The second weekend of October saw Brisbane host its fifth annual Brisbane Open House event. Georgia Cannon reports.

One One One Eagle Street. Image: Christopher Frederick Jones

This year has seen Brisbane Open House grow to festival sized proportions with the addition of several new experiences to its public access program. Now in its fifth year, the event registered 56,000 visits to around 90 architecturally diverse and historically significant buildings throughout the city.

St Andrew’s Lutheran Church. Image: Beile Zhang

In addition to the full roster of open buildings the BOH 2014 program offered both expert and self guided walking tours, children’s activities, a charity raffle for three architecturally designed cubby houses, a speaker series, concert series and photography and film competitions. Most importantly, the event provided a wonderful opportunity for design professionals and enthusiasts to share their love of the city and its most special and engaging places with a broader audience.

Ecosciences Precinct. Image: DMW Creative

James Russell Architect’s Christian Street House. Image: Toby Scott

Several private homes were made accessible by hotly contested, balloted places including guided tours of James Russell Architect’s Christian Street House. These tours allow industry peers and members of the public alike a direct line of dialogue with the project design team.

JRA’s John Ellway says, “we’ve been quite interested to find, from chatting to visitors and listening to their questions on the day, that generally a third of those people visiting the house are architects ‘archi-touring’, another third are people who already know the work and the last third are semi-skeptical of architects and want to visit to better understand what an architect does and if it’s potentially valuable for them.” What better way to convince the skeptics than with a personally guided tour of a beautifully crafted building?

Urban Art Projects workshop. Image: Urban Art Projects

The inaugural Made in Brisbane series of talks and workshop visits provided a rare insight into several of the city’s boutique manufacturers’ fabrication processes. One such visit was to the Urban Art Projects workshop where many of the large-scale public artworks that are dotted throughout Brisbane, and form the background to locals’ daily lives, were designed and fabricated.

Railton House and Office. Image: Christopher Frederick Jones

Wilson Architects studio. Image: Christopher Frederick Jones

In support of the event’s efforts to demystify the design profession many architectural and design practices opened their doors over the course of the weekend and their staff were on hand to discuss the value of good design in both public and private space.

Torbreck. Image: Christopher Frederick Jones

ABC Brisbane Centre. Image: Christopher Frederick Jones

QUT Science and Engineering Centre. Image: Paul Knie

Brisbane Open House
brisbaneopenhouse.com.au