Open House Dublin gets underway this weekend. While there are hundreds of ways to explore the city as part of this year’s festival, Open House Junior brings the Dublin Is Living theme to life for children, teenagers and families on 10–11 October.
With workshops, walking tours, creative challenges and hands-on activities taking place across the city, Open House Junior is all about encouraging younger visitors to look at Dublin differently, to question how places work, imagine what they could become and have a whole lot of fun along the way.
Young Minds, Big Ideas for Dublin
There’s plenty to get stuck into over the opening weekend. At Rua Red in Tallaght, Reimagining Play at Parthalán Place invites children, families and older residents to think about how public spaces could become more playful, welcoming and inclusive. Using art and simple architectural techniques, participants will work together to imagine new possibilities for the places around them.
At TU Dublin’s Academic Hub and Library in Grangegorman, the Young Urban Makers workshop invites children and young people to be part of its regeneration to explore, question and dream up a future for its new spaces.
Over at IAF House on Capel Street, Wild Cities: A Home for All asks a different question: what would a city look like if it was designed for people, plants and animals to live alongside one another? Through storytelling and illustration, children and their families can design imaginative homes for different species.
Families can also take architecture out onto the streets with Architrek: Dundrum, a guided walking tour with architect Stephen Mulhall, packed with observation games, sketching and quizzes. It’s a chance to explore Dundrum’s architecture together while looking at the neighbourhood through fresh eyes.
For older children and teenagers, The Art of Georgian Doors offers a creative lab exploring one of Dublin’s most recognisable architectural features. Participants will look at the colours, fanlights and ironwork of Georgian doorways before designing and illustrating their own.
And for young LEGO fans, there’s still time to take part in the Build Your Living Neighbourhood LEGO® Brick Competition. Young builders aged 4–17 are invited to create a building, street or whole neighbourhood that brings people together and makes somewhere they would want to live. Entries remain open until 1 November, giving families plenty of time to get building at home.
Dublin Is Living: Join the Conversation
While the opening weekend gives younger Dubliners the chance to imagine what their neighbourhoods and city could become, those same questions continue into the week through a series of Dublin Is Living conversations about the future of Dublin.
For the first time, Open Table conversations — hosted by housing and urban design expert Lorcan Sirr — are taking place across each of Dublin’s four local authority areas, inviting communities to share their experiences, local knowledge and ideas for their neighbourhoods.
On Tuesday 13 October, Open Table: Fingal brings residents together in Swords for a lunchtime conversation about local experiences, histories and ideas for the future of their neighbourhoods.
Also on Tuesday evening, O’Connell Street Cultures turns the spotlight onto one of the city’s most recognisable streets. Hear from Robert Watt of the Dublin City Regeneration Advisory Group, architect Denise Murray and Dublin Inquirer editor Lois Kapila as they look at where O’Connell Street goes next, exploring the people, cultures and stories shaping its future, and imagining what one of Dublin’s most iconic streets could become.
The following day, Open Table: South Dublin continues the conversation in Tallaght, giving local people another opportunity to share their experiences and help shape the discussion around Dublin’s future.
These local conversations culminate on Thursday 15 October in Dublin Is Living: A Community Town Hall on the Future of Dublin at Wood Quay, bringing community voices together with people working across architecture, housing, retail and health. You can still catch the last few tickets for the Town Hall. Bringing together residents, community advocates, local business owners and people working across planning and the city, the event will tackle some of the big questions facing Dublin, from housing and vacant buildings to transport, green space, culture and creating a safer, more connected capital.
From giving children the chance to reimagine their neighbourhoods to giving communities a platform to shape Dublin’s future, this year’s Open House Dublin is about more than opening doors and looking at buildings. It’s about asking who cities are for, how they are lived in and what they could become.
Open House Dublin runs from 10–18 October, with all events free and many requiring advance booking through openhousedublin.com.
