On a late Friday afternoon in May, a few hundred Tel Avivis gathered in front of the Suskin House, a meticulously renovated Bauhaus apartment building a short stroll from the city’s posh Neve Tzedek district. Waiting patiently to view the interior, both the crowd’s size and its rather un-Israeli sense of decorum were impressive. There was no jumping of the queue, no raising of voices and, once everyone was inside, no rushing around. This was an open house but without any estate agent pressure to buy or sell. The ­property owners – an artist and a graphic designer – just wanted to share the beauty of their private spaces with a broader public. So they made Suskin House available to tour as part of Tel Aviv’s first Open House.

This is the latest in a growing collection of such events not only in small, historic towns around the world but also in some of its biggest cities.