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, the forthcoming documentary conceived by Francesco Garutti and directed by Joshua Frank, follows bplus.xyz (b+) and station.plus (s+) as they establish a policy lab, HouseEurope!, to propose industry reforms and shift cultural norms. To Build Law 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 practice.

b+ is a collaborative architecture practice that evolved from the eponymous studio of Arno Brandlhuber. With additional partners Olaf Grawert, Jonas Janke, and Roberta Jurčić, the office rebranded as a statement of collective thinking. Together with political scientists, writers, economists, filmmakers, lawyers, artists, students at station.plus (Institute for Design at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich), and other collaborators, b+ works toward the social and ecological transformation of the built environment.

Curator: Francesco Garutti
Curatorial Assistant: Irene Chin
Research: Matthew Kalil
Graphic design: HIT
Design development: Sébastien Larivière, Anh Truong
Films directed by Joshua Frank