Open House Melbourne 2025

One of the largest programs in the history of Open House Melbourne Weekend has been unveiled, with almost 200 buildings, places, and experiences open to the public to explore. Across one weekend in July (Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 July 2025), Victorians will be granted rare access to some of metropolitan Melbourne’s most fascinating buildings, new projects, and private homes ordinarily closed to the public.

This year’s program features several exciting firsts. Public access to some of Melbourne’s most high-profile architecture and public infrastructure projects will be offered for the first time, including the new Veloway on the West Gate Tunnel Project and Port Phillip’s new EcoCentre, with more to be announced closer to the weekend. These landmark developments will be open on the weekend for a special public preview, providing a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the projects shaping the city’s future.

New, unusual and notable in this year’s program this year are the Essendon Fields Airport Terminal; the new 21-hectare elephant habitat at the Werribee Open Range Zoo; Mission Whitten Oval home of the Western Bulldogs Football Club; a First Nations kayak tour down the Yarra; a city-wide role-playing game set in the year 2050 and behind the scenes tours of the city’s coolest street art studios. The full program is now available on the Open House Melbourne website, and the highlights of the weekend are detailed below.

Open House Melbourne’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, Dr Tania Davidge, explained this year’s theme and how Open House Melbourne Weekend helps shine a light on Melbourne’s hidden histories. “‘Stories of the City’ underscores that idea that the city is more than just bricks and mortar—Melbourne is about people and place. Every building, street and public place in our city has a unique story to uncover, and Open House Melbourne Weekend is your best time to explore the secret histories of our city hidden behind closed doors. “To celebrate this year’s Open House Melbourne’s Weekend theme, we invite all Melburnians to share their own stories by contributing to a special exhibition, held over the weekend, at the Bates Smart Gallery. Visit the gallery and share your stories of the city.”

The Open House Melbourne Weekend is Oceania’s largest architecture and built environment festival, celebrating the importance of good design in shaping our communities. Over 65,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event and explore the unique and intriguing spaces in every corner of the city and suburbs. Attendees are encouraged to plan their weekend as the most coveted experiences will book out in advance.

Open House Melbourne Weekend 2025 Program Highlights

Be the first to tour some of the city’s most significant new infrastructure projects. Port Phillip EcoCentre and the 2.5 kilometre-long veloway at The West Gate Tunnel Project will all be open to the public for the very first time over the Open House Melbourne Weekend (more firsts to be announced soon).

Melbourne’s secret histories will be revealed at a series of special events celebrating this year’s theme, “Stories of the City”. Bates Smart Gallery: Collective Narratives of Melbourne is a special interactive installation where anyone can contribute their own Melbourne story. Melbourne’s Camera Club will also host a special “Stories of our city” photography exhibition. The Melbourne architects responsible for some of the city’s most distinctive spaces, Six Degrees, will delve into how the city’s disused vaults beneath the Princess Bridge became a vibrant hospitality precinct in Federation Wharf: From Forgotten Vaults to Riverside Life. Tread the boards, go backstage and learn about the unique features of the city’s most iconic performing arts spaces at The Tales of Melbourne Theatres from the Architects Registration Board of Victoria.

The titans of Melbourne music and film will converge for Armstrong Studios: Melbourne’s Abbey Road, where you can hear stories from the legends who created the soundtrack to our lives like Roger Savage, producer and engineer (the Rolling Stones, the Easybeats, Return of the Jedi and Mad Max soundtracks); Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and solo artist) and Ernie Rose, producer (Little River Band, Split Enz).

New to the program this year are some of Melbourne’s most intriguing places, including: the Essendon Fields Airport Terminal, Werribee Open Range Zoo’s new, sprawling elephant enclosure, Kennedy Nolan’s new hotel Melbourne Place and The Spotswood Pumping Station.

In 2025, Open House Melbourne gives backstage access to the players’ areas at some of Melbourne’s most elite sporting institutions, including Mission Whitten Oval, home of the Western Bulldogs Football Club and the athlete performance centre at the State Netball Hockey Centre, home court of the Vixens. Former World Cup skating champion and Paris Olympics head judge Renton Millar will be taking over the new Prahran Skate Park, where anyone can learn to sidewalk surf from one of the best in the world.

