This year’s Open Christchurch festival, presented by Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City-Making, takes place over three days, from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 May. Throughout the event, visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy 51 buildings, two designed landscapes, five guided walks and more than 40 activities, in what will be the festival’s largest programme to date.

“From the biggest building, Te Kaha Stadium, to the tiniest treasure, Bull O’Sullivan Architecture’s Chapel of St Thérèse of Lisieux, the programme spans a rich variety of buildings, landscapes and experiences,” says Te Pūtahi director Jessica Halliday.

Two of the themes covered by the festival this year will be design excellence in performance spaces and the works of pre-eminent local Gothic Revival architect, Benjamin Mountfort, in commemoration of the bicentenary of his birth.

Festival goers will be among the first to experience the latest addition to the city’s performing arts space, The Court Theatre, as well as having the opportunity to join an evening considering the enduring power of the wharenui and great hall, take part in youth-led tours of the mixed-use centre the Youth Hub, be hosted by whānau at Rāpaki School, Church and the Korako Whānau Papakāinga and explore the extravagant Peter Beavan-designed Chateau on the Park with an architectural historian.

Halliday says there will also be a number of one-off and special access experiences, such as seeing behind the hoardings during construction on a tour of Te Kaha Stadium, heading into the archives at the Macmillan Brown Library to view Mounfort’s original drawings with expert Dr Ian Lochhead, and visiting private residences and the Former Wellington Woollen Mills Manufacturing Company, now the hybrid hotel The Drifter Christchurch.

“People are invited to explore the city in different ways, whether that be experiencing the much-loved Tākaro ā Poi Margaret Mahy Family Playground in full swing; exploring the joyful Cathedral Grammar Junior School on an architectural or engineering tour; discovering East Frame residential projects or taking in the exhibition, Mountfort and the Canterbury Museum, at Tūranga,” says Halliday.

A range of whānau-based activities will also be on offer, including an architecture treasure hunt, craft workshops and a youth-based design workshop.

Open Christchurch will begin with a speaker event in the Great Hall at Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre on the evening of Friday 2 May, where Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZIA Gold Medallist Professor Deidre Brown will take guests through the two traditions of the wharenui and the great hall and other speakers will explore what these gathering spaces mean to them.

The full programme continues on Saturday and Sunday, where the 51 featured buildings of different ages, styles and uses will be open for the public to experience for free, with the exception of a small number of limited entry projects and experiences that will require a nominal booking fee.

Halliday says the festival’s Saturday night event will offer different ways of thinking about Christchurch’s built legacy. “At ‘Children of the Christchurch Modernists’, children of prominent Christchurch Modern architects will share their thoughts about growing up with the distinctive buildings of the era and their designers, considering both anew as they look back.”

Five guided walks will explore different ways of seeing the city, and two designed landscapes will offer alternative ways to consider our urban spaces. Meanwhile, the Court Theatre will provide audio-described, mobility friendly and New Zealand Sign Language tours.

Old favourites will also return to this year’s programme, including behind-closed-doors access to the Observatory Hotel at the Arts Centre and the university hall of residence College House, and more than 40 activities (talks, tours, exhibitions and workshops) will provide additional avenues to learn about the city’s architecture.

“Open Christchurch is an annual celebration of free access to Ōtautahi’s best buildings, aiming to make Christchurch more open, accessible and inclusive,” says Halliday. “Our city has so many fascinating buildings – so be nosey, satisfy your curiosity and feel welcome to explore our city through architecture over Open Christchurch weekend.”

Note

Event organisers encourage residents and visitors to study the programme and website to create their own itinerary of highlights so that they can discover the city in new ways.

Buildings are open at different times across the weekend, bookable activities are timetabled and a handful of buildings require advance bookings.

Visit openchch.nz for bookings, building-specific accessibility and more information.