Open Christchurch – which sees the public gain access to spaces across the city – will return on 30 April and 1 May 2022, and event organisers are seeking building nominations for next year’s programme. The festival is organised by Te Pūtahi – Centre for Architecture and City Making, who want the public to have their say in which buildings of architectural, cultural or historic significance should be opened up to the public. Nominations must be submitted be 8 August 2021.

The 2021 event included 46 buildings and clocked over 12,000 visits across the weekend. Te Pūtahi director Jessica Halliday says, “Over the Open Christchurch weekend of 2021, we witnessed so many people finding pleasure in their encounters with some very special buildings and simply enjoying their city. People are hungry to connect with this place and our public nominations process is one means of facilitating this. It gives people a chance to put forward spaces that are important to them – places we might not know about or have considered.”

Anyone can nominate a building, but festival organisers do ask that people have the consent of the building’s owner, custodian or tenant in order for it to be considered for inclusion in the programme.

More information on selection criteria and how to nominate your favourite building in Christchurch can be found at openchch.nz.