Open House Melbourne 2025 is set to be one of the largest programs in the history of the event. Across the weekend 26-27th July, Victorians will be granted rare access to some of metropolitan Melbourne’s most fascinating buildings, new projects and private homes ordinarily closed to the public.

This year’s program features several notable firsts. Public access to some of Melbourne’s most high-profile architecture and public infrastructure projects will be offered for the first time, including the new Veloway on the West Gate Tunnel Project and Port Phillip’s new EcoCentre, with more to be announced closer to the weekend. Other expected highlights are the Essendon Fields Airport Terminal; the new 21-hectare elephant habitat at the Werribee Open Range Zoo; Mission Whitten Oval home of the Western Bulldogs Football Club; a First Nations kayak tour down the Yarra; a city-wide role-playing game set in the year 2050 and behind the scenes tours of the city’s coolest street art studios.

“‘Stories of the City’ underscores that idea that the city is more than just bricks and mortar – Melbourne is about people and place,” says Open House Melbourne Executive Director and Chief Curator, Dr Tania Davidge.

“Every building, street and public place in our city has a unique story to uncover, and Open House Melbourne Weekend is your best time to explore the secret histories of our city hidden behind closed doors. To celebrate this year’s Open House Melbourne’s Weekend theme, we invite all Melburnians to share their own stories by contributing to a special exhibition, held over the weekend, at the Bates Smart Gallery.”

Related: Exhibition on show at Bates Smart

Port Phillip EcoCentre and the 2.5 kilometre-long veloway at The West Gate Tunnel Project will all be open to the public for the very first time over the Open House Melbourne Weekend (more firsts to be announced soon). Meanwhile, Melbourne’s Camera Club will also host a special ‘Stories of our city’ photography exhibition. Local architects Six Degrees will delve into how the city’s disused vaults beneath the Princess Bridge became a vibrant hospitality precinct in Federation Wharf: From Forgotten Vaults to Riverside Life.

Music and film come together at Armstrong Studios, where visitors will hear stories from the likes of Roger Savage, producer and engineer (the Rolling Stones, the Easybeats, Return of the Jedi and Mad Max soundtracks); Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and solo artist) and Ernie Rose, producer (Little River Band, Split Enz). Elsewhere, new inclusions for 2025 include the Essendon Fields Airport Terminal, Werribee Open Range Zoo’s new, sprawling elephant enclosure, Kennedy Nolan’s Melbourne Place hotel and The Spotswood Pumping Station.

Moving over to sport, Mission Whitten Oval is just one institutions due to open its doors – home of the Western Bulldogs Football Club and the athlete performance centre at the State Netball Hockey Centre, home court of the Vixens. This year’s program is also an opportunity to see inside some of Melbourne’s most intriguing, sustainable and cutting-edge new private homes. Eight new private homes feature in this year’s program, including Naples St House by Edition Office.

A final, unusual highlight is Reworlding: Naarm, a three-hour urban role-playing adventure through the city streets where visitors imagine can Melbourne transformed into a sprawling megacity of 10 million people in 2050.

Open House Melbourne
openhousemelbourne.org

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