival this year, the Irish Architecture Foundation has invited five hosts to prompt a series of public conversations and speculations on Dublin as an ‘open city’. Each weekday hosts and guests will gather for lunch and conversation around a newly commissioned and made table in 2 Curved Street, Temple Bar.
Rose Anne Kenny, founding Principal Investigator of Ireland's largest adult population study on the experience of ageing in Ireland - The Irish LongituDinal study on Ageing (TILDA) - hosts ‘Ageing in the City’. An activist for many years, involved in the Justice for Magdalenes Campaign and with justice issues and the LGBTQ+ community, Katherine O’Donnell hosts ‘Justice and Creativity in the City’. David Madden, Co-Director of the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics, will lead the conversation on ‘Housing in the City’, and Seán McCabe hosts ‘Climate Action in the City’. Seán is Head of Climate Justice and Sustainability at Bohemians Football Club, Phibsborough, the first person in the world to hold such an office. The Open Table conversations will take place each day at 1pm, 9-13 October.
Also at 2 Curved Street, another must-see event is Self-Organised Architecture’s Reimagining Elderhood exhibition and film screening. The exhibition runs October 9th to 15th with regular film screenings.
Open House Junior offers young people and families the chance to get up close with architecture through workshops and activities at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, St Patrick’s Cathedral, National Print Museum, Hugh Lane Gallery, the National Library of Ireland and the Chester Beatty Library.
Join the IAF workshops at NMI Collins Barracks exploring the buildings in your neighbourhood and in your imagination with illustrator Debora Adachi. Experience guided family tours at Casino Marino, Farmleigh and the National Gallery and a bespoke children’s tour at the Old Library, Trinity College Dublin.
Reimagine the Iveagh Markets at an exhibition of children’s work at the Tivoli event space, Frances Street, Dublin 8 or join an augmented reality workshop with the Fernhill Park Experience developed in collaboration with IADT’s Public Design Lab, Noho Creative Design and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Families can also embark on one of eight self-guided Architrek tours designed by architects. Brand new for 2023, you can now discover Tallaght and Trinity College Dublin with two new Architreks to explore. Pick up a printed Architrek at the Open House Dublin info hub at 2 Curved Street or download the activity pack from the OpenHouseDublin.com website.
The full programme for Open House Dublin 2023 is now live at www.openhousedublin.com. There are walk-up and ticketed events, and booking for ticketed events opens on 14 September. Stay up-to-date on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and via the Open House website.
