la Fernando Higueras Foundation, el Zarzuela Racecourse, Giner de Los Ríos Foundation, "El Águila" Madrid Regional Archive and Library Complex, Medialab Prado, Railway Museum, former Delicias Station, The Sibarist, Sala Equis, Roca Madrid Gallery, Royal Tapestry Factory, Residencia de Estudiantes of Madrid, Save the Children, the Bertelsmann Space (the old Círculo de Lectores, the only work of Enric Miralles in Madrid), Desert City or Solo Space, among many others.
Some of these spaces will also have virtual visits to transcend the borders of the festival and bring it closer to more people. The Special Edition of Open House Madrid will also have exterior routes, guided walks that will allow you to know the architecture of the city in the open air.
"Projects such as Open House Madrid must necessarily have the support of the administrations - underlines the Minister of Tourism -, and that is why we want to be close to this initiative that allows you to see some of the jewels of Madrid architecture for free, which makes the festival in a unique opportunity to meet again with our city and discover its architecture ”.
Description by Open House Madrid
The benchmark architecture event in Spain
Open House Madrid is a non-profit initiative whose objective is to bring Madrid architecture and design closer to society for free. Since its first edition in 2015, the festival has established itself as the benchmark architecture event in Spain. The support of more than 280,000 visitors from around the world throughout the five previous editions has made Open House Madrid a must for lovers of architecture and design.
Madrid is part of Open House Worldwide, the first network of architecture festivals in the world, visited by millions of people in more than 40 cities (London, Lisbon, New York, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Milan, Rome, Sydney, etc. ).
For 2020, and due to the exceptionality caused by COVID-19, Open House Madrid has worked on the creation of a new concept adapted to the new environment, and has designed a Special Edition with the priority objective of continuing its successful dynamic role of the architecture and design of the capital.
The Open House Madrid Special Edition 2020 has the support of numerous sponsors and collaborators who have wanted to join the initiative and thereby contribute to the dissemination of the city's urban wealth. In addition to the Madrid City Council, this is the case of Renault, Signify, El Español, and Exteriorplus. Likewise, it is worth highlighting the presence of Bulthaup, MINIM, Idealista, and Coca Cola. Metalocus, Plataforma Arquitectura, Room, and Interior Design complete the list of sponsors of the sixth international festival of architecture and design in Madrid.
The great open day of Madrid architecture
Under the slogan ‘Rediscover Madrid’, Open House Madrid will hold a special festival that will allow you to get to know the most unique spaces of the city for free through guided tours of small groups and with mandatory prior registration.
Likewise, visits to the most recognized studios in the city will be offered, in a virtual or face-to-face format. Thanks to these tours, there is an opportunity to learn about the work of architecture and design professionals, as well as the peculiarities of their workspaces and their projects, plans, and models.
The Special Edition of Open House Madrid will also have exterior routes, guided walks that will allow you to know the architecture of the city in the open air. A catalog with up to fifteen itineraries that includes proposals that show the architectural heritage of the capital from a cultural, tourist, and educational perspective. Thus, visitors can discover the secrets of La Castellana, the Linear City of Arturo Soria, the architecture and botany of the Nuestra Señora de la Almudena cemetery, and the Madrid Río, El Capricho, and Rey Juan Carlos I parks; know the architecture of the Civil War; learn to see Las Cinco Torres from another perspective and enjoy the Prado-Retiro axis as a candidate to be part of the UNESCO World Heritage list. Likewise, Idealista proposes a virtual route through some of the most outstanding houses of the 20th century.
Another novelty of this Special Edition is the Renault Route, a guided tour in which visitors will discover, aboard a hybrid car (Renault Captur E-TECH), the urban development of the capital, and some of its most representative buildings.
Besides, a new typology of the route is proposed that relates architecture with other areas such as cinema. In this sense, and collaboration with the Ciudad de Madrid Film Office, two routes have been developed that will travel through outstanding places in the city from an architectural point of view and that has served as the setting for filming films.
A reference in the debate on the future of cities and sustainable innovation
The festival's activities proposal, all of them free, is completed with a series of transversal events that extend beyond the weekend itself, such as dialogues on current affairs, the City Awards, which recognize creativity, design, and sustainability as essential factors to provide quality of life to citizens, or the annual congress, which brings together leading professionals to discuss the future of cities.
Green in the City is the title of the sixth Open House Madrid Congress, which will delve into the capacity of cities to transform and address public health, climate change, mobility, and energy generation issues, among others.
Led by Signify and three of the most renowned architecture studios, the Open Talks will address light in interiors from three points of view -light and the person, light, and sustainability, and light and new technologies-, generating conversations around the forefront of lighting and sustainable innovation.
Tribute to one of the masters of 20th-century Spanish architecture
As in previous editions, the festival will focus its attention on the figure of a relevant architect. This year, tribute is paid to the figure of Alejandro de la Sota (Pontevedra, 1913; Madrid, 1996), one of the masters of 20th-century Spanish architecture, whose most recognized and unanimously admired work is the gymnasium of Colegio Maravillas (Madrid, 1960-1962).
