(the inaugural) brisbane open house

some people travel overseas to view old buildings, marvel at interesting architecture and smart use of urban spaces. next saturday (2 october 2010) brisbanites will have a local "free of charge and rare opportunity to discover the hidden wealth of architectural, engineering and historic buildings nestled around the city", at the inaugural brisbane open house event.

with a simply clever logo design that matches the event slogan of "unlock your city", i was keen to get on board and support this event which is made possible by its various sponsors and partners, and of course a team of volunteers. it's probably too late to sign up to be a volunteer for this year, but hopefully there's always next year and many more to come!

the concept is based on similar open houses held in london, new york, dublin, and borrows heavily from the resources of past melbourne open houses. for 2010, brisbane open house will have 20 buildings available for viewing/touring, and are anticipating about 10,000 combined visits during the day. see the event listing for a full list of buildings, where you can download fact sheets of each building. also available is a map and program for the day, so you can plan your visits. unfortunately some of the buildings are only open for pre-booked tours, and all these tours are full. but this still leaves 17 other places for you visit. so come along, bring some friends/family and support the brisbane open house objectives, which are to:

• foster an appreciation and understanding of the value of architectural, urban design and design excellence
• increase engagement between the city of brisbane and its residents and visitors through promoting the contemporary and historical architectural attractions of the city
• create a sustainable annual event similar to that of london, new york and melbourne open houses
• increase awareness of all aspects of the built environment - not only the architecture but also the urban spaces that occur between our buildings
• promote public awareness of good design and environmentally sustainable design in the subtropical city of brisbane

there's also a "focus on BOH" photography competition running in conjunction with the event. details don't appear to be up on the website yet, but from what we were told at the volunteer briefing session, entries will be accepted up to 15 october, in one of five categories:

1. exterior
2. interior
3. detail
4. people/crowds
5. series - up to 5 images of one building

there is a small monetary prize of $1000 which i believe is the total prize pool, so probably $200 per category.

ps. i'll be on volunteer duty at the first church of christ, scientist in the morning if you want to pop by and say hello :)