Open House Melbourne Weekend at Fed Square
The Open House Melbourne Weekend is Australia’s largest architecture and built environment festival, celebrating the importance of good design in shaping our communities.
The Weekend program celebrates good design by opening buildings, places and spaces, inspiring public engagement in conversations about the future of our city. This year’s theme, “RE/DISCOVER your City”, encourages Victorians to see Melbourne in a new light. The Open House Melbourne Weekend 2024 invites us to rediscover our city—to seek out new places and to reconnect with old favourites.
Visit Fed Square for the Open House Melbourne Weekend and re-discover its rich ecology of art, design, culture, and creativity.
Sign up for a behind-the-scenes tour of Fed Square, exhibitions and building tours at the Koorie Heritage Trust, and a documentary screening or Media Preservation Lab tour at ACMI.
Explore the full program of events below:
27-28 July, various times | ACMI
Get behind-the-scenes access to the Blackmagic Design Media Preservation Lab and learn about ACMI’s collection. The tour will invite visitors into the Media Preservation Lab for an exclusive opportunity to hear from ACMI’s conservators, and engage with the collection and preservation activities.
Members of the public will be given insight into a range of preservation stations within the space and their associated equipment and uses. There will also be a screening of the 1954 short film Planning for Melbourne’s Future from ACMI’s collection, showing a visual representation of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works’ evaluations of the future needs of the city.
Open access: 10am-5pm
Tours run: 10.15am, 11.15am, 12.15pm, 1.15pm, 2.15pm & 3.15pm
27-28 July, 11am, 1pm & 2.30pm | Fed Square
This tour will provide participants with the opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at Federation Square, with exclusive access to the hidden network of tunnels and labyrinth maze underneath the Square. Along the way, participants will learn all about the history of Fed Square’s unique architecture and design features.
27 July, various times | KHT
Koorie Heritage Trust (KHT) worked extensively with a design collaboration (led by Lyons) between First Nations architect Jefa Greenaway of Greenaway Architects, Lyons and Architecture Associates, to develop a considered and beautiful plan for the building interior design and fit-out reflecting Country and place that responds in a culturally sensitive way to both organisational and First Peoples community needs and value
Fiona Lew, Associate, Lyons will lead three free tours of the Birrarung Building and provide an insight into the design considerations of the newly expanded KHT.
Open access: 10am-5pm
Tours run: 10am, 11am & 12pm
28 July, 4pm-6pm | ACMI
Modern Melbourne is a series that documents the extraordinary practice of our most important architects and designers and looks at their lasting impact on Melbourne.
In this special tenth episode, Maggie Edmond reflects on a childhood shaped by design, her part in the award-winning practice Edmond & Corrigan and her significant and enduring contribution to Victorian architecture.
For more information about Open House Melbourne Weekend throughout the Melbourne Arts Precinct visit: https://openhousemelbourne.org/melbourne-arts-precinct/