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There are events you attend, and then there are events that stay with you, that shift the way you see a city, a street, a doorway. Open Christchurch is the latter.
This year, VidaSpace was honoured to be involved in Open Christchurch as a supporting sponsor. Three members of our team dedicated their weekend to experience it properly, from Friday evening through to Sunday. What unfolded over those two days was something far beyond a festival. It was a reminder of why architecture matters, and why Christchurch in particular carries a story unlike any other city in New Zealand.
Open Christchurch is an annual, one-weekend-only festival that invites the public inside more than 52 exceptional and significant buildings across the city. Presented by Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making, it is a rare and generous act, building owners, architects, and designers opening their doors so that locals and visitors alike can experience great design from the inside out.
For those of us with deep roots in Christchurch, this event carries a particular weight. Christchurch is a city that has been broken open and rebuilt, that has grieved and argued and slowly, beautifully, reimagined itself. To walk through its buildings, old and new, it is special to see the journey of development and evolution.
Our team moved through speaker events that were insightful and thought-provoking, home tours led generously by the architects and owners who shaped them, and spaces that asked us to slow down and look more carefully.
Visiting the newly completed stadium in the CBD was a standout moment - not just for the building itself, but for what surrounded it. The streets were full of people and there was a kind of energy that a city centre earns when it gives residents something worth showing up for. It was genuinely moving to see.
The Arts Centre was equally worthwhile. Seeing the scale of restoration work that has gone into these Gothic Revival buildings gave us a much clearer sense of what that investment looks like in practice, and why it matters. The legacy of architects like Miles Warren, Maurice Mahoney, and Peter Beaven shaped not just individual buildings but the broader character of the city, and that legacy was evident throughout the weekend.
Cartwright House - ARCHITECTS: Bull O’Sullivan Architecture | Images by Peanut Productions
One NZ Stadium - ARCHITECTS: Warren & Mahoney and Populous, 2026
The Arts Centre including the Observatory and Biological Laboratory, now the Observatory Hotel - ARCHITECT: Benjamin Mountfort, 1896; restoration: Warren & Mahoney 2022
What Open Christchurch does so well is hold the tension between heritage and innovation with grace. The mix of restored historic structures alongside bold contemporary design is not a contradiction, it is a conversation. And it is a conversation that Christchurch, perhaps more than any other New Zealand city, is uniquely positioned to have.
Government Departmental Buildings - ARCHITECTS: Joseph Clarkson Maddison, 1913
New Regent Street - ARCHITECTS: Francis Willis, 1932; restoration: Fulton Ross Team Architects, 2013
VidaSpace is proud to support an event that celebrates some of the finest architectural works in this country, and we are delighted that the public has the opportunity to explore their city in far greater depth because of it.
Thank you to the organisers, partners, homeowners, architects, and designers who made the weekend what it was. Sharing your work and your spaces with the public is no small thing, and we look forward to supporting Open Christchurch again next year.
Knox Church - ARCHITECTS: England Brothers, 1901-2; restoration: Wilkie + Bruce Architects, 2014
House - ARCHITECTS: Funtrik Pony, 2024
Baby House | Image by Sarah Rowlands
Monavale Homestead - ARCHITECTS: Joseph Clarkson Maddison, 1899-1900; restoration: Tony Ussher Architect , 2016
Image by Sarah Rowlands
Monavale Bathhouse - ARCHITECTS: Unknown, c. 1905-1914; restoration: Team Architects, 2024
Image by Sarah Rowlands
Former Wellington Woollen Mill (now The Drifter Christchurch)
ARCHITECTS: William Henry Gummer, 1905; restoration: DPA Architects; adaptation and interior: CTRL Space, 2024
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