This year, on the weekend of 18-19 May, the Open House Brno 2024 festival will make the secret chambers of 112 locations in the city accessible to its visitors. The main themes of the 7th annual festival of architecture and urbanism are inclusion and accessibility.
At the same time, the event will foreground issues related to the friendliness of the city to all groups of residents: children, parents, seniors, people with disabilities or otherwise disadvantaged groups. A public exhibition which opened yesterday at St. Anne’s University Hospital shows 26 examples of good practice from the Moravian capital.
“Our long-term goal is to show architecture and urbanism in all those aspects which the public does not perceive at first glance,” explained Lucie Pešl Šilerová from the Culture & Management Association, the creative director of the Open House Brno 2024 festival. “This year, like our colleagues from the Open House Europe project, we focused on the question of how accessible and permeable our cities are to different groups of residents. In addition, we are planning a number of novelties such as podcasts from selected locations, thematic events ahead of the main festival, and wider cooperation with the Brno gastro scene.”
The exhibition is open to the public in the premises of St. Anne’s Hospital, a long-term partner of the festival, in the atrium of Pavilion O1, which can be reached most easily through the entrance from Pekařská. The exhibition will be open until 19 May 2024.
As last year, art historian Šárka Bahounková is the curator of this year’s festival and the exhibition itself. “We will present this year’s curatorial plan to visitors at approximately three dozen locations,” she said. “There are public spaces, medical, educational and social facilities, and people will also be able to take a look at places dedicated to culture and sports or get to know the architecture of some housing estates more deeply. I can already mention some of the highlights of this year’s festival, including the Sokol Brno-Husovice, the Kociánka Center, and once again the Polyclinic in Lesná.”
In addition to domestic visitors, Open House festival volunteers from all over Europe are also heading to Brno. “We want to constantly improve the Open House Brno festival and help the development of other cities in our network,” added Pešl Šilerová. “That’s why we launched a European project last year in which we meet, visit and discuss what and how we can be inspired. We already have registered volunteers from Vienna, and our volunteers are going to Basel, for example.” She added that the entire non-profit festival can only take place thanks to volunteers.
The festival organisers are gradually revealing this year’s program and locations on the event website, Facebook page, and Instagram. The festival is part of Open House Worldwide, a network of more than 50 cities around the world that host architecture festivals for the public. The event reaches more than two million people around the world every year. Brno has been part of the network since 2018.
