Updated Mar 23 2026
48H Open House Barcelona is the city’s annual Architecture Festival, and part of “Open House Worldwide”, an international organisation dedicated to promoting and sharing architecture.
The festival was first held in Barcelona in 2010, and its success was immediate. Since then, its reputation and impact have grown with each edition, as has the number of historic buildings, works, and architectural structures of interest that can be visited, along with the range of parallel activities on offer.
All the information about 48H Open House Barcelona
If the 48H Open House Barcelona Festival is well known for one thing, it’s for offering a series of open days at a wide range of buildings, works, and structures of architectural interest.
The visits, depending on the characteristics of each place and how the festival has organised them, can be self-guided, guided tours (led by architects or architecture students), or a combination of both, and are completely free of charge.
This is therefore a unique opportunity to explore the interior of buildings and structures that are usually closed to the public or have restricted access to certain areas, or to gain deeper insight—thanks to the guided tours—into places that are normally open to visitors.
2026 Edition of 48H Open House Barcelona
Although the 2026 edition takes place over a single weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, not all participating buildings and sites can be visited on both days.
For this reason, it is very important to check whether the building or buildings you wish to visit are open on both Saturday and Sunday or only on one of the two days.
It is also essential to confirm the visiting hours—in some cases, sites are open all day, while in others they may close during lunchtime or only be open in the morning.
2026 Edition of 48H Open House Barcelona: Key Information
Dates: To be confirmed
Opening hours: Variable, depending on the building
Number of buildings open: Over 200
Number of volunteers: Approximately 1,000
€ Regular access: Free
€ Festival Friends: €50 (priority access)
Is it necessary to make a reservation to visit the buildings during the festival?
Although it is not the norm, to visit some of the buildings participating in the festival, and due to the characteristics or limitations of these sites, it is mandatory to make a prior reservation, which is always free of charge.
For this reason, we encourage you to check the details for each building in the official programme, accessible via the link provided a few lines above.
Map of buildings and highlights – 48H Open House Barcelona 2026
More details about the 48H Open House Barcelona days
Guided itineraries during 48H Open House Barcelona
In addition to guided tours, the festival offers other activities, one of the most notable being the organisation of guided itineraries where, unsurprisingly, the focus is on architecture.
These routes take place both through the streets of Barcelona and in certain nearby towns, as well as in the guest city, which changes with each edition. To participate in these routes, prior registration is required.
Skip the queues by becoming a “Festival Friend”
The huge number of people who take part each year in the open days of the Barcelona Architecture Festival means that, to enter some of the most interesting buildings, structures or architectural works, or those located in the most central areas of the city, long queues quickly form, sometimes even before visiting hours begin.
The easiest way to avoid these queues is to become a “Festival Friend”. Membership costs €50 and, besides priority access to the interiors of buildings during the festival, it also includes other benefits.
Festival Friend Benefits
Priority access
Exclusive visits
Access without prior booking
Festival Catalogue
Attendance at the “Friends’ Party”
Attendance at the “Volunteers’ Party”
A second option, much more economical, to avoid or at least get around the queues that form, is to carefully “study” the list of buildings included in the 48H Open House Barcelona edition, as well as the opening times of any you are interested in visiting.
In this way, it is possible to plan the day, selecting from among the most important and presumably busiest places the one that interests you most, and thus arrive at the entrance a few minutes before it opens.
At the end of that visit, and since entering another highly renowned building or one located in the centre will likely require waiting in a long queue, it is best to move to other areas of the city, further from the centre, where you can visit truly fantastic places much more calmly and with hardly any queue.
If you follow this plan on Saturday and, as we hope, it works for you… you can always repeat it on Sunday ;).
Objective of “Open House Worldwide”
The organisation “Open House Worldwide”, also known as the “Open House Family”, was founded in London in 1992 with the aim of promoting architecture, making it more accessible and engaging to as many people as possible.
To this end, and among other activities, open days were organised at a number of particular buildings and architectural works, with informative guided tours conducted by several architects.
Since that distant 1992, the organisation has continued to grow, and now around 40 cities each year, always under the guidance of “Open House Worldwide”, organise their own architecture festival.
The role of volunteers in the festival
The participation of volunteers is crucial to successfully running a festival with the characteristics of the 48H Open House Barcelona.
Although numerous, volunteers can basically be divided into two groups: those with a professional or semi-professional profile (such as architecture students or graduates who conduct guided tours of the buildings, as well as architects who have designed or renovated a building and explain all the details of the work done) and those without an architecture-related background who assist with the many preparation and organisational tasks of the event.