What's Next
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After 9 years being hosted at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, B21 is searching for what’s next
We know one thing here at Building 21: The most important discoveries of the coming decades will not emerge from well-defined problems. They will come from the margins, from ideas that seem improbable, impractical, even absurd.
History shows that the most transformative ideas rarely emerge from tightly structured, results-driven environments. They come from spaces that prioritize unrestricted exploration:
- Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study
Philosophy: Intellectual freedom without formal requirements
Result: Foundations of modern computing and theoretical physics
- MIT Media Lab
Philosophy: Anti-disciplinary experimentation
Result: Breakthroughs in human-computer interaction, including e-ink and touchscreens
- Bell Labs
Philosophy: Engineered collision; designing environments for unexpected encounters
Result: The transistor, Unix, and satellite communications
Building 21 follows this lineage: a space where unstructured curiosity becomes structured impact. To support Building 21 is to stand, however briefly, at the edge of what we know, and to choose not to turn away.
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"Building 21 at McGill represents something increasingly rare in academia..."
About The B21 Model
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B21's 'Idea Lab' model has proven to be strangely successful at the university scholar level
For 9 years, the ‘idea laboratory’ model that we have built has seen over 300+ scholars—from all levels of study, across 52 academic disciplines—pursue interdisciplinary research projects and collaborations otherwise near-impossible within traditional university structures.
By trusting young minds and bringing together world-class artists, researchers, executives, educators, authors, we have stumbled upon a model that not only works, but has created the conditions for unlikely paradigms, new inventions, accidental discoveries to emerge.
This is the mission behind Building 21: interdisciplinarity in practice that redefines education for our century. Since 2017, Building 21 has developed and ran a unique interdisciplinary cohort-based fellowship—with no credits or grades—in which scholars from all faculties and schools at McGill, of all degree programs from undergrad to PhD to postdoctoral, converge to pursue research projects as part of the Beautiful, Limitless, Unconstrained Exploration (BLUE) fellowship.
This model has been rigorously tested and it is now time to grow.
We envision a Building 21 that functions like The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Santa Fe Institute (SFI), The Perimeter Institute, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity where the brightest thinkers are pulled towards a gravitional centre and then push outwards to create outsized impact in the world—à la B21's ethos & the city of Montreal's touch.
Here are ways we could build atop this model
- Alternative Sandbox for Entrepreneurs Model | Expanding our fellowship program to Montréal's entrepreneur scene
- Rogue Thinkers-in-Residence Model | Inviting world-leading researchers, thinkers, artists, leaders, practioners for mini-residencies to think alongside and create with the fellowship cohort
- International Franchise Model | Enabling formal 'Building 21' nodes across international institutions (e.g., Edinburgh Futures Institute, SFI, Catholic University of Lille, Rafa Nadal Academy)
- Alternative HE Media Model | Channelling the culture and pull of the institution to create an alternate media anchor in the higher education landscape (e.g., The NPR Tiny Desk of academia, an intimate Oxford Union, Louisiana Channel in Montréal)
Our Endorsements
President and William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute
"I feel certain that Building 21 in its approach, creativity, and depth ofexploration represents an essential model of what education should betoday. The Santa Fe Institute is committed to the mission, values, and work of B21."
"Building 21 at McGill represents something increasingly rare in academia..."
"Building 21 at McGill represents something increasingly rare in academia: a space where curiosity precedes discipline, where scholars of all levels are encouraged to sit with complex questions rather than rush toward predetermined answers.
In a moment where artificial intelligence is reshaping every field of human endeavor, we need more spaces like this — places where the next generation learns not just to use powerful tools, but to ask whether and how they should be used. Building 21 does exactly that.
I am proud to support Building 21 and encourage McGill University to protect and invest in this unique resource."
"Building 21 creates the conditions for this kind of thinking."
"At Mila, we are dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and supporting cutting-edge research. But we also recognize that the future of AI will depend not only on technical breakthroughs, but on the people who are able to interpret, challenge, and guide these technologies in a broader societal context.
We need individuals who can move across disciplines, interrogate assumptions, and engage thoughtfully with uncertainty and