2022 Program Live!

Posted Thu 30th Jun 2022 | Isabella Radevski

Melbourne’s most intriguing and inspiring venues are opening their doors to the public to experience in-person for the first time since 2019. Open House Melbourne (OHM) 2022 is one of the largest programs in the event’s history and the first in-person OHM Weekend in three years. Themed ‘Built/Unbuilt’ the Weekend includes:

• 83 new buildings
• 132 returning buildings
• 20 residential events
• Three cemeteries
• 218 events – comprising of:

– 57 buildings
– 14 exhibitions
– two film screenings
– three online events
– 13 talks
– 94 building tours
– 21 walking tours
– three workshops
– seven self-guided tours

A full list of the participating programs can be found here. In 2022 the event is primarily shifting back to a “first in best dressed” model where most venues will not be able to be pre-booked, but instead be available to participants on the day. Opening and closing events and major programs will be ticketed via the OHM website.

In 2022, Open House Melbourne will also present a major curated exhibition called Take Hold of the Clouds co-curated by Tara McDowell from Monash University which sees two major international works and five, local commissioned artworks (more information below) layer into seven unique venues across the Melbourne CBD and into the suburbs.

While visiting buildings and nosing around Melbourne’s best architecture is a key feature of the Weekend, Open House Melbourne encourages visitors to take the time to hear from the most celebrated and inspirational people in the sphere of architecture, urban design, landscape and spatial design and art in Melbourne.

Program highlights:

Modern Melbourne premiere and panel discussion
Kicking off the Open House Weekend with a premiere at ACMI is the Modern Melbourne documentary series featuring Peter Elliott, one of Australia’s most celebrated architects and winner of the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2017 – the highest honour for an Australian architect. This episode delves into Peter Elliott Architecture and Urban Design’s continued exploration of what Peter describes as a form of ‘urban acupuncture’ – a dexterous, responsive and topographic approach to the relationship between architecture and the city. This premiere screening is followed by a panel discussion moderated by Heritage Council of Victoria’s Chair Professor Phillip Goad with special guests including Dimity Reed, Katelin Butler and Jon Clements.

Thursday 28th July
6pm – 8pm
ACMI 2
$15 ticket price
Book here

This Is Public
For 2022, this special opening event at The Capitol RMIT, OHM in partnership with RMIT University’s School of Architecture & Urban Design invites architects, designers and creative practitioners to respond to the 2022 theme Built/Unbuilt with a series of short presentations and conversations. Speakers will reflect on projects that amplify and register cultural memories, pre-histories and knowledges of place that are deeply present in the buildings, spaces and landscapes of our city.

Speakers confirmed (with additional keynote speakers to be released soon):

• Kerstin Thompson with Jayne Josem – Australian Holocaust Museum
• Amy Muir and Mark Jacques – Family Violence Memorial
• Samaneh Moafi (Forensic Architecture – via live screen) and Caitlyn Parry – Cloud Studies
• N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM, Jefa Greenaway with Christine Phillips and Jock Gilbert – Building on Country

The event will finish with a screening of Forensic Architecture’s compelling video work Cloud Studies on The Capitol’s cinema screen as part of the exhibition Take Hold of the Clouds. Cloud Studies will also be on view at The Capitol throughout both days of the Open House Weekend.

Friday 29th July
5.30pm – 7.30pm
The Capitol, RMIT University
Book here

Future Heritage
As a special closing event for the Open House Weekend, newly appointed CEO of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co.), Katrina Sedgwick, will deliver the Heritage Council of Victoria’s annual Heritage Address.
In this illustrated talk, Katrina will reflect on her experience as a leader in shaping Melbourne’s cultural landscape and on the concept of ‘future heritage’ in response to the following key questions: Many of the world’s most visited and significant art galleries are situated in heritage buildings. How does art interplay with heritage? What are the joys and burdens of creating heritage for tomorrow? And how does ‘future heritage’ inform the significant sites planned under MAP Co’s remit? How can heritage and art be integrated into rapidly growing cities and regional centres and how do we recognise the heritage values in places before they are possibly lost?

Katrina’s address will be following by a Q&A facilitated by Stuart Harrison – architect and Open House Melbourne Board President. The Heritage Address is an annual lecture given on matters relating to our heritage and is presented by the Heritage Council of Victoria as part of the Open House Melbourne 2022 July program.

Sunday 31st July
6pm – 8pm
Federation Square, The Edge
Book here

Take Hold of the Clouds – New exhibition with city as gallery
Take Hold of the Clouds is a curated exhibition of responsive creative works distributed across seven of the city’s most iconic buildings and urban spaces, in partnership with Monash University. Contributors include Forensic Architecture at The Capitol, Cauleen Smith at the Victorian Quaker Centre and Kent Morris at the St Kilda Foreshore Vaults. A feature of this year’s festival, the exhibition weaves into the July program with each temporal creative work adding a new layer to how we understand these spaces in relation to the world around us. Details of each artwork can be found on the OHM website. The exhibition is conceived by Tara McDowell, Director of Curatorial Practice at Monash Art, Design and Architecture, and co-curated with Fleur Watson, Open House Melbourne’s Executive Director.