Festival Open House will offer a tour of modern buildings

Prague - This weekend, the Open House architecture festival will take place in Prague, which, following the example of dozens of cities in Europe and America, opens otherwise inaccessible buildings to the public. For the first year of the Prague festival, the organizers have prepared more than thirty architecturally significant structures so that people can explore buildings they walk by on the street from the inside. The festival is supported by architect Eva Jiřičná, who was involved in the beginnings of the London festival in 1992.
    Historic buildings will be open, as well as constructions built recently, governmental offices, gallery spaces, church monuments, administrative buildings, rental houses, and buildings that have changed in function, for example, from originally industrial objects.
    "The Open House festival allows access to buildings or parts of buildings that are closed to the public for most of the year. These buildings shape the city's identity and determine our routes through the developed areas. We want to give people the chance to go inside and thus strengthen public interest in their surroundings," says festival coordinator Andrea Šenkyříková from the nonprofit organization Open Society, which has obtained the festival license for the Czech Republic.
    The festival will include venues such as Kramář Villa and Invalidovna, which attract significant public interest during each opening. The Štvanice power plant, St. Agnes Monastery, the functionalist House of Trade Unions, buildings by Karel Prager in Emauzích, where the Institute of Planning and Development of Prague is currently located, buildings of the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry, the Dancing House, and some of the newest constructions like Main Point and Danube House in Karlín, ArtGen in Holešovice, or Florentinum in Florence will also be open.
    The buildings will be open on May 16 and 17 from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. A printed catalog will be available for the event, which will also be accessible on the website www.openhousepraha.cz. In it, interested parties will learn which buildings are entirely free to access, where visits will occur in organized groups, and where prior registration is necessary. The information center will be located in the Fusion Hotel on Jindřišská Street; some of its rooms will also be available for interested individuals to tour.
    The festival was founded in 1992 in London as an effort to strengthen the connection of the general public to the place and the city. Last year, it was held for the first time in Vienna, where it attracted over 30,000 visitors, according to the organizers of the Prague festival. In Prague, half the number of buildings compared to Vienna will be open. Open door days are held in the Czech Republic, but they usually focus either only on historical monuments or are otherwise specialized. A similar comprehensively focused event has not been held in the Czech Republic.