Opening doors is also building

What we take away from Open House Murcia 2025

Sometimes, awards do not arrive only for building. They also arrive for opening up. And this one — the one we received last Thursday at the Open House Murcia closing gala — touches us especially deeply.

Because it does not only recognise a work, but a way of understanding architecture: as something that is shared, that is shown, that is lived.

A recognition with a double meaning

Open House Murcia is not just another date on the calendar. It is a project we put our soul into from the very beginning.

A few years ago, when we dreamed of bringing this international festival to Murcia, there were only the four of us — José Manuel, Belén, Alejandro and me, Gemma — sharing enthusiasm, ideas and a shared admiration for open, accessible and living architecture.

Seeing now how it has grown into a network of buildings, routes, volunteers, queues in the streets and urban conversation moves us more than we expected. And receiving an award from the very festival we helped found feels like closing a circle. Or perhaps opening a new one.

Casa Borgoña: when a work becomes a shared story

This year, one of our works was selected by the committee to be part of the route: Casa Borgoña. And that alone was an honour.

But what happened that weekend exceeded every expectation: a full house, queues in the street, attentive visitors, questions, emotion, small silences. People noticing details. People feeling the space.

And most importantly: happy clients, proud of their home, who generously opened their privacy so that others could live it too, even if just for a moment. That is not common. That is not something you can ask for. That only happens when behind a project there is trust, mutual respect… and love for what has been created together.

What plans don't show

There is something that is not drawn in plan or rendered: the relationship between people and space.

Watching a neighbour go up to see how their neighbour lives, a student asking about materials, a builder marvelling at the finishes, a couple speaking in low voices because they are drawing inspiration for their future project, or curious visitors opening the fridge to make sure there is food inside — and that the home that brings such peace is not only a magazine cover… All of that is also architecture.

And opening a home to the public is no trivial act. It is allowing what is intimate to become, for a moment, something shared. And letting home turn into shared culture.

Thank you for opening with us

Thank you to those who make something like this possible: to the selection committee, the volunteers, the curious visitors, those who came without knowing the story and left wanting to learn more.

And, above all, thank you to the owners of Casa Borgoña: for trusting us, for living their home with such love, and for opening it with such generosity.

Because an open city is a more alive city, a more human one. And that weekend, Murcia was just that.

We like to think that, on that day, the city was a little more ours. And we, a little more its.