Our mission is to welcome everyone to equitably experience the architecture of Dublin through the Open House festival. This year’s festival welcomed the addition of sensory tours at the National Gallery of Ireland and relaxed tours at Book of Kells, unique visits to the Wayfinding Centre, developed by Vision Ireland and Dublin City Council, and tours for the D/deaf community conducted through Irish Sign Language. A key highlight was our pilot programme of IAF tactile tours at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) and Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) for the blind and visually impaired, developed with visually impaired artist Emilie Conway, architectural historian Emma Gilleece and architect and 3D model maker Tadhg Charles. All festival events and activities were supported by visual interpreting service AIRA. We added to the Open House Dublin website’s accessibility features with font size adjustment, contrast activation and grayscale images.
If you would like to get in touch with us about our programme, have suggestions or ideas on how we can improve or just want to know more about the IAF and Open House get in touch with Karen Lee, Festivals & International Manager, at karenlee.walpole@architecturefoundation.ie or call (0)87 465 2252
What is Aira?
All Open House Dublin 2024 locations will be supported by visual interpreting service Aira. Aira is a live, human-to-human professional assistance service, an accommodation or productivity tool, that enhances independence by delivering on-demand, skilled and reliable visual interpreting.
Aira (pronounced eye-rah) is a service that uses the latest technologies to connect people who would benefit from visual information, with actual humans, highly-trained professionals who provide visual information on demand – describing, reading, explaining, navigating – just about anything, safely and securely.
How can Aira assist you to take part in Open House Dublin?
Aira can assist with digital tasks including booking tickets for tours and events and assisting with website use. It can assist to navigate your surroundings while taking part in tours and events. While Aira Agents go through extensive training on orientation and mobility, Aira Agents are not a replacement for a guide dog or a white cane but rather an additional feed of visual information.
To avail of this service download the Aira Explorer app on Google Play or App Store and confirm your mobile to sign up.
Then select the option “Browse Access Offers”, then type down “Open House” and select “Open House Dublin 2024″ and “Apply Offer”. Now you are able to “Call Aira for free with Open House Dublin 2024”.
Open House Dublin 2023 partnered with the National Gallery of Ireland to offer accessibility awareness training to all our volunteer stewards and tour guides.
We will strive to improve both our programming and communications year on year. We hope you let us know how we are doing, and what else we should consider to support your participation.
You can contact us at openhouse@architecturefoundation.ie or by phone at +353 (0)1 8747203
The Irish Architecture Foundation’s Audience Development Strategy will result in institutional transformation as well as informing our programme choices.
Download the new IAF Audience Development Strategy (PDF, 590kb)
