The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre (KÉK) is holding the Open Houses Weekend on 9 and 10 May; this time the festival once again celebrates hundred-year-old buildings. This year, 41 residential buildings and institutions are opening their doors to the city and to visitors.
The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre is holding the Open Houses Weekend on 9 and 10 May; this time the festival once again celebrates hundred-year-old buildings. This year, 41 residential buildings and institutions are opening their doors to the city and to visitors.
A 100th birthday is a privilege – whether for a person or a house. It is an opportunity for gratitude, remembrance and paying tribute, and for coming together and celebrating, too. This year Budapest100 once again celebrates this special moment: the city’s hundred-year-old buildings, revealing everything their former and present residents have lived through over a century.
The list of buildings opening for Budapest100 on 9–10 May is now available. In 2026 the organisers are returning to the festival’s original concept – a celebration of 100-year-old buildings – but they have not forgotten the “birthday houses” that were left out in earlier years either. As it enters its 16th year, the festival is preparing for a bigger shared birthday party than ever before.
This year the buildings opening their doors are those built between 1916 and 1926. Visitors can explore inner-city apartment blocks, suburban villas, churches, a cinema, a department store and kindergartens as well.
With this year’s theme, the organiser, the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, wants to draw attention to the values that today’s 100-year-old buildings carry from the city’s past and to what they mean in city life today. Hundred-year-old buildings, however, are not merely architectural assets: they are bearers of stories. They are imprints of the lives of generations, the memory of communities and witnesses to the city’s changes. The festival aims to make these stories visible and tangible again, and to turn them into a genuine shared celebration for one weekend.
The organisers will publish the detailed programme of the Open Houses Weekend, held on 9–10 May, on 22 April on the Budapest100 website. The printed programme booklet will be available at the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, at Blinken OSA Archivum and at other designated locations, which the organisers will announce on their social media channels.
Registration for programmes that require it opens on 23 April, but most programmes can be visited without registration.
The project is realised with financial support from the Pro Cultura Urbis Public Foundation. The festival was supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary. The organisers also thank everyone who contributed to their crowdfunding campaign and helped make the event possible.
Source: MTI