Journal •
A City We Shape Together – Irish Architecture Foundation
As the IAF celebrates 20 years of Open House Dublin, we are reminded of the meaningful momentum that can build when people, organisations, and institutions come together to imagine a better future for our built environment. Last year, 83% of people who responded to our post-festival survey told us that attending an event as part of Open House made them feel “more proud” of Dublin city and county. Over two decades, we’ve seen the momentum that grows when people, organisations, communities, and institutions come together to imagine and act for a better, fairer, more sustainable built environment. This spirit of collaboration is at the heart of our new strategy, and nowhere is it more visible than in Open House Dublin.
This October, Open House Dublin returns with more than 200 free events taking place across the city and county, from O’Connell Street to the coast, and from homes and parks to ports and cultural landmarks in every corner of Dublin. We also are back with a venue for architecture, which we lovingly call IAF House, in Charlemont Square, with the support of McGarrell Reilly. This year’s theme, Future Heritage, is our loud, collective call to rethink how we value and care for our heritage, our future and our role within it, and we are focused on ensuring that Open House continues to build our collective civic pride in Dublin.
At the IAF, we know that architecture is buildings, but over twenty years of working with and for communities, we also have come to learn that architecture is so much more. People, places, memory, and possibility, a powerful set of ideas and practices that can serve society to build better, healthier and more sustainable places. And as we have seen across two decades of Open House Dublin, the appetite for open, public conversations about our shared spaces is stronger than ever but none of this would be possible without real, meaningful support.
Our deepest thanks go to the Arts Council, our principal funder, whose long-term investment in the IAF sustains our creative independence, ambition, and cultural leadership. We are also grateful to our partners in government – the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Office of Public Works, whose commitment to the public realm echoes throughout this year’s Open House and wider IAF programmes, from iconic civic buildings to modern infrastructural landmarks. We are also proud to have developed significant programmes of engagement with specific communities in towns, the peatlands and in secondary schools with the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Department of Education and Youth and Creative Ireland.
In 2025, we are supported by a remarkable group of corporate supporters, many of whom have stood beside us for years. Their investment goes beyond funding and it shows a shared belief in the civic, cultural, and environmental value of design. Our sincere thanks to: Cairn Homes, Conack Construction, Dublin Port Company, Grangegorman Development Agency, Henry J Lyons, Kilsaran, KPMG, Land Development Agency, O’Mahony Pike Architects, Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland and William Fry. These partners know that great places don’t just happen – they’re planned, debated, imagined, and built with care. Their continued support allows us to grow the festival, reach new audiences, and centre new voices in the conversation about architecture and place enabling us to offer our most exciting and accessible programme to date.
Equally significant is the ongoing collaboration of all four Dublin local authorities – Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council, and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, who have together supported Open House Dublin as a shared cultural and regional priority. Their joint commitment demonstrates a powerful civic vision: that design is a public concern, that access matters, and that the city and county we inherit is also the city and county we create. Because, ultimately, Dublin is a place we shape and must care for together.
So while this is a moment of gratitude, it is also a call. If you believe in the potential of architecture to shape better, fairer, more sustainable communities we ask you to join us. As we mark twenty years of Open House Dublin and look toward the decades ahead, we invite new partners to stand with us. Support architecture. Support culture. Support a Dublin we shape together and one we can become even more proud of.
Article by Emmett Scanlon, Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation
Photography by Rich Gilligan for Open House Dublin 2025
