Open House Melbourne has revealed the program for its 2026 Weekend, offering more than 180 tours, talks and first looks at some of the city's most intriguing buildings on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July. The annual festival throws open doors that are usually shut to the public, from grand civic spaces to working back-of-house rooms.
Organisers expect more than 70,000 people to take part, exploring spaces "in every corner of the city and suburbs," according to the program announcement. Attendees are encouraged to plan ahead, as the most coveted experiences book out in advance.
This year's theme is "Generous City". Open House Melbourne's Executive Director and Chief Curator, Tania Davidge, said the idea was about what design can offer a community. "A generous city is something we should all aspire to have," Davidge said. "When we think about what makes a city generous, we are exploring how design, creativity and architecture can foster a culture of openness, offering space, care and possibility for its citizens."
Among the new and notable additions this year is a tour of The Primrose Potter Australian Ballet Centre, including its costume department and rehearsal studios, and a look inside cafe icons ST. ALi Coffee Roastery. Both give visitors a glimpse of the day-to-day machinery behind institutions Melburnians know by name but rarely see from the inside.
The line-up also spans the industrial and the infrastructural. Visitors can tour the Rock Posters printing factory in Thornbury, the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, and the new Transurban Freeway Control Centre in Footscray — the nerve centre that operates CityLink and the new West Gate Tunnel. A further 10 private and historical homes round out the program.
That mix — a ballet costume workshop alongside a freeway control room — is characteristic of Open House Melbourne, which frames architecture broadly enough to include the places that keep a city running as well as the ones it puts on postcards.
The full program, including tour times and which sites require booking, is published on the festival's website. With demand for the marquee tours high, organisers are again urging visitors to lock in the spaces they most want to see rather than turning up on the day and hoping for a spot.
Open House Melbourne 2026 runs across the weekend of 25 and 26 July, spanning the CBD and suburbs alike, with the "Generous City" theme threading through a program that asks Melburnians to look again at the spaces they pass every day.
