What: Melbourne Open House
When: 23 & 24 July, 2010
Where: All around our fair city
The Wrap:
On a crisp Melbourne Sunday there’s nothing better than heading out with metcard in hand, iPod in back pocket, no fixed schedule and a sense of curiosity. The Melbourne Open House program provided just such a Sunday plan, and being an activity that people have raved about over the last two years of its existence, I jotted down the directions to my first stop and started out.
Melbourne Open House takes place annually and offers the public the chance to discover the city’s built environment. The whole program is free and the buildings whose doors were thrown open included offices, civic buildings, garden rooftops, churches, shopping arcades, places of recreation, philanthropy, culture, worship and industry and span the historic, the modern, the environmentally friendly…a lot to cover in just two days!
I went for a sticky beak inspired by my love of architecture, interior design, an insatiable desire to see into spaces whose doors are usually closed and the perennial eager hope of every event professional – to stumble upon hidden venues to give a home to new event ideas. All these I saw, but I was even more fascinated by the unexpected discoveries inside each door – the industry of so many people towards a multitude of ambitions and how the spaces in which their toils are housed can genuinely shape what they do and can achieve. It was a fairly potent lesson in the power of design.
I wished I had spent the whole weekend exploring the Melbourne Open House program, but even one day spent paying full attention to the city in which I live and work, both its buildings and its people, showed me just how much more notice I should pay every day.
For more information visit: www.moh.org.au
Author: Yolanda Finch, Creative & Production Advisor
Filed Under
[...] Taking up the rare (and free of charge – now that’s rare too!) opportunity to discover the hidden wealth of architectural, engineering and historic buildings nestled around the city as part of the initiative Melbourne Open House . Read more [...]