Stand almost anywhere in central Ottawa and water is never far away.
The Ottawa River defines the northern edge of the city. The Rideau River cuts through neighbourhoods on its way north. The Gatineau meets the Ottawa just across from the capital, while the Rideau Canal has become one of the city’s most recognizable public spaces.
But these waterways are more than scenery. They helped determine where people travelled, settled, worked and built. They powered industry, moved goods, shaped infrastructure and neighbourhoods, and they continue to influence how residents experience the city today.
That relationship is at the heart of Ottawa Architecture Week 2026, which runs from September 21 to October 2 under the theme Currents of Bytown.
Presented by the Ottawa Regional Society of Architects (ORSA), the annual festival opens architecture and city-building to a wider public through free talks, tours, films, conversations and gatherings around Ottawa.
This year, Bytown’s bicentennial provides the prompt, but not the beginning of the story.
Ottawa is built on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation, whose peoples have lived on and nurtured this territory for millennia. Long before Bytown, the region’s waterways were places of movement, exchange and stewardship.
Currents of Bytown asks what happens when we look at Ottawa through that larger relationship with water.
“Architecture Week is about helping people see Ottawa differently,” says Christopher Moise, Chair of ORSA. “In a bicentennial year, Currents of Bytown gives us an opportunity to look at the city through the waterways that have shaped it, and to ask how those relationships can inform a more thoughtful, connected and resilient Ottawa in the future.”
That question is especially relevant as Ottawa’s waterfronts continue to change. Former industrial and infrastructural edges are becoming parks, pathways, gathering places and new neighbourhoods. Public access to the water has become an increasingly important part of how the capital imagines itself.
A festival that moves across the city
Architecture Week approaches those questions from several directions.
The festival opens on September 21 with an Architecture Trivia Night at Lowertown Brewery, a pub quiz built around architecture, urbanism, Ottawa and this year’s theme. The following evening, OAW Movie Night takes over the ByTowne Cinema with a screening that uses film to explore water, place and the built world.
On September 24, participants can get inside an important piece of the capital’s working infrastructure with a tour of the Cliff Energy Centre, a rare look at the systems that keep downtown Ottawa running.
The conversation continues September 28 with OAW’s annual Panel Discussion at Library and Archives Canada, bringing architecture, landscape, heritage and development perspectives into the same room to consider how water has shaped Ottawa and what should come next.
On September 29, OAW Talks moves to the NCC River House, itself an example of Ottawa’s changing relationship with its waterfront. A fast-paced series of presentations brings creatives together to share projects, observations and ideas about water, architecture, access and ecology.
On October 1, the Carleton University Forum Lecture takes place at the Ottawa Art Gallery, where KPMB Partner Mitchell Hall reflects on architecture’s ability to enrich everyday life and respond to changing communities and institutions.
The festival closes October 2 with the Vernissage at The Warehouse at Zibi, an evening of art, music and community that includes the celebration of the Murray & Murray Prize winners.
Taken together, the events are intended to make architecture less of a specialist conversation and more of a civic one.
What comes next
Water may have helped shape Ottawa, but the question posed by Currents of Bytown is ultimately about the future. How should the city reconnect with its rivers and canal? What histories should be made more visible? How can architecture respond to ecology and a changing climate? And what kind of public spaces do we want along the water’s edge?
Ottawa Architecture Week 2026 runs from September 21 to October 2. All events are open to the public, and program details are subject to update.
Explore the full program and register for events at orsa.ca/oaw.