Audio-Introduction : Groundwork - To Build Law
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Release Date: 06/23/2025
Audio-Introduction : Groundwork - To Build Law
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
This is an audio-introduction to the exhibition To Build Law, on show at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from 10 December 2024 to 22 May 2025. According to a 2020 report by the UN Environment Programme, the construction industry accounts for at least , operating with narrow methods geared toward profit. Buildings are held as assets, torn down, and redeveloped, with limited consideration of community and environmental impacts. Meanwhile, housing crises escalate. Evidently, a systemic shift in the way we build and value our built environment is urgently needed. To Build...
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Market Landscape: Speaking between Financial Districts and The Planet
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
“Market Landscape” is an investigation into the urban ecologies of two major financial districts: Hong Kong’s Central District and London’s Canary Wharf.
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Off:Re:Onshore, by Victor Muñoz Sanz
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
The audio documentary “Off:Re:OnShore,” by CCA Emerging curator Victor Muñoz Sanz, explores the legacy of industrial offshoring on the built environment of labour.
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“Sustainable?” Part 1: Introduction by Stan Allen/ Iñaki Ábalos
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Stan Allen and Iñaki Ábalos introduce “Sustainable?,” a colloquium and round table intiated by Àbalos to historically situate the issue of sustainability and construct a program for future engagement in architecture.
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“Sustainable?” Part 2: Unprecedented Collaborations, by Michelle Addington
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Michelle Addington introduces multiple contexts from which to re-examine our assumptions about sustainability, in the context of the “Sustainable?” colloquium.
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“Sustainable?” Part 3 : A Quarter Century of Environmentally Conscious Design, by Mahadev Raman
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Mahadev Raman charts his personal experience with the good, the bad, and the ugly of “sustainable” architecture from the 1970s to today, in the context of the “Sustainable?” colloquium.
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“Sustainable?” Part 4: The Reverse Utopianism of Sustaining Sustainability, by Mark Jarzombek
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Mark Jarzombek critiques some of the “procedures” that purport to create a sustainable sustainability, in the context of the “Sustainable?” colloquium.
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“Sustainable?” Part 5: Sustainability—The Shangri-La of Modern Architecture?, by Volker M. Welter
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Volker M. Welter talks about the history of sustainability, between vernacular architecture and modernist iconicity, in the context of the “Sustainable?” colloquium.
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“Sustainable?” Part 6: Integration of Sustainable Development Objectives in Buildings, the Swiss Approach, by Manuel Bauer
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Manuel Bauer discusses the Swiss economy and the idea of a “2000 Watt” society at horizon 2050, in the context of the “Sustainable?” colloquium.
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“Sustainable?” Part 7: Architecture and Sustainability, by Matthias Sauerbruch
Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture
Matthias Sauerbruch speaks on low energy architecture at the Federal Environment Agency building in Dessau, in the context of the “Sustainable?” colloquium.
info_outlineThis is an audio-introduction to the exhibition To Build Law, on show at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from 10 December 2024 to 22 May 2025.
According to a 2020 report by the UN Environment Programme, the construction industry accounts for at least 38 per cent of carbon emissions globally, operating with narrow methods geared toward profit. Buildings are held as assets, torn down, and redeveloped, with limited consideration of community and environmental impacts. Meanwhile, housing crises escalate. Evidently, a systemic shift in the way we build and value our built environment is urgently needed.
To Build Law follows bplus.xyz (b+) and station.plus (s+) as they establish a policy lab, HouseEurope!, to propose industry reforms and shift cultural norms. The film closely observes the b+ team during various phases of conceptualization and development of a European Citizens’ Initiative meant to incentivize renovation over demolition and new construction. Through this bottom-up legal tool, architecture becomes an open process of establishing partners, drafting legislation, filming stories, strategizing communications, coordinating campaigns, collecting votes, and building a movement.
To Build Law is the second chapter of Groundwork, a three-part film and exhibition series exploring the conceptual development and field research of contemporary architects cultivating alternative modes of engagement with new project sites.