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In a famous essay about the relationship between feminism and architecture, Mary McLeod noted how Foucault, in articulating the concept of heterotopia ‘seems to have expressed an unconscious disdain for aspects of everyday life such as the home, the public park and the department store, which were instead provinces in which women found not only oppression, but also a degree of comfort, security, autonomy and even freedom.’ The backdrop for this exhibition is a work by the English architect naturalized Swedish Ralph Erskine, called Shopping, which opened in September 1955 in Luleå, a town on the edge of the Arctic Circle where most of the population of Norrbotten is concentrated. With its hard-to-reach location, this building received little attention from architectural critics, who were only interested in it as something it was not: the first shopping mall in history. In spite of its name, the building is in fact rather like a passage, a shopping mall with no underground parking and no car access, located in the very center of the city. The importance of the building did not escape to Mai Zetterling - the first female director to win an award for directing at the Venice Film Festival after the war with the short film War Game (1962) - who set the decisive sequences of Flickorna (The Girls, 1968), a milestone in the promotion of a culture of equality and gender diversity (from which the title line of the exhibition is taken). By juxtaposing the projection of this film transposition of Aristophanes' Lysistrata with the transfigurations of promotional and documentary images conserved in the archives that in various ways give an account of the commercial gallery's past, the exhibition intends to make explicit the contestation to the stereotyped image of the “Swedish woman” that asserted itself on the international scene, and more specifically in Italian cinema, from the end of the 1950s onwards. In order to gain a physical and bodily awareness of how much Shopping's architecture has been and still continues to be a field of confrontation and redefinition of gender identity, those who visit the exhibition will have the concrete possibility of tracing its complex inner atrium and directly comparing it with figurines, caricatures (macchietta)
and human representations of the time, giving life to the performance of a real ‘animated view’.

Opening: 31.5.2024 at 7 pm
Speakers: Iwan Baan, lars Müller, Nicola Borgmann

Open House Milano returns for its 9th edition on the weekend of May 25 and 26. With 100 sites across Milan opening their doors, the festival will showcase a unique blend of large-scale urban projects and intimate private spaces, reflecting the dynamic changes shaping this historic city. Open House Milano invites residents and visitors of the city to experience a diverse programme of guided tours led by a dedicated network of 200 volunteers.

We're thrilled to announce the Avani Summer Workshop 2024 - DYUTI, 2.0 a program that integrates various art forms to help young individuals hone their inherent talents and creativity. The workshop is designed to kindle young minds by sensitizing them to the intricacies, nuances, and aesthetics of everyday life. DYUTI provides a platform for participants to engage in individual and collaborative learning experiences with their peers and our team of expert faculty members. Through engaging sessions, our goal is to effectively shape their ideas, enhance creativity, and cultivate a sense of design.

The 7th edition of Open House Brno returns on the weekend of May 18 and 19. The festival will open doors to 116 locations across Brno, inviting visitors to explore the diverse architectural landscape of the city. In addition, the two-day event will feature musical performances, special locations to explore Brno's gastronomic scene, and an accompanying programme for families with children.

With a focus on sustainability, ethics and technology, this Melbourne Design Week the University will showcase the latest in design thinking and creation with a range of free public events to inspire everyone from the design-curious to the design professional.

The 10th edition of Open House Vilnius will be held on the weekend of May 18 and 19. During the festival, 70 objects will open their doors to the city's residents and visitors. The programme will feature a wide range of architectural guided tours, meetings with the city's creators, and artistic performances.

A photograph is supposed to show things, unless these belong to the indivisible, the space beyond, such as the absolute darkness of the infinite. In that expanse where the supernatural lurks. The deities long since known and attached to a particular sanctified topos. Delos Island stands out in that category as a place easily identified on a map but physically impossible to reach as one sails in the Aegean Sea. You know it is there, but you are hindered from gaining hold of it. It is as elusive as an imagined place that belongs to another sphere of existence. This explains its flickering sight from a distance which soon leads to a vanishing image at closer distance: as if the magic has escaped.

Stepping out into the sunlit arena and onto the track. The noise of a cheering crowd  swells up alongside competitors as they race around the stadium and past those who just  entered the site of this athletic spectacle. The atmosphere is overwhelming and  intimidating, but exhilarating at the same time. What an experience. Being here. In this  moment.  

Contemporary Mexican architecture has attracted strong critical acclaim internationally. This has happened on the back of a resurging interest in Latin American Modernism and there is now a real excitement around the many young architects from the region making their mark.

Singapore’s premier architecture event is set for a revamp this year, converging the prestige of the Singapore Institute of Architects’ (SIA) marquee awards and conferences, the appeal of trade-related events and the mass-market draw of the popular Architours into one grand celebration of architecture.

A. Purpose of the Competition:
- Through the construction of the new building in Gangbuk-gu, the government aims to provide better public administration services by consolidating dispersed public administration facilities, improving access and convenience for residents, and providing one-stop administrative services.
- As an administrative complex town, the Gangbuk-gu applicant aims to revitalize the local economy by supplying the living SOC that is lacking in Gangbuk-gu, increasing opportunities for local residents to enjoy culture, and creating a community space that provides various social contact opportunities rather than the existing 'government office' and a unique space that supports youth activities and youth entrepreneurship.
- Through creative and iconic design, it will become a global landmark that goes beyond the region and inspires pride in the people of Gangbuk-gu.

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The jubilee tenth edition of the Open House Prague festival takes place May 13–19, 2024. While an eventful accompanying programme is prepared for the week starting on May 13, the festival will also open 115 buildings and spaces around the capital city for free on the weekend of May 18 and 19. Several buildings in the programme also offer tours in English.

This year, SDD celebrates its 10th anniversary: 10 years of design experiences, networking, and creativity in the company of the best design brands and an ever-growing community of professionals and design lovers. To mark this milestone, we offer a rich program of activities throughout the year, an extended opportunity to discover the latest in design during the May Festival (16-23), and an open invitation to visit all our spaces on SoHo Design Day, Saturday, May 18.

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The Open House Lisboa returns on the weekend of May 11 and 12, 2024, with a programme of guided tours and urban walks curated by sociologist Sandra Marques Pereira and architect Alexandre Marques Pereira.

We encourage visionaries from around the globe to apply for the competition and design the next-generation schools for Ukraine. We aim to rebuild Ukraine's educational spaces, making them more resilient, safe, and innovative.

Where do our building materials come from and are they made with fair labor?

The Pool series of four exhibitions, to be opened at the Aalto2 Museum Centre on 18 May 2024, will bring together Alvar Aalto’s architectural heritage, international skateboarding culture, and rap and hip hop culture. The three exhibitions themed around skateboarding are linked by the design of the swimming pool at the Villa Mairea, by Alvar Aalto, and its impact on international skateboarding culture.