9th Open House Prague 2023

Open House Prague 2023

The 2023 Open House Prague festival took place May 15–21, 2023. The 9th edition of the festival opened the doors to 107 usually inaccessible buildings and spaces for free over the weekend. During the week, the festival offered 140 events as part of the accompanying program, which included lectures, special guided tours and walks, or exhibitions. In total, the festival attracted more than 83,000 visitors, surpassing all previous editions. The festival’s information center, where people could find out details about the program and buy festival merchandise, was located at the New Stage of the National Theater, which also served as one of the main visual motifs of the festival.

New Buildings & Anniversaries

The main theme of the program, which included 27 new buildings, was the celebration of the birth anniversaries of three important Czech architects. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Karel Prager’s birth, the public experienced guided tours in several of his buildings: Komerční banka in Smíchov, New Stage of the National Theater, Faculty of Social Sciences in Jinonice, and more. We also commemorated Antonín Viktor Barvitius, born 200 years ago, and people could visit his projects such as the Church of St. Wenceslas in Smíchov or Gröbe Villa in Havlíčkovy sady. Věra Machoninová, who celebrated her 95th birthday in September 2023, is also a significant figure of Czech modern architecture. Her work was represented in the program by the administration building of Teplotechna and DBK Shopping Center.

Among the new buildings was also the former Hotel Intercontinental, which is going through extensive reconstruction under the direction of TaK Architects. The oldest part of Prague Airport, Terminal 4, which is intended exclusively for government delegations, was also opened to the public for the first time. In terms of government buildings, we opened the monumental building of the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic, formerly the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The festival also opened the Nostitz Palace, the late Baroque headquarters of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

There were also several industrial buildings that had undergone conversion. One of the buildings of the Braník Brewery was transformed into the House of Dance Art, the former Bratři Vinopalové Factory in Modřany is now home to the luxury lofts under the name Vanguard Prague, the Breitfeld-Daněk factory hall in Karlín now houses the media house Economia, and the Smíchov transformer station now operates as an exhibition hall of 400 ASA Gallery. A new residential project is also being prepared in the KOH-I-NOOR industrial complex in Vršovice.

Several recently constructed buildings were also opened to the public for the first time during the festival, such as the main office of Blum in Vysočany, Bořislavka Center in Vokovice, the ekolo.cz showroom in Ruzyně, PORT7 in Holešovice, and DOCK IN FIVE in Libeň.

Accompanying Program

On the occasion of the aforementioned anniversaries, we also organized several events as part of the accompanying program. We looked back on the work of Karel Prager on a walk with Pavel Karous, which focused in particular on the building of the former Federal Assembly, and also on a tour of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University, which was created by rebuilding a Prager-designed canteen. A prominent theme of the 2023 edition was the style of brutalism, associated with Prager’s work, which was the subject of a lecture by Marek Tichý, the lead architect of the reconstruction of Hotel Intercontinental, and Radomíra Sedláková, a leading architecture historian. There was also a walking tour focused on sculptures of brutalist buildings in Holubička Park with commentary from the author, Krištof Kintera. The program also included a lecture on the cemetery architecture designed by Antonín Viktor Barvitius. Funerary architecture was also the subject of a presentation with Filip Ditrich. In collaboration with ESTAV.cz, we also organized the 2nd edition of the photo contest Otevřená Praha (“Open Prague”), where festival visitors could compete for attractive prizes. The accompanying program also included a number of other events, both during the week and on the weekend.

Program for Families with Children

As in previous years, a LEGO workroom was available for children during the festival, this time located at the New Stage of the National Theater, which also housed the festival’s information center. Here children and grown-ups alike could build their dream house using special white bricks; DUPLO bricks were also available for the youngest builders.

In several buildings, there were also tours for children with our Worksheets for Little Architects, which introduced the little visitors to the history and architecture of the buildings in an interactive way. In total, 9 guided tours for children were held and more than 180 children attended them.

A Festival Without Barriers

We strive to remove barriers that might prevent people from getting to know the city and its architecture. That is why we work with a number of partners to create a range of special tours for people with disabilities, whether they have visual or hearing impairments. In total, 10 special tours for people with visual and hearing disabilities were held during the 2023 edition, attended by more than 80 people in total.

Involvement of Volunteers

The 2023 Open House Prague festival was record-breaking not only in terms of the number of open buildings and the number of visitors but also in terms of the number of volunteers involved. More than 500 volunteers were involved in the festival, which was 100 more than in the previous year. The volunteer teams once again included high school and university students, middle-aged people of various professions, elders, and even entire families. Our thanks go to all those who participate in the work with volunteers and help them grow, providing us with various forms of support and training. Most importantly, we thank the hundreds of volunteers, employees from the buildings,and passers-by who were not afraid to join us and help wherever it was needed. The selfless commitment of such a large number of people is very touching and above all a driving force for the entire Open House Prague festival. As a thank you, we invite our volunteers to visit selected buildings throughout the year.

OHP is Part of an International Network

Open House Prague is a proud member of Open House Worldwide, an international network of more than 50 cities on 6 continents where the Open House festivals are held. The concept of the festival originated in London in 1992 under the leadership of founder Victoria Thornton, who holds the Order of the British Empire. In 2020 and 2022, the network held collaborative online events that introduced unique architecture concepts from the member cities, including Open House Prague.