This year’s program is an opportunity to explore new ways of living and see inside some of Melbourne’s most intriguing, sustainable and cutting-edge new private homes. Eight new private homes feature in this year’s program, including Naples St House by Edition Office, the Robin Boyd winner at the 2024 National Architecture Awards and ECHO.1—Melbourne’s First Turnkey Passivhaus Development.

In line with Open House Melbourne’s commitment to promoting good design as we head towards a city of 8 million people, this year’s program features tours of the city’s most exceptionally designed multi-residential, build-to-rent and social housing, including 1 Heller St Brunswick and Bills Street Social and Affordable Housing.

Street art plays a central role in Melbourne’s cultural identity, and this year the program takes you behind the scenes into the workspaces of some of the city’s most celebrated street artists, including: Rone + Callum Preston Artist Studios, The Blender Studios in West Melbourne and Everfresh Studio Collingwood.

Experience the revival of local manufacturing in Melbourne at Bag House – the new design and workshop space for iconic local bag maker, Crumpler, who has transformed a CBD heritage building into a landmark of Melbourne design. Step into the future and explore Melbourne in the year 2025 in Reworlding: Naarm, a three-hour urban role-playing adventure through the city streets where you’ll imagine Melbourne transformed into a sprawling megacity of 10 million people in 2050.

Many of Melbourne’s foremost educational institutions will extend the learning week and operate tours of their new and cutting-edge student facilities. Explore the Kangan Institute’s Health and Community Centre of Excellence, a facility designed to address Australia’s urgent need for skilled healthcare and community service professionals and Futures Studio at Woodleigh School, a carbon-sequestering, solar-powered living ecosystem and learning environment—the first of its kind in Australia.

In the Melbourne Arts Precinct, Southbank Theatre will open its stage doors to the public along with the neighbouring Melbourne Recital Centre. Many more of the city’s foremost cultural institutions and hidden artistic gems have joined this year’s lineup, including The Australian Print Workshop, The Australian Tapestry Workshop, an incinerator turned contemporary art gallery, Essendon Incinerator Complex and the Duldig Studio museum and sculpture garden.

First Nations knowledge and learning are at the forefront of much of this year’s program, with a number of events delving into the history of pre-colonial Naarm and contemporary indigenous architecture. What’s Good for the Birrarung is Good for Everyone is a kayak tour down the Yarra where you can learn more about the river’s ancient ecology or join architects Kennedy Nolan for a tour of the newly opened Balam Balam Place in Brunswick. New in 2025, join architects Woods Bagot for a tour of East Melbourne’s Catholic Leadership Centre. It is one of the city’s ten places of worship in this year’s program.

Returning favourites to the Open House Melbourne Weekend program include the Yan Yean Reservoir Park, Citylink Control Room, Shrine of Remembrance, the Sun Theatre in Yarraville, ABC’s Southbank studios and much more.

In 2025, Open House Melbourne Weekend will become even more accessible for everyone with the creation of the new Access Map initiative. Designed in collaboration with accessibility experts, the new interactive Access Map lets attendees discover a curated selection of fully accessible Open House programs that are mobility-friendly and neurodiverse-considerate sites.

Open House Melbourne Weekend features a series of inspiring talks, fostering conversations about the future of our city. This year’s Designing with Country, curated in collaboration with RMIT’s Yulendj Weelam Lab explores, with leading Indigenous thinkers, how a deeper understanding of Country can transform contemporary design practices.

The 2025 Heritage Conversation is a rare peek behind the scenes of Melbourne’s cultural treasure trove. Join former Lord Mayor Sally Capp and Eddie Butler-Bowden as they delve into the City of Melbourne’s Art and Heritage Collection. Modern Melbourne is Open House’s ongoing film series that documents the city’s most important architects and designers. This year’s premiere brings into focus celebrated architect Greg Burgess.

For the full program visit openhousemelbourne.org | Tickets released from 2 July