The Challenge: Our Future

The Challenge: Our Future – A Film About the Architecture of Civilization

In 2008, we attended our first Living Future Unconference in our hometown of Vancouver, BC. Billed as a hub for the deepest ecological thinkers in design, the event centered around The Living Building Challenge—the most ambitious and rigorous green building standard on the planet. Ballrooms full of architects and engineers had a lot to say about society, not just buildings. They weren’t simply talking about energy efficiency; they were dissecting the crises of our time—climate change, deforestation, toxic pollution, economic instability, and the historical role of women in sustainability movements.
It became clear that architecture was being considered, but on a scale far beyond individual structures—it was about civilization itself.
This conversation was critical, because the built environment is a primary driver of those crises. Buildings are responsible for 39% of all CO2 emissions in the United States, 40% of its total energy consumption, and 14% of its water use. And that’s just within their walls—factor in the sprawl-induced transportation emissions from car-dependent cities, and the numbers climb even higher.

Year after year, we returned to the conference, drawn in by the urgency of these discussions. These were not just theorists; they were practitioners articulating radical redesigns of the systems shaping our world– and actually building them! As filmmakers, we were drawn to the idea that the built environment is a manifestation of ideology—our cities, highways, and infrastructures are cultural artifacts, both shaping and reinforcing social structures.

A stark example is Robert Moses’ Cross Bronx Expressway, lauded - and much reproduced- in its time as a ‘happy motoring’ marvel, now an undeniable case study in Regional Sacrifice Zones and environmental racism. The long-term costs of these decisions are quantifiable—just as our built environment consumes vast amounts of resources, they asymmetrically shape the determinants of health across our societies. This can be measured today, coldly, in health outcomes & life expectancy, as well as incarceration rates.

A Film About Our Home in the World
As we set out to make a film about the architecture of civilization, it quickly became The Story of Everything. We struggled to shoehorn it into a familiar structure of an “eco-documentary.” Every attempt to reduce the complexity dulled its impact. Instead, we chose to embrace the film’s natural shape, prioritizing the most compellingly human insights and leaving some frayed edges—questions for the audience to explore further.

Jason McLennan frames this moment in biological terms: Zugunruhe, the migratory restlessness seen in animals sensing imminent change. As conditions shift, a collective decision emerges—action or extinction. Our survival, like theirs, depends on recognizing the cues and choosing the right path.

At its core, the film interrogates how we arrived at this moment of ecological poly-crisis. Guided by Jason McLennan, creator of The Living Building Challenge, we explore both the philosophy and practical solutions of regenerative design—where buildings generate their own energy, purify water, and enhance their environments rather than degrade them. Unlike mainstream sustainability efforts focused on being less bad, regenerative design asks: What does good look like? Instead of "green" systems based upon third party measurement of how 'less bad' a building can be, Regenerative Design prioritizes what measurable good can be achieved.

The Wolf at the Door
Voices like Vandana Shiva pierce through with robust clarity: “the convergence of Patriarchy and Capitalism...” lay the foundation for our current socio/ ecological crisis, by redefining “destruction as creativity”. In less than 30 seconds, Shiva teases out one of the central arteries of the beast created by our civilization. While we have to move along with our story, we cannot afford to leave Shiva’s comment on the cutting room floor on the pretext that we are making a film about green buildings. Solar panels alone will not save us.

In the logic of capitalism, the ecological revolution is just another market trend, co-opted and commodified. The mainstream environmental movement often serves industry more than the planet, offering solutions shaped more by advertising memos than independent science.

The film rejects the trope of the omniscient (likey male) narrator - scripted by us, the filmmakers. We instead amplify the voices of revolutionary thinkers like David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva, Paul Hawken, Janine Benyus, Sim Van der Ryn, James Howard Kunstler, Majora Carter, Denis Hayes, and others. Our goal was to pass the mic, letting the movement’s most powerful voices speak for themselves- and to arrange a flow of ideas in a unique and captivating way in order to engage audiences on a more visceral level.

This is story about civilization, about crisis and regeneration. A story of our history, our present, and our future.

D&T