48 h Open House Barcelona 2017

It's the eighth edition of this festival of architecture in Barcelona, a weekend where more than 200 buildings of all types, shapes and sizes open their doors to offer you the chance to get up close to architecture in an exceptional way, and without paying a cent. It's a way to explore and understand the value of a well-constructed and -designed space and to see spaces that are normally closed to the public.

This year's programme, billed 'The skin of architecture', offers a retrospective of the architectural work of Oriol Bohigas, with interesting typologies of buildings and public spaces that favour individual and collective freedom. In Barcelona, for example, you can see it in the Thau and Costa i Llovera schools; the Crist Redemptor parish; and the Centre Municipal de Vela and the Parc de la Creueta del Coll. And in Badalona, the Gama housing estate, among others.

You'll also learn about the city's growth 25 years after the Olympic Games and how Bohigas contributed to create new areas of centrality in the city. This year's Open House also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Puig i Cadafalch, with new items on the programme such as Can Serra and an itinerary through the Eixample. And there's the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the secondary venues of the Olympic Games in Badalona and L'Hospitalet. 

The Open Social section has two new features this year: an inclusive activity for users and an inclusive cartography for the public. Users are treated to 'Architects in the Classrooms': students of three elementary schools in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, by architect Xavier Valls, explain their school architecture. For the inclusive activity for the public, the accessibility of more than 220 buildings in the programme has been studied, with the aim of providing information about the degree of accessibility to anyone with physical limitations, and to encourage thought.

New this year is the Open Kitchen section, which for the first time brings together architecture and gastronomy with different activities: restaurants such as Lluerna; educational spaces like the Pavelló Canigó and the Fondo library in Santa Coloma de Gramenet; and interior design and constructive experience in the OAK Showroom in Les Corts (which won the FAD Opinió prize in 2014), among others.

This year's guest city is neighbouring L'Hospitalet de Llobregat; and on the 48 h Open House Barcelona website you can found out all the details.