If you fancy spending the weekend marvelling at some amazing feats of architecture, then we’ve got just the event for you. Open House is throwing open the doors of hundreds of London buildings on Saturday and Sunday, in the capital’s biggest architecture festival.

It’s a chance to get direct access to see some of the city’s best buildings – from eco homes and a Hindu temple to architects’ studios and a yacht club.

There are also  talks, tours, visits, debates and the opportunity to meet some of the people who design, construct and regenerate London. And the good news is all events are free.

Full details can be found here, but in the meantime, here’s our pick of buildings to visit.

Queen’s House
For history-lovers, this one is hard to beat. It was the first purely classical Renaissance building in Britain, reflecting a turning point in English architecture. It was built as the opulent summer villa of Charles I’s queen, Henrietta Maria. Much of the house’s original splendour remains – including the painted ceiling of the queen’s bedchamber and the Tulip Stairs.

The LuxPod
How’s this for ingenious use of space? The LuxPod, described as “a luxury room on the rocket hotel to Mars”, is a fully functional new-build studio flat measuring just nine square metres. Possibly the tiniest living space ever included in an Open House event, the LuxPod is “urban living of the future, perched atop a 19^th century building”. The owners have crammed it full of space saving items to maximise every single millimeter available.

15 and a half Consort Road
Fans of Grand Designs will recognise this one. Not only was it on the show, it was one of six voted as the nation’s favourite Grand Designs’ houses. And that’s not its only accolade – it was also shortlisted for the RIBA (that’s the Royal Institute of British Architects to you and me) Awards in 2006. Unique or unusual features, such as the opening roof (which you can just about see in the picture) and sliding bath, illustrate how constraints were overcome, despite a tight budget and an “unusable” brownfield site.

The Yellow Building
If you fancy a snoop around a commercial building, we’d suggest the Yellow Building – the 15,000 square metre landmark headquarters of fashion company Monsoon Accessorize. It’s a RIBA Award for Architecture winner for 2009, and is simply remarkable to look at. It has a striking top-lit atrium and a dramatic staircase running from top to bottom.

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