let's celebrate: architechture! doors open ottawa

inside the wonderful national gallery of canada
photo by Intrepide98

i just love architecture.
i've been a longtime fan of amazing buildings & fabulous structures. and one of the many funfun things our lovely city of ottawa celebrates each year is the amazing architechture all around us with *doors open!*

yay!
so this weekend, throughout our lovely city, folks are celebrating *doors open* : a rare chance to glimpse inside some of our city's most amazing buildings.

the ottawa experimental farm by Lin-Na Tan via the doorsopenottawa photostream

first of all, it's free! wonderful!
2nd, doors open is a fabulous chance to see many usually *private* buildings from the inside out, just for one or two days a year! this year, there are 108 buildings opening up to the public in ottawa. in the past few years, the family rikrak has been amazed and thrilled to explore the Canada Post Mail Processing Plant (you know how i love mail! - it was AMAZING in there seeing the letters whirrr past as cyber speed!), the Brittania Water Purification Plant (seeing how that works was so fascinating!) , and various science labs, goverment buildings, embassies and places of worship!

many museums and art galleries are also free over the weekend, like my very favourite, the National Gallery of Canada! woohoo!

started in 1984 in France, the doors open movement has spread throughout Europe. in 2000, toronto was the first city in north america to celebrate it's heritage buildings with doors open toronto! and soon the fun spread throughout ontario. according to the doors open ontario website, numerous other destinations, including new york, denver, newfoundland & alberta celebrate doors open each year!

so check your local doors open calendar, OR maybe encourage your own municipality heritage group to think about it!

interior detailing of the Chateau Laurier by georgia.g

it's a wonderful way to see, up close, the amazing architecture of our hometowns and cities. and i think a wonderful way to garner appreciation for the beautiful buildings that are part of our everyday designerly lives!

does your city participate?
if you had the chance, what's a building in the world that you'd love to see inside? i'd love to hear!

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