Produced by B21 – Building 21

Produced by Building 21

Projects & Partnerships

We host special long-term projects that run alongside the BLUE Fellowship. Conceptualised, designed, and built at Building 21.

The Future of Cities (2022 - Current)

Reimagining cities that maintain the good. Led by Nakiya Noorbhai.

Radical Futures (2019 - 2023)

A desire to re-invent how we interact with the future. Multi-part project spanning 4 cohorts.

Poetry and VR: “Scène de la Mer” (2023)

A brief, atmospheric poetry experience in French and English, created by scholars at McGill's Building 21.

The "Matterless Matters" Talks (2022 - 2023)

There are some questions that sound pointless, but aren’t. In the Matterless Matters talks, the answers don’t matter very much – but the questions, surprisingly, do.

The "I'm Not Sure" Talks (2022 - 2023)

What is beauty? What is knowledge? Are there limits to human understanding? Can a machine create moving poetry?

EDUHACK Nigeria (2022)

An Educational Hackathon to support transformational ideas in education

Virtual Open House (2022)

Created as part of a summer research project at McGill's Building 21: "Foundations of a Better World"

Poetry and VR: Ollivier Dyens & John Mac Master (2021)

What are poetry and literature when transformed and modified by technology?

Letters From the Future (2020)

Letters from the Future are archeological fragments of a time to come. The future is like quantum theory, all possibilities existing simultaneously until one collapses into an event. These fragments are both.

The BLUE Magazines (2018-2019)

A review of the Summer '18 & '19 BLUE Programs and scholars' projects, produced by Rebecca Brosseau

Podcast

Check out our podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

McGill's Building 21: Thinking beyond the acknowledged, the recognized and the comfortable

Speaker Series

We invite a diverse range of people at the forefront to engage with our community and enrich their pursuits.

Check out the full playlist on YouTube.

Dr. David M. Peña-Guzmán: When Animals Dream

Betty Edwards: Learning to Draw for Thinking's Sake

Artist Karen Tam: Eating Gold Mountain Dreams

Author Alexander Weinstein: Creative Writing Workshop

Professor Paula Williams: The Psychology of Awe

Professor Darryl Haggard: Observing Black Holes

Michael Lapsley: Founder of the Institute for Healing of Memories

Prof. Michael Levin: Planarians and Intentionality

Professor Leah Price, Author & Book Historian

Francesca Panetta, Creative Director at the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality

Professor Angus Fletcher: The Brain and Narratives, The Limits of AI

Professor Paul Yachnin: "What did we do right?"

David Krakauer: President of the Santa Fe Institute

Professor Frédéric Gilbert: The Ethics of Implantable Brain-Computer Interfaces

Refik Anadol, Media Artist & Director

Azeem Azhar, Founder of Exponential View

In the News

Read about Building 21's features in the news.

Ôde à la créativité en milieu académique

Le Délit, 2024

Research by Darius Valevicius, a Building 21 alumnus, covered by the Guardian

The Guardian, 2023

Repenser le monde avec Building 21 et Ollivier Dyens

Mon Carnet, 2023

We need boldness and daring in our education system

University Affairs, 2023

Building 21: Make zines, not research papers

Culture Days, 2020

Building 21: An innovative space for academic play

McGill University News and Events, 2019

Introducing Building 21, a building with no structure

The Tribune, 2017