Discovering Dublin's Architectural Heritage

Fancy having a look inside some of the city’s most amazing buildings? Well this October you can with Irish Architecture Foundation’s Open House.

Open House Dublin runs for one weekend only, from 17th to 19th October, giving us the opportunity to appreciate our built heritage, as buildings of all types and periods open their doors to the public.

The event is completely free to attend and will be happening all around Dublin, as buildings in various locations let visitors in for a chance to admire and explore some of the best architecture the capital has to offer.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘Learning from Buildings’ and the society aims to show that the processes in creating buildings can show us the tastes, desires, priorities and behaviour of a society at any given period in history.

From buildings we can tell the character of a city and how is has developed, as well as the people involved in their creation; builders, architects, planners, engineers, developers, crafts people and clients. We can also learn about the needs of a society, such as, housing, culture, industry, business and education. Buildings also tells us about environmental priorities and advances in technology.

As well as building tours, the event will include ‘Open House Junior’; a series of lively and creative events that will allow participants to play architect for the weekend, through hands-on workshops in galleries and museums throughout the city. There will also be a special ‘Architrek’ event held in Dún Laoghaire.

‘Open House Plus’ will also be held alongside the main event and will feature walks, exhibitions and screenings that expand architecture beyond the buildings.

The Open House event has been delivered by the Irish Architecture Foundation since 2006. It is firmly established as Ireland’s largest architectural event, with an estimated 27,000 building visits last year. Some exciting additions to this year’s event include the US Embassy, Airfield House, the Convention Centre and the DLR Lexicon.

Open House 2014 takes place on October 17th, 18th and 19th and most places are allocated on a first come first served basis. Places can be booked through the Open Day Dublin website, once the full timetable is released mid-September. More information can also be found on the Irish Architecture Foundation website.