Buildings across the city are getting ready to put their welcome mats out this weekend, as they join in Ireland's biggest celebration of architecture, Open House Dublin 2010. Presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation, this free festival allows Dubliners to explore their city from a different angle, as buildings of all types and periods open up their doors completely for free!
Custom House by James Gandon
The theme for this year's festival, "Big, Small, Global", aims to adress the question of scale and proportion in architecture through a series of talks, film screenings, guided tours, walks and cycles around the city. It's an exciting and extremely interesting way of exploring your surroundings, giving you a behind the scenes look at a number of structures that usually aren't open to the public!
This year's programme of events include tours of the Custom House, the new Criminal Courts of Justice and the Grand Canal Theatre, as well as a number of lesser known buildings, such as Number 31, Lesson Close, the former home of architect Sam Stephenson. A host of domestic projects will also open their doors to visitors for the weekend, giving you an unmissable chance to admire an aspect of architecture we don't usually get to catch a glimpse of.
You can check out their full programme of events at www.architecturefoundation.ie/openhouse, so get your walking shoes on and start exploring!
Enjoy!
