CELEBRATING COLOMBO’S CREATIVES AT OPEN HOUSE 2026
Colombo, February 19, 2026: Celebrate the city’s vibrant creative population at Open House Colombo. This edition’s theme, Makers’ Spaces and Other Places, invites visitors to step into a range of architectural firms, artists’ studios, and home-based practices rarely open to the public.
This event was originally scheduled for December 2025, but was postponed out of respect for those impacted by Cyclone Ditwah. The March programme is similar to the original schedule, with a few exciting additions.
Hosted by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust over three weekends in March, the festival offers an exciting programme of behind-the-scenes access and special activities. Participants will gain insight into artistic and design processes, from archival practices to contemporary architecture and local craftsmanship. It is also an opportunity for the city’s architects, artists, and creatives to showcase their work and engage with the public through tours, workshops, and informal chats.
This Open House edition decentralises Colombo, showcasing the city’s multifaceted creative landscape. Featuring sites across greater Colombo, the festival celebrates diversity in the production, focus, scale, and methods of the city’s makers, designers, and creatives, from team-based architectural offices to collaborative creative practices to private residential studios. Visitors will be able to contrast and compare across the different sites and are encouraged to consider how the city’s physical, geographical, and social structures shape the practices.
The March programme will run over six days, with each weekend focusing on a different part of the city.
The festival kicks off on Friday, March 6th, with an opening presentation and party at the Geoffrey Bawa Space, home to the Trust’s offices, archives, and gallery. The evening is an opportunity to hear Director of Colombo Urban Lab, Iromi Perera, discuss how public spaces are built and shaped in Colombo, as well as meet and mingle with some of the artists, architects, and creatives who will be opening up their homes and studios.
The programme opens on March 7th and 8th with sites around Colombo. The festival then moves east on March 14th and 15th, with locations around Kotte, Nawala and surrounding areas. March 28th and 29th close out Open House Colombo with studios around the Hokandara and Athurigiriya areas.
With over 25 sites on offer, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the breadth—but by no means the full extent—of creative expression in Colombo. Sites include the rarely opened studios of textile artisans Marie and Marisa Gnanaraj, the lush forest garden of painter and naturalist Channa Ekanayake, the historic buildings of the Maradana College of Technology and University of Visual and Performing Arts, the contemporary residence and office of architect Kosala Weerasekara, as well as many more.
Now in its fourth iteration, Open House Colombo is an official member of Open House Worldwide, a global network of 60 organisations hosting festivals and conversations about architecture, design, and cities. Open House Worldwide engages citizens in learning about local architecture and city building. It fosters understanding about the value of a well-designed city and encourages inhabitants to consider the role they can play in its design and creation, including how architecture addresses environmental, social and economic sustainability.
The Geoffrey Bawa Trust works to promote art, architecture, and ecology in Sri Lanka. By supporting Open House Colombo, the Trust hopes to encourage dialogue about Colombo’s architecture and design community and create awareness about the city as a shared space that can be shaped for and by all its inhabitants.
Registrations are required for all Open House sites. For more information, visit: geoffreybawa.com/open-house-colombo
Discussion about this post