About

Open House Lisboa is an annual event that, since 2012, has opened more than 500 spaces across the city to the public — for free. Over one weekend in May, public buildings, private homes, historic landmarks, and contemporary architecture become accessible, offering a rare opportunity to explore Lisbon from the inside.

Each edition is curated by an invited team, who select the theme and around seventy spaces to open their doors. The programme is designed to reveal new perspectives on the city and the many ways it is lived in, worked in, and built.

Visits are free and by order of arrival, with only a very small number requiring advance online booking. There are different types of visits:

• Free visits — explore the space at your own pace, without a guide;
• Guided visits — small group tours led by trained volunteers;
• Visits by experts — led by architects, residents, or other invited experts;
• Accessible visits — suitable for people with sensory or cognitive disabilities, including D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or low-vision visitors.

In addition to building visits, the programme includes free activities across the city:

• Urban walks — guided outdoor tours led by experts in architecture, urbanism, history, or art;
• Plus Programme — free activities hosted by participating venues, such as exhibitions, talks, workshops, and concerts;
• Junior Programme — activities for children, young people, and families, including games, creative workshops, and interactive visits;

Open House Lisboa also offers content beyond the event weekend:

• Sound walks — narrated routes created by invited contributors, available on podcast platforms;
• Atlas — an online archive with information on all spaces featured since 2012.

Open House Lisboa is part of Open House Worldwide, an international network founded in 1992 by Victoria Thornton to make architecture more accessible to the public. The network includes over sixty cities worldwide — such as London, New York, Buenos Aires, Lagos, and Seoul — attracting more than two million visitors each year.

Open House Lisboa has been organised by the Lisbon Architecture Triennale since its first edition, and in partnership with EGEAC since 2015. In 2015 and 2016, the Triennale also launched Open House Porto in collaboration with Casa da Arquitectura. Over time, it has expanded its formats to include sound walks and, in 2021 and 2022, extended its programme across the river to Almada.

Founded in 2007, the Triennale is a non-profit association dedicated to promoting architectural debate, research, and public engagement. Every three years, it organises a major international forum, alongside exhibitions, conferences, and public programmes held throughout the year at its cultural centre, Palácio Sinel de Cordes.