What is the festival 48H Open House

Open House Barcelona is a free weekend festival held annually that allows participants to visit dozens of buildings that are not usually open to the public.

The next festival will be held between 15 October and 15 November 2020. The event promotes the appreciation of architecture by the general public.

About the Open House Association

48h Open House Barcelona is a non-profit cultural association that works to promote the architectural heritage of the city of Barcelona and offers cultural products and services in the field of architecture.

Its aim is to promote architecture and help people understand it as an essential component of culture. Its main tool for action is the 48h Open House BCN architecture festival, which gives visibility to the figure of architects and creates loyalty among audiences interested in the city’s architecture.

2020 edition: the city of 15 minutes

In 2020, the programme of the 48h Open House BCN architecture festival is organised around the topic “The city of the 15 minutes“, and has been organised in areas that can be walked within a maximum distance of fifteen minutes between the different activities.

What is the 15-minute city

Cities like Ottawa and Paris are already openly talking about implementing “15-minute city” strategies, which is nothing more than implementing a service strategy in which all citizens have access to basic services such as work, health, shopping, culture or leisure within fifteen minutes of home.

In fact, this is nothing new; there has already been a lot of talk about the city of proximity. It is nothing more than revaluing the neighbourhoods so that they have everything we need, that they are like small self-sufficient micro-cities within the big city.

This has a great advantage. A city without so much travel would not need so much room for cars. This space could be dedicated to decarbonised mobility, with wider cycle lanes and pavements, there would be more room for trees and green areas, some roundabouts could be converted into pedestrian squares, children’s play areas, sports areas…

It would also help to avoid the “escape effect”, the fact that many of us are looking forward to the weekend to get away from the city and go to a quieter place in contact with nature. If the city were more humane, these trips would be reduced.

Visit the works in La Balma

Roof in La Balma, where there will be placed a garden

During this edition of the 48 H Open House you will be able to visit for 60 minutes the works of the cooperative housing project that we are working on in Barcelona, La Balma Cooperative Housing. La Balma is a winning project in the public competition for municipal plots of land destined for cooperative housing on cession of use.

When

unday 25 October at various times

How to sign up

To sign up you have to visit the Sostre Cívic website. Here is the link to sign up (in catalan language)

How to visit

It is a bulding under construction, not a finished building. The regulations to be followed are:

• It is forbidden to enter with open shoes.
• Wear your mask during the whole visit.
• If you have a building site helmet, bring it with you (otherwise we have it there).
• If you have a reflective waistcoat, bring it. (Otherwise we have).
• Minors are not allowed to enter the site.