Insight into modern residential architecture with Open House Dublin 2007

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Following on from its incredibly successful inaugural year, the Irish Architecture Foundation is delighted to announce that the second Open House Dublin weekend will take place from Friday October 19th to Sunday October 21st 2007.

Up to 10,000 people took to Dublin’s streets last year to visit a diverse range of over buildings – from architect-designed modern houses and apartments schemes to historic properties and landmark public buildings. This year’s event will have a particular focus on living architecture – buildings that make up a living city – from our workplaces to our homes; from our administrative centres to our parks and public squares.

At the heart of the Open House event – which was established in London 15 years ago and is now run annually in cities across the world – is the concept that citizens explore their city’s architecture through building visits and walking tours. In many places, architects and students of architecture will be on hand to give an insight into the buildings and to help visitors experience our city and its architecture in a new and unique way.

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Open House 2007 presents a diverse and highly topical residential programme under its theme The Living City. The choice of buildings and events is inspired by concerns over Dublin’s unconstrained urban sprawl and the debate over more sustainable ways to live and work in close proximity and cut down on the long commute. The programme features some of Dublin’s newest apartment blocks such as the elegant red brick tower on Cork Street by fklarchitects, which contains a great variety of apartment sizes and layouts, and the landmark Wooden Building in Temple Bar’s West End by deBlacam and Meagher. Award-winning apartment schemes in the Dublin Docklands – Hanover Quay, Clarion Quay and Gallery Quay – demonstrate how to successfully combine private with social and affordable housing. Other aspects of the diverse residential Open House residential programme are the conversion of Georgian townhouses into residential accommodation on North Great Georges Street and a feature on Community housing, as in the exemplary Sophia Housing on Cork Street that provides sheltered accommodation to families and individuals in need.

All events are free of charge, and only a small proportion will require pre-booking. Over the two-day event, buildings will be geographically clustered so that participants can explore them as part of a walking tour of an area or neighbourhood. Open House Dublin is presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation under the directorship of Nathalie Weadick. Programme content has been devised by Dr. Sandra Andrea O’Connell, editor of Architecture Ireland and HOUSE architecture design magazines.