MIES DIDN’T COME
HOME THAT NIGHT

Architecture today has expanded in every direction, stretching its definition inside out. Almost unrecognisable to some, former devotees now blink with cloudy nostalgia, longing for a return to the field they fell in love with: a sophisticated practice emphasising clarity through the detail, uncompromising in its vision of a unified art intersecting form, programme, and technology.
Mies, are you still out there?

We are living in an increasingly unpredictable world. Climate change, diversity and inclusion compete for attention with war, rearmament, geopolitical instability and a renewed struggle for the planet’s resources. So what can architecture do when the future no longer looks like the future we imagined?

OPEN26 turns to modernism and utopia, not as historical ideas, but as tools for thinking and acting in the present. Utopia means both ou-topos: ‘no place’, and eu-topos: ‘the good place’. Between the impossible and the desirable lies a space for experimentation: a place to imagine different ways of living, organising and building. What if utopia could help us imagine and construct what does not yet exist?

With the title Mies Didn’t Come Home That Night, OPEN26 looks to the legacy of modernism and its utopian ambitions as a catalyst for examining where we are now. What did these visions make possible, and what did they leave behind? We explore the consequences of the utopias of modernism and how

they continue to shape our lives, for better and for worse. At the same time, how might utopia be reactivated as a strategic tool for examining and addressing the complex and long-term challenges we face, and as a method for creating new architecture?

OPEN26 offers perspecives on how architecture, as a profession, an industry and an institution, may understand and contribute to a world in transformation. At a time when technological advances, resource scarcity and geopolitical instability are reshaping our collective future, the festival asks how we might harness the momentum created by the vacuum left in the wake of the old world’s collapse. What might happen if we open the drawer of hope, dreams and utopias?

OPEN26, Mies Didn’t Come Home That Night, is curated by Karen Kjærgaard, with co-curators Aysha Amin, Ida Bjerga and Aria Gilani.

> Learn more

OPEN26, Mies Didn’t Come Home That Night, is curated by Karen Kjærgaard, with co-curators Aysha Amin, Ida Bjerga and Aria Gilani.

> Learn more

MIES, ARE YOU STILL OUT THERE?

A crime scene called modernism. Mies Didn’t Come Home That Night. The title sets the scene. Inspired by the fictional disappearance of one of modernism’s founding figures, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, OPEN26 turns the festival into a crime scene. Where did Mies go? Why did he disappear? And what, exactly, was he running from? Across six stages, the investigation unfolds. We follow the traces of modernism and its legacy, examining the physical, social, political and planetary consequences of the ideas that shaped the architecture of the twentieth century. Architecture becomes both evidence and suspect. OPEN26 brings together architects, artists, researchers, students, practitioners and utopists to question what we have inherited, challenge the established narrative and speculate on what might come next. Alongside talks, conversations and debates, exhibitions, performances and built work present research-driven experiments and constructions that investigate new possibilities for architecture. There is no final verdict. The evidence is incomplete, the motives remain uncertain, and the investigation continues.

FULL PROGRAMME

A ONE-DAY ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL

The first OPEN festival was held in Aarhus in 2021, marking the opening of the Aarhus School of Architecture’s new building. Since then, OPEN has taken place every September, with each edition organised around a central theme that addresses the questions, tensions, possibilities and challenges shaping architecture and its wider context. Over one packed day, the festival brings together academia, practice and industry from Denmark and abroad through a curated programme of conversations, panels, debates, exhibitions, installations, performances and more. The OPEN line-up features architects, urbanists, researchers, artists, industry professionals, pioneers and thinkers from across the field, while attracting a diverse audience of students, practitioners, academics, industry experts and others interested in the built environment.

LEARN MORE