VidaSpace is Proud to Support Open Christchurch

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.

A City That Earns Its Architecture

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.  

What We Experienced

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.

Old and New, Together

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.

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.