Third annual summit of Open House Europe
January 9–10, 2026
Athens 115 21
Greece
Open House Europe will hold its third Annual Summit in Athens on January 9–10, 2026. Hosted by Open House Athens, co-hosted by Open House Slovenia and Open House Thessaloniki, and coordinated by Architektūros fondas, the Summit will once again convene festival organisers, architecture professionals, students, enthusiasts, and partners from across the continent and beyond for shared reflection, exchange, and dialogue.
At the heart of this year’s public programme is Future Heritage, the guiding theme for the 2025 season of Open House Europe. The Summit will explore how the ideas, spaces, and practices we shape today may become the legacy of tomorrow, and how architecture can help us imagine a more inclusive, resilient, and interconnected European future.
Across a series of panel discussions, the Summit will examine heritage as a resource for contemporary architectural practice, look at the values and conditions shaping the future of architecture in Europe, and reflect on the potential of the Open House model itself. These conversations invite participants to rethink the relationship between past, present, and future and to consider how public engagement with architecture can support long-term cultural and spatial transformation.
Summit public programme
The public programme will open on Friday, January 9, at 6:30pm, with the launch of the third Open House Europe Visual Stories exhibition—a selection of interpretations and reflections on the Future Heritage theme submitted by visitors of the partner festivals. This will be followed by a welcome from the Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, and a series of presentations titled ‘Embracing Future Heritage’ from leading Greek architects and designers: PILA studio, Eleftheria Deko, and K-Studio.
The second day, Saturday, January 10, will consist of three key panel discussions and a lecture:
10am: Heritage as a Building Material
This first panel will explore what it means to work with heritage as a resource for contemporary practice and if historical narratives and materials can enable more meaningful, site-specific architecture.
The panel features Slovenian architects Rok Žnidaršič (co-founder of Medprostor) and Maruša Zorec (founder of Arrea Architecture), alongside Greek architects Dionisis Sotovikis (member of the board of directors of the Hellenic Institute of Architecture) and a representative from XZA Architects. Discussion will be moderated by Stavros Martinos (architecture and design editor at 'ek' magazine).
12:15pm: Shaping Future Tendencies and Values in Architecture
Focusing on the policy side of heritage, this panel will explore the fundamental forces and values influencing the future of architecture in Europe. The discussion asks: What values must we uphold, reinvent, or let go of?
Speakers include Matevž Čelik (architect and head of the European architecture platform LINA), Jonas Janke (architect, co-founder of studio ‘b+’ and part of the initiators team of the 'HouseEurope!' campaign), Sergei Bazaryia (programme manager of the European Heritage Days), and Jutta Kastner (policy officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture). The panel will be moderated by Greek political scientist Stathis N. Kalyvas.
3:30pm: Acting Locally, Sharing Globally: The Impact of Open House Across Regions
The final panel focuses on the Open House format itself, its impact, and regional possibilities. Speakers will discuss how cooperation between Open House festivals leads to innovation and broader outreach in democratising knowledge about architecture, not only across Europe but worldwide.
The panel includes Tadas Šarūnas (Lithuanian sociologist completing impact research on Open House Europe), Martynas Germanavičius (project lead of Open House Europe), Tania Davidge (executive director and chief curator of Open House Melbourne, establishing Open House Australia), and Robert Newcombe (British architectural designer and co-founder of Open House Santiago). The panel will be moderated by Manijeh Verghese (CEO of Open City, which founded the Open House format and the Open House Worldwide network).
5pm: Closing lecture by Theo Spyropoulos, architect and educator, Director of the Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory in London.
Open House Europe is a cooperation project that unfolds a multi-layered view of quality architecture and joins Open House festivals across the continent for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Project partners hold festivals in Athens, Barcelona, Bilbao, Brno, Dublin, Essen, Lisbon, Milan, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Slovenia, Tallinn, Thessaloniki, Valencia, and Vilnius. The project is coordinated by Architektūros fondas and co-funded by the European Union.
