Opening 'Eyes, Minds and Doors'

The 2017 Open House Impact Study explores how the Open House concept contributes to a shift towards greater public participation in city design around the world. Open House is a unique way for people to engage with their city’s architecture. It is an independent, apolitical, inclusive programme offering direct experience of well-designed places and spaces.

The impact study aims to demonstrate the value of Open House as a means of challenging people’s perceptions about architecture through direct experience, and then enabling them to argue the case for a better-quality built environment. Over the past 25 years Open House has pioneered a type of ‘citizen engagement’ that is now becoming a key part of public policy in cities around the world.

What is Open House?

The Open House concept was founded in London in 1992 by Victoria Thornton.  It aims to help the wider community to become more knowledgeable, to make informed judgements on architecture, and to support the case for good design in cities.

By opening up high-quality buildings and spaces, whether historic or contemporary, Open House creates opportunities for a city’s inhabitants to directly experience how well-designed places can improve lives.

From its foundation in London, Open House has grown organically into a worldwide phenomenon.  This led to the creation of the Open House Worldwide Family of affiliated cities in 2010, which now includes more than 45 cities across five continents (see map above) and continues to grow year on year. The astonishing spread of the concept reveals a global need for the experiences that Open House offers. Most importantly, it shows that the Open House concept is readily translatable into all types of urban environment. Direct experience is a universal means of ‘learning’ – it requires no specialist knowledge or language and so can take place anywhere.

The core of the Open House concept is simple, but powerful: making possible direct experience of high-quality buildings and spaces, free-of-charge, to everyone, as part of an informal, city-wide process of bringing the design of our cities to the attention of policymakers and professionals. The Open House approach is independent, apolitical, inclusive, and accessible. Open House is a worldwide phenomenon with common values, but each city operates independently at a local level – a feature that is critical to its success. Each Open House initiative responds to the particularities of the local environment and the needs of local inhabitants.

This Impact Study incorporates data from thousands of visitors, volunteers, professionals, policymakers and programme organisers, to assess the impact of Open House programmes worldwide. Key findings from the study demonstrate:

Experience

·      Open House is successful because it offers diverse, direct experiences, free-of-charge, to everyone. It reaches ? of a million people worldwide – the largest audience of any international architecture programme.

·      Visitors and partners describe Open House as a unique opportunity to directly experience architecture from the inside out.

Dialogue

·      Open House provides a uniquely independent and apolitical bridge between government, the architectural profession, and the public in an open, non-hierarchical way, which means that all participants are equal.

·      As an informal way of learning about architecture, Open House can support better exchange of knowledge and ideas and can encourage people to reflect on what they have seen, heard and explored. 87% of visitors surveyed worldwide have learnt something new about their city through Open House.

·      Open House can set the agenda by highlighting and exploring current issues affecting all major worldwide cities such as housing, infrastructure and health and wellbeing. Making these issues relevant and engaging for huge audiences can help to build a groundswell of interest and feeds into policy thinking.

Empowerment and Advocacy

·      Open House encourages people to take pride in their city, and can help them to become more actively involved in planning and design processes. Nearly one third of visitors worldwide state they are more likely to become involved in local governance decisions in relation to architecture and urban design as a result of Open House.

·      Independent research through surveys and polls means that Open House is a powerful medium of gathering people’s responses on specific issues to inform public policy. It speaks directly to the wider public and so is also a compelling platform through which policymakers, architects, and industry professionals can engage.

·      Open House changes perspectives: 75% of visitors surveyed worldwide believe Open House has changed the way they see the city. 

Influence

·      Open House creates and maintains strong relationships with industry partners and policymakers.

·      Open House has been described as being “pivotal” and a “benchmark” in inclusive architectural dialogue and engagement.

·      Open House cities have enthusiastic media partners and gain considerable coverage. Open House programmes are widely covered in national and local press, social media, TV and radio.

·      Open House creates a community of shared interest. Building owners and industry organisations value Open House because it provides an independent channel to demonstrate corporate strategies and values including corporate responsibility, sustainability, marketing and publicity, and staff development.

The Impact Study demonstrates the need for a joined-up approach to design advocacy that places people’s physical experience of the buildings and spaces at its heart. In order to advocate for good design, people must first experience it.

See full list of Open House Cities (45 cities) www.openhouseworldwide.org