“This year’s OPEN HOUSE DUBLIN will reveal spaces and places that are rarely accessible to the public, as well as celebrating all that’s good about Irish architecture,” explains Nathalie Weadick, Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation, of the event that will take place over the weekend of October 14. Not just for architecture pros, it’s a chance to be inspired and to see where and how others live and work.

The Belgian Ambassador’s Residence, Dublin 4

Normally reserved for official receptions and consular occasions, the BELGIAN AMBASSADOR’S RESIDENCE, 44-46 Ailesbury Mews, is a good example of how two Victorian semi-detached houses (originally called Leighton and Olney), bought by the Belgian government in 1950 and 1967, have been combined. The original houses belonged to John Boyd Dunlop, who invented the rubber tyre after watching his son struggling with an uncomfortable tricyle with wooden wheels.

DEERFIELD, the official residence of Claire D Cronin, the American ambassador to Ireland, will also open to the public. The grand 18th-century building in Phoenix Park has been extensively renovated. The lower ground floor includes a library and ballroom, while upstairs there are six suites, in which presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Clinton have stayed.

More modest properties also feature – from 9/9a Aungier Street, believed to be the oldest home in Dublin city at 350 years old, to FERN COTTAGE, an early 19th-century “workman’s cottage” at Lower Road, Shankill, Dublin 18, renovated by David Shannon who added an extension to make it a family home.

Fern Cottage, Dublin 18

McCullough Mulvin Architects’ elegant project at 1A LEESON PLACE, Dublin 2 shows how a mews building was refurbished and extended to bring the light through the rear of the building.

Architect Declan Scullion’s renovation of an existing Victorian terraced house at VAVASOUR SQUARE in Sandymount exploits its south-facing aspect with the addition of a family room and bedroom.

At 75 MOUNT PROSPECT AVENUE, Clontarf, Shane Cotter’s renovation of a 1930s semi-detached house, re-ordered a hotch-potch of extensions and underutilised space with a new concrete frame, courtyard, landscaping and renewable heating system.

THE BIG DEBATE at The Science Gallery, Naughton Institute, Trinity College, will consider in the debate what the future holds for Dublin’s built environment. Hosted by architect Róisín Murphy, other participants include Francis Doherty of Peter McVerry Trust, poet Hazel Hogan, documentary producer Geoff Power, and architect Valerie Mulvin. This panel will tackle the topics of housing, dereliction, and how we can make the city more open, accessible and equitable. The Site-Specific Film Series is a programme of 17 short documentaries exploring the personalities, processes, complexity, creativity and transformative impact that surround the act of designed space.

HOUSING UNLOCKED is an exhibition which asks if repurposing empty churches, vacant shop units and closed banks is the answer to the housing crisis.

www.openhousedublin.com