“Welcome, welcome!” the CEO sang in 2011 when BIG (Bjarke Ingles Group) won the architecture competition for a large waste-to-energy plant with a ski slope on top. A camera followed the process of a visionary project that combines waste management and infrastructure with spectacular architecture and a recreational urban space.

The challenges pile up right from the start, along with questions: How do you even combine a waste-to-energy plant with a ski slope? How far is a property developer willing to go? And how much can an architect actually push through when all is said and done?

This ‘cinematic construction site symphony’, follows the main characters from the popping of champagne corks and the vision taking off, to the abrasions from the artificial snow, to the first trip down the black slope.

Director: Rikke Selin Fokdal / Kaspar Astrup Schröder
Year: 2020
Country: Denmark
Duration: 55mins (+ short film Short Tanki – Donkey)

Architecture & Design Film Festival New York – Official Selection

Film Architectura – Official Selection

Melbourne Design Week Film Festival – Official Selection

This specially curated and finely calibrated program explores culture, the built environment and the way people operate in it.

 Built for the big screen, it explores the world of the individuals and societies that have created those environments and the forces that shape them. From renowned architects and designers to the power of economics and global politics, this series of international films dives deeply into the struggle between people and their environment, global forces that shape the way we live and the ongoing dilemma between the built and the natural. 

With all but one title being Western Australian premieres, this series curated by Revelation Film Festival Director, Richard Sowada, includes stunning cinematic explorations of form, urgent social justice, meditative cultural observations and brilliantly told portraits.

These excellent works take audiences on a journey not just through architecture and design but ideas and advocacy that place us at the centre of contemporary thinking.

Behind each form and each element within each form, sits ideas and inspirations that synthesise great social, technological and political change.

At their core, lives inspiration and ambition that embrace maverick and outsider approaches that collide head-on with establishment, deliberately or otherwise.

FDW Film Festival presented by: