Featured artwork generously provided by Cosmodernism, Seeing Into The Unknown, Artificial Life Environment, Jules Roze.
A lab for beautiful and daring explorations
See who we areEnabling students to pursue bold questions
Discover our scholarsHelp us take our mission to the next level
Get involved$700 000
Grant funding provided to scholars
180
Undergraduate and graduate students who pursued a project at B21
43
Different disciplines at Building 21
849
Events held gathering scholars all over McGill and beyond
Since 2017, hundreds of scholars all over McGill have come to Building 21 in pursuit of ideas they can't explore elsewhere.
180+
Scholars who pursued a project at B21
$600 000+
Funding for projects and programs at B21
40+
Different disciplines of scholars
900+
Events held gathering scholars of all backgrounds
Who we are
Leading scholars across disciplines to bring unconventional ideas to life.
Learn about our mission
For the sake of discovery
Projects at Building 21 are pursued for the sake of discovery. There are no credits, no grades, no evaluations. Only the pursuit of knowledge.
Safe haven for original ideas
We give scholars no-strings-attached resources to facilitate their exploration. Scholars collaborate to advance the most unconventional ideas.
A community of explorers
We run cohort-based programs that connect the most curious seekers to a tight-knit community. We offer structure, mentorship, and networks.
Our alumni are pushing the boundaries of knowledge and creativity at these institutions
"
B21 showed me what obtaining a university education is all about: exploration, collaboration, and challenge.
Vincent Van Duong
BS Math & Physics, McGill University
Part III, University of Cambridge
PhD Candidate Physics, NYU
Part III, University of Cambridge
PhD Candidate Physics, NYU
What's On
Come experience Building 21 yourself at 651 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal.
See upcoming events
Scholars
We’ve supported hundreds of McGill undergraduate, Master's, and PhD students across all disciplines in their exploration.
Discover
From idea to impact
Kat Kavanagh developed the ideas for a citizen science non-profit at B21 that now monitors over 5,000 waterbodies across Canada and has trained over 25,000 Canadians on how to conduct water quality tests.
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Enabling new paths
Rasha Lama initiated a series of spatial sustainability projects at B21, unrelated to her commerce degree, which led to receiving a graduate scholarship in Landscape Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design.
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Fostering creation
Yigu Zhou built a prototype of a Brain-Computer Interface with the NeuroTech community at B21 and is now a MD-PhD student at McGill studying epilepsy at the Montreal Neurological Institute.
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Programs
Building 21 offers multiple programs for scholars to create new knowledge wherever they seek.
Learn more
Special Guests
We invite a diverse range of people at the forefront to engage with our community and enrich their pursuits.
Learn more about our faculty and visitors
Events
Our community hosts a variety of events at our space.
Discover
Lightning ⚡
Tuesdays, 12 - 2pm; Fridays, 3-5pm
Eclectic idea sharing with crowd-sourced critique from the interdisciplinary community.
Contact
Creative Arts & Tech Lab (CATLAB)
Tuesdays, 5 - 8pm
Bringing together artists and creators of different traditional and digital disciplines every Tuesday evening.
Contact
McGill Neurotech
Pending
Creating brain-computer interface (BCI) applications from start to finish with a yearly team.
Contact
ENCODE Justice Canada
Event-based
AI Ethics and Policy. Fighting for human rights accountability and justice in the age of AI
Contact"
"B21 is rigorous and free, radical and welcoming, at once wildly exploratory and close to home."
Isabella Chiaravallotti
PhD Plant Science, McGill University
Join us
We’re always looking for brilliant scholars and organizations to advance our mission.
Get involved
