Open House Worldwide, the network of over fifty Open House organizations from around the world, staged its second collaborative event – titled Housing and the People – on April 9, 2022. The virtual festival included a 12-hour livestream with live tours of pioneering housing models from cities across the Open House Worldwide network, including Dublin, Lagos, London, Melbourne, New York, Oslo, Prague, Taiwan, Valencia, Vienna, and others.
Open House Prague presented the Ďáblice Housing Estate located in northern Prague. Designed in the 1960s, the housing estate is now considered one of the most architecturally valuable projects of this kind in the Czech Republic. Although the urban concept is based on modernist ideas, it is similar to a traditional city concept with streets and squares. Here you can find various types of panel buildings, a lot of greenery, and a number of facilities, such as shops, schools, or cultural centers. Another unique feature is the look of the panel buildings, which – thanks to various details – are not as uniform as in other housing estates. The artistic works located in the public space are also in the center of interest now.
Broadcast from the roof of one of the buildings, the live tour was guided by architect Ondřej Tuček, grandson of the original main architect Viktor Tuček. Under what circumstances was the complex built? What makes it such a quality project? And how do people live here today? Watch the recording!
Presentations from other cities included for example the extraordinary hanging gardens of Espai Verd, a housing cooperative on the edge of Valencia (1992–94); Lagos Island’s 19th century, neo-Brazilian inspired Water House; Minnette de Silva’s modernist Senanayake Flats in Colombo (1957); New York’s Co-op City housing development (1966–73); or the tranquil landscapes of Women’s Property Initiatives’ affordable housing for older single women in Melbourne (2021).
Open House Worldwide is a network of nonprofit organizations in fifty cities that host festivals and conversations about architecture, design, and cities across the globe. The Open House Worldwide network was founded in 2010 and today has members in six continents, reaching hundreds of thousands of people every year. Open House Worldwide is administered by Open City, a charity registered in the United Kingdom.
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