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Today's Date 01/07/26
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20260107

20260107

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Humanity in Architecture Film Festival

Saturday, January 31, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Event Series (See All)

Hosted in collaboration with Architecture & Design Film Festival

a weekend of films, conversations, and more celebrating architecture’s impact on people and communities

Join us for a weekend of films exploring the built environment’s power to enrich our human experience and to remind us of our capacity to create positive change in the world.

Our opening night premiere of Søren Pihlmann: Make Materials Matter will be followed by a dialogue between Pihlmann and Grace Farms CEO and Founder Sharon Prince, alongside Kyle Bergman, Festival Director & Founder of Architecture & Design Film Festival, and Toshihiro Oki, Grace Farms Architecture Advisor.

On Saturday, enjoy a full day of films and curated activities amplifying our longstanding belief that architecture moves us and inspires us to address the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time.

This year’s films have been curated by co-Festival Directors Kyle Bergman and Toshihiro Oki. The special partnership between the two organizations is grounded in the spirit of bringing the worlds of films, architecture and community together in a setting for creating new discussions and outcomes.

Special thanks to New York Botanical Garden.

 

Film Schedules

Friday, January 30

Søren Pihlmann: Make Materials Matter (6 – 8 pm)
54 min | Directors: Marc-Christoph Wagner and Simon Weyhe
Featuring the premiere of Dancing Trees — a short film about new seating in Grace Farms’ Plaza designed by Kazuyo Sejima & Associates for our 10-Year Celebration — followed by a screening of Søren Pihlmann: Make Materials Matter and a conversation about the film with Søren Pihlmann and Grace Farms CEO & Founder Sharon Prince.

AIA & SARA CES 1 LU Pending.

 

Saturday, January 31

Bawa’s Garden (10:45 am – 12:30 pm)
89 min | Director: Clara Kraft Isono
Followed by a Q&A with Director Clara Kraft Isono and Kyle Bergman, ADFF Founder and Director

If You Build It (11 am – 12:30 pm)
85 min | Director: Patrick Creadon

Gateways to New York (11:15 am – 12:45 pm)
88 min | Director: Martin Witz

James Hubbell: Between Heaven and Earth (1:15 – 2:30 pm)
66 min | Directors: Marianne Gerdes & Michael Gerdes
Followed by a Q&A with Director Marianne Gerdes, Drew Hubbell, Architect, Principal of Hubbell & Hubbell Architects, and Kyle Bergman, ADFF Founder and Director

Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz (1:30 – 2:45 pm)
55 min | Directors: Francesca Molteni & Mattia Colombo
Followed by a Q&A with Todd Forrest, Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at the New York Botanical Garden and Toshihiro Oki, Grace Farms Architecture Advisor

Integral Man (1:45 – 2:50 pm)
62 min | Director: Joseph Clement

The Promise. Architect BV Doshi (3:15 – 4:45 pm)
90 min | Director: Jan Schmidt-Garre

Building on the Edge (3:30 – 5 pm)
73 min | Directors: Mike Scalisi & Bruce Borowsky
Followed by a Q&A with Erick Sommerfeld, Director of Graduate Studies at University of Colorado, Kyle Bergman, ADFF Founder and Director, and Toshihiro Oki, Grace Farms Architecture Advisor

Glen Murcutt: Spirit of Place (3:45 – 4:45 pm)
59 min | Director: Catherine Hunter

Building Bastille! The Tangled and Improbable Story of the Opera Bastille (6 – 7:15 pm)
76 min | Director: Leif Kaldor

Learn more about these films below.

 

More Activities

Film Festival attendees are also invited to join the following drop-in activities on Saturday:

Yoga & Movement with Pilin Anice (10:30 – 12 pm)
Experience movement and music during this breath-centered yoga practice with renowned mindfulness and wellness expert, Pilin Anice. Accessible for all levels. Participants may bring their own mats, towels, props, and water.

Rest House Design Charrette (1 – 2 pm)
Learn about the ideas behind the Rest House Project that Grace Farms is developing with Slade Architecture and explore concepts of designing spaces for rest, gathering, and wellness. Open to all abilities. AIA & SARA CES 1 LU | HSW Pending

Winter Strolls (12 – 12:30 pm & 2 – 2:30 pm)
Notice nature as seasons change with a guided winter walk in the landscape at Grace Farms. Connect with the purpose of the ecosystems we inhabit, the vibrant life that’s a part of it, and our role in maintaining and adding to it.

Details

Date:
Saturday, January 31
Time:
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Series:
Humanity in Architecture Film Festival 2026
Event Categories:
Location:
Grace Farms, CT

Ticket Prices

$15 - $20 per film
$10 parking pass
Purchase Tickets
Purchase Tickets

Learn more about the Films

Make Materials Matter

2025, 54 minutes | Directors: Marc-Christoph Wagner and Simon Weyhe

The global construction industry is a major consumer of natural resources and a leading contributor to carbon emissions, too often favoring demolition over the creative potential of what already exists. Danish architect Søren Pihlmann offers a distinct approach to building through material reuse, most notably in his renovation of the Danish Pavilion for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, where the structure itself became an exhibition shaped by its existing materials.

Bawa's Garden

2022, 89 minutes | Director: Clara Kraft Isono

Bawa’s Garden is a road movie in search of the work of renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The film follows a protagonist scouring the island for the "lost" garden of Lunuganga. While finding the treasure may be the goal, the journey becomes a catalyst for encounters with a series of characters and rarely seen buildings that illuminate Bawa’s life and work.

If You Build It

2013, 85 minutes | Director: Patrick Creadon

If You Build It follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town, but their own sense of what's possible.

Gateways to New York

2018, 88 minutes | Director: Martin Witz

Gateways to New York chronicles the extraordinary career of Swiss structural engineer Othmar H. Ammann, who emigrated to New York in 1904 and transformed the skyline with groundbreaking bridge designs. His legacy includes the George Washington Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, and the Verrazano-Narrows. Ammann’s work defined the modern American bridge — and the century that shaped it.

James Hubbell: Between Heaven and Earth

2019, 66 minutes | Directors: Marianne Gerdes & Michael Gerdes

James Hubbell has spent a lifetime in dialogue with the world, using art and architecture to give form to his beliefs. Living in harmony with nature at his Southern California mountain home, Hubbell has created exquisite works commissioned for churches, synagogues, parks — even a palace. Melding tile, glass, iron, clay, and stone into unified expressions, he transforms every element — from door handles to rooftops — into art.

Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz

2024, 55 minutes | Directors: Francesca Molteni, Mattia Colombo

This documentary explores the revolutionary green architecture of Emilio Ambasz, a pioneer in the dialogue between built environments and nature. For over four decades, Ambasz has reimagined how architecture can be emotionally resonant and ecologically sustainable.

Integral Man

2016, 62 minutes | Director: Joseph Clement

Mathematician Jim Stewart, one of the most published in the world, spent a decade designing Integral House — a Toronto home that reflects his twin obsessions: curves and music. A masterpiece of architecture, the house features fluid wooden forms and dramatic acoustics, earning acclaim as one of Toronto’s best performance spaces. Integral Man, Joseph Clement’s debut film, is a meditative portrait of Stewart’s passions, pairing exquisite visuals and sound with the story of a life lived through beauty and intellect.

The Promise. Architect BV Doshi

2023, 90 minutes | Director: Jan Schmidt-Garre

The Promise honors the late B.V. Doshi, one of modern architecture’s most revered figures. Known for his captivating designs and deeply humanist philosophy, Doshi’s legacy extends beyond buildings — it lives in the countless lives he touched through teaching, collaboration, and generosity. This documentary is a moving tribute to a master whose vision continues to shape the future of architecture.

Building on the Edge

2025, 73 minutes | Directors: Mike Scalisi and Bruce Borowsky

Few architects ever have the chance to design buildings for one of the most extreme environments on Earth — Antarctica. Building on the Edge tells the story of one such group of designers. When scientists at NOAA grew frustrated by the poor design quality available within strict government budgets, they took an unconventional leap: they invited the University of Colorado’s Master of Architecture Design/Build class to take on the challenge.

Glen Murcutt: Spirit of Place

2017, 59 minutes | Director: Catherine Hunter

Glenn Murcutt: Spirit of Place explores the life and legacy of Australia’s most celebrated living architect. Winner of the Pritzker Prize, Murcutt has crafted a globally influential body of work — without ever building outside of Australia. Known for energy-efficient designs in harmony with their environment, Murcutt’s buildings are models of sustainability and beauty. Now in his 80s, he takes on his most ambitious project yet: designing a mosque for a Muslim community in Melbourne.

Building Bastille! The Tangled and Improbable Story of the Opera Bastille

2021, 76 minutes | Director: Leif Kaldor

A half-billion dollar project. A crushing architectural challenge. An impossible deadline. Two political adversaries — and a blind competition. What could go wrong? Set in 1982, Building Bastille! recounts the improbable tale of how a little-known Canadian architect, Carlos Ott, won the commission to build Paris’s new opera house — thanks to a blind submission mistaken for a design by Richard Meier. Drama erupts when right-wing Prime Minister Jacques Chirac halts the project, clashing with Socialist President Mitterrand. But, as with all French politics, things are never as they seem. A comedic and dramatic saga, this documentary tells one of modern architecture’s most unlikely success stories.

 

 

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We all build
2025-2026 season

Our 10 Year Season offers a full schedule of programming intentionally rooted in the theme, We all build. What we choose to build — and how we design and build it — are questions explored at Grace Farms and through our Design for Freedom movement. This season offers unforgettable experiences including one-of-a-kind concerts, nature workshops, wellness tea retreats, and programs spotlighting world-renowned leaders, prolific thinkers, and thought-provoking creatives—inviting people of all ages to come to Grace Farms and consider their individual and collective power to build a better world.

 

Lead 2025-2026 Season Sponsor

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Related Events

Grace Farms is located at 365 Lukes Wood Road, New Canaan, CT 06840.

On-site parking is not guaranteed. Guests may be directed to designated off-site parking, where complimentary shuttle service will be provided.

Tickets for Grace Farms performances are available exclusively through gracefarms.org. Grace Farms does not authorize the sale or resale of tickets through any third-party websites or vendors. Tickets purchased elsewhere are not guaranteed to be valid and may be refused entry.

Members enjoy discounts on programs. Learn more about membership.
Students ages 13 and older who are currently enrolled in a school or educational program are eligible for discounted tickets to select events.
Children 12 and under may qualify for special child pricing when available.

© 2017-2025 Grace Farms Foundation

nature. arts. justice. community. faith.

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