From 3 to 5 October, Open House Naples 2025 returns for its seventh edition. The initiative, part of the international Open House Worldwide network (present in 4 continents and over 50 cities, including Rome, Turin, Milan and Naples), exceptionally opens iconic buildings and places in the city that are normally inaccessible to the public: private residences, historical and contemporary architecture, infrastructure and professional studios invite visitors to immerse themselves in the stratification of languages that have built the urban identity of Naples over time. The current edition offers a broader view beyond the historic centre, involving both ongoing urban transformations and spaces normally excluded from the official architectural narrative. Necessarily limiting the narrative framework, we have selected six unmissable locations built during the 20th century: from private residences, including Art Nouveau gems and modernist experiments, to institutional architecture inspired by monumental rationalism, to works that, since the second half of the century, have attempted to push Naples onto a global metropolitan stage, combining enlightened entrepreneurship and vertical city planning.
Open House Naples: 7 must-see architectural masterpieces this weekend
Rediscover Luigi Cosenza, admire Kenzō Tange and Gio Ponti: from October 3 to 5, 2025, the city of Naples opens the doors to its rich architectural heritage — often inaccessible — spanning iconic works and lesser-known “gems.”
Photo Giuseppe Albano from Wikipedia
Photo Pinotto 992 from Wikipedia
Photo Argo Navis from Wikipedia
Foto courtesy Open House Napoli
Photo Paolo Monti, from Fondo Paolo Monti, owned by BEIC and situated at Civico Archivio Fotografico di Milano. From Wikipedia
Photo DimiTalen from Wikipedia
Photo Baku from Wikipedia
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- Chiara Testoni
- 01 October 2025
Opening image: Photo Paolo Monti, from Fondo Paolo Monti, owned by BEIC and located at the Civic Photographic Archive in Milan. From Wikipedia
Il Vomero, which became a middle-class neighbourhood beloved by Neapolitans in the early 1900s for its panoramic views and healthy climate, is home to some of the most prestigious examples of Neapolitan Art Nouveau architecture: among these, there is villino Frenna-Scognamiglio (villa Castello-Piccoli), a clear example of late Art Nouveau that looks like a small fort with a rusticated base, stucco work and reliefs.
Located on a narrow, elongated plot, the villa nestles into the articulated terrain of the site, extending over three levels and embracing the panorama of the gulf with its layout. The building has a tuff base with services, an intermediate level for representative rooms and an upper level for the sleeping area, consisting of interconnected white volumes featuring Cosenza's characteristic stereometric and anti-rhetorical geometric vocabulary. The interior space was extensively transformed when it was divided into apartments in the 1960s.
The last intervention in the Rione Carità “Fascist directional centre” is an imposing and monumental work, despite the fact that the project was never fully completed. The parallelepiped building has seven floors and a rigorous geometry, marked by a tight arrangement of pillars and openings and rhythmed by the two-tone colour scheme of the façades. While the upper floors have undergone extensive transformations, the first floor retains its original identity, evident in the period furnishings, lighting fixtures and finishes.
Gio Ponti's time in Naples is linked to the entrepreneur Roberto Fernandes, who commissioned him to design the Parco dei Principi hotel in Sorrento and the Royal Hotel in Naples. Today, the hotel's interiors, which include a swimming pool, still preserve Ponti's legacy. This is evident in the lobby, rooms and dining area, where a strong focus is placed on the differentiation of wood types, each designed for a specific environment. Following the site's renovation from 1999 to 2004, the 'Piano Ponti' project was launched in 2012, transforming the Royal into a hotel-museum with original furnishings, including a Junior Suite encapsulating 1950s design.
The work of an "enlightened" entrepreneur who combined productivity with corporate welfare, the Olivetti industrial complex near Pozzuoli consists of several factory buildings, to which new constructions have been added over the years, but in keeping with the original layout. The complex was designed to respect the local topography and in harmony with the surrounding environment, so as to facilitate the connection between architecture and nature and allow natural light to flood into the workspaces. An essential part of the project is the design of the green spaces, laid out with lawns, gardens and ponds by Pietro Porcinai. With Olivetti now gone, the complex today houses private offices and research institutions.
NH Napoli Panorama is located in Naples' first skyscraper, built in 1957 to house the headquarters of Società Cattolica Assicurazione di Verona and designed by the first woman architect to graduate in the city. Due to the significant changes that the project underwent during construction, many of the solutions were compromised, but the building remains an icon of modernity in the urban skyline and a breathtaking viewpoint over the gulf.
The project for the administrative, business and residential centre, which is one of the first and largest clusters of skyscrapers in southern Europe, was launched in 1982 based on a master plan by Kenzō Tange and completed in 1995 with skyscrapers and buildings arranged on either side of the large central road axis, and designed by prestigious architects (from Renzo Piano for the Olivetti headquarters to Massimo Pica Ciamarra for the Enel Towers).