"It's really a celebration of citizenship, and the best way to express that is through our built environment," says Anne McChlery, director of the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust.

Now in its 19th year, for the first time Glasgow's Doors Open Day is a fully-fledged festival, with a week's worth of walks, talks and tours culminating in more than 135 buildings opening to the public at the weekend.

Among the buildings being seen for the first time in years is Blairtummock House in Easterhouse. Long before it was a suburb stigmatised with a bad image, Easterhouse was a desirable rural spot for people to build their homes in. Instead of the busy M8 connecting Edinburgh and Glasgow, there was the Monkland Canal, which was used to transport coal and ran past the bottom of Blairtummock House's garden. This impressive building, which has been extended many times, was once the home of Glasgow Vet School founder James McCall and is the only surviving country house in the area. Simpson & Brown Architects have been busy turning it into a venue that houses office spaces and public rooms.

"They got oral histories from people who used to have a family connection to the building, who had old photographs that they dusted off from the 1900s, so it took great meticulous care and attention to put things back to pretty much the way they were," says McChlery.

Also of historical interest is a quirky find nestled in Bell Street. From a time when the municipal authorities rode stallions instead of Jaguars, people will be able to take a tour of a multi-storey horse stable that now lies derelict but intact.

Over in Yorkhill, Glasgow Steiner School, an 1876 B-listed building designed by the Scottish architect JJ Burnet, is sure to attract its fair share of visitors. "It's one of those fantastic buildings that you pass in Glasgow and just take for granted," says McChlery. "Part of (the inside] is to do with the Steiner educational ethos, which is about circularity and natural things, quite a gentle approach to growing up. This physically represents itself in the school in the colours they've painted it, which are very soft and muted."

In sharp contrast to the traditional Steiner building is the stunning new Hazelwood School. Located in the city's south side, the fluid, swerving structure makes for a cutting-edge, eye-catching design that has already bagged a Civic Trust Award and is gaining recognition on the international stage with a nomination for a World Architecture Festival Award. Completed last year, the building was specially designed as a learning environment for children with sensory impairments, and this will be the first time that the public will get the chance to experience it.

Glasgow's Doors Open Day runs from September 15-21 www.glasgowdoorsopenday.com