Concept for the series

The documentary series examines architects such as Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, William McDonough etc. and the key figures behind creating some of the world’s most beautiful and groundbreaking low carbon contemporary buildings. Subtly observed and photographed this unique series, fuses imagery, music and poetically articulated interviews to illustrate the thought processes behind creating these unique structures. Nature and construction merge to show that a balance can be struck between the natural world and our own for the good of our planet. This series is not just about architecture, its intention is also to send out a positive message about the way we are ‘Building Green’ to better understand our environment, humanity and how we can exist in balance with the natural world .

Sample Episode – The Enterprise Centre - Norwich

In this programme we examine contemporary low carbon architecture and through this concept we are given extraordinary access to UK’s greenest building ‘The Enterprise Centre’ in East Anglia. This multi-million pound pioneering construction encompasses the most innovative use of natural materials and approaches to low carbon construction. On the cutting edge of sustainable technology, innovation and design this project isn’t just a building with green credentials but a paradigm shift in the way sustainable architecture is conceived and executed.

Lead by visionary CEO John French of the Adapt Low Carbon Group and architect Ben Humphries, we explore the natural materials and the industries that are resourcing timber, straw and reed which are utilised in a unique 21st century fashion creating an “almost nil carbon building”. We meet the scientists of the University of East Anglia’s biotechnology and bioscience departments whose work on The Enterprise Centre, an exemplar building, is shaping eco construction and challenging the way we conceive buildings in the future.

We explore how the multi-pronged approach; that includes low-energy building design, renewable energy sources, good energy management and behavioural change develop in the context of the buildings evolution. We investigate how the project has been designed to address a historically low level of start-ups companies in Norfolk and Suffolk. We will follow some of the 500 businesses and more than 250 jobs that the project is creating.

From the grand ambitions to create a carbon neutral building from locally sourced materials, creating eco-industries in its wake, to the architect Ben Humphries who has an ecological agenda to business and the CEO John French whose dedication, commitment and passion holds no bounds, to such an extent that he is building his own low carbon home from scratch on the Orkney islands. This is a beautifully realised landmark project.

Episode Conclusion

This documentary will visually capture the time and place of the subject and bring it to life combining beautifully imagery, interviews from key contributors and experts who are working together to realise this challenging but environmentally important project.

Unique and poetic in its visualisation, it will juxtapose how the natural elements organically grow in the surrounding countryside with how they are used to form the fabric of a unique environmentally significant building.

Series Conclusion

This documentary series captures a unique renaissance in architecture and construction through insightful organisations that are not looking to the past but to the future in order to evolve. This series captures a fascinating time for a unique industry and its collaborators, making a unique series, reminiscent of the documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings whose acclaimed films beautifully evoked everyday heroism; combining poetic observation and humanism with a subtle yet intense feeling that was very personal to each viewer.