OPEN24

A beautiful blue backdrop in the school’s large workshop set the stage for a festive welcome as Rector Kristine Leth Juul and curator Karen Kjærgaard kicked off a sold-out OPEN24 at the Aarhus School of Architecture on Friday morning, September 20. Once again, Aarhus School of Architecture had invited professionals, the industry, and the academic field for new conversations and insights. In her welcome speech, Kristine emphasized the important exchange of knowledge between the school and the outside world as an absolute core task. Therefore, OPEN puts complex topics up for debate and provides space for important voices – including those from the young generation of architects.

More than a thousand participants were on board for an intellectually inspiring festival day at Exners Plads. The full-day program, themed “The Ocean In Which We All Swim,” addressed the interrelation between water and architecture through engaging conversations and lively panel debates on topics such as regenerative construction, activism, architecture policy, coastal landscapes, AI, colonialism, the environmental crisis, and homelessness. Throughout the day, significant voices from architectural practice, academia, and the political system met on various stages with an enthusiastic audience.

Exhibitions, performances, and courtyard

Festival participants also had the opportunity to explore several exhibitions: Urban Anomalies about Siena’s historical water system, Mare Incognitum about the extractivism of the ocean’s hidden landscapes, and Premiere featuring selected graduation projects from this summer’s newly graduated class of architects.

Also, there were a cinematic experience of futuristic supply architecture in the dark of the cinema, a VR experience of the slums in Uganda with Architects Without Borders, and the chance to participate in the collective communion Sea of Love for the ocean with Schwesterbrau & ibid.practice, as well as the performative inauguration of the new permanent land art project Another Crack In The Wall. The school’s newly established cultural courtyard, Front Yard, provided a vibrant festival atmosphere with live music and a student bar.

We are already looking forward to September 2025, when we invite everyone to the fifth edition of the OPEN Architecture Festival.