Festival Open House will showcase interesting buildings in Prague

Prague - This weekend, people can visit nearly 70 buildings in Prague during the 6th edition of the Open House festival. Uniquely and free of charge, typically inaccessible historical and industrial monuments, modern office and residential buildings, architecturally interesting palaces, villas, cemeteries, theaters, train stations, and university buildings will open their doors. The organizers invite visitors to tour the outskirts of the metropolis, such as Nusle, Strašnice, or Ďáblice. The event is taking place in a substitute September date due to the coronavirus.

The motto of this year's festival is "Architecture for Everyone." The program will showcase reconstructions and award-winning new buildings designed with regard to both aesthetics and the quality of the interior environment.

Accessible, for example, will be the former Palace of Culture, now the Congress Center Prague, Karlín Barracks, the area of the Nusle Brewery, the Orionka tram depot in Vinohrady, the Pragovka in Vysočany, the historic steamboat Vyšehrad, the observatory in Ďáblice, the Strašnice crematorium, or the water tower in Letná. Holešovice Exhibition Grounds will offer a tour of the technical background of the Small Sports Hall, swimming pool, or Spirála Theater. Among the new buildings, the festival will showcase the Prachnerova residential housing project, nominated for the Czech Architecture Award, or the ČSOB Campus in Radlice, which exemplifies sustainable architecture.

Information about all open spaces and visiting conditions can be found on the Open House Prague festival website. Since Tuesday, the event has included a supporting program consisting of guided walks and discussions about urban architecture.

The festival was originally scheduled for May, but was moved to early September due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Some buildings could not participate in the event due to coronavirus measures. The organizers advise visitors to be considerate of one another, maintain distance, and observe enhanced hygiene; in some buildings, wearing a mask is mandatory. In some locations, the number of tours per day or the number of people in groups is limited, as warned on the website by the organizers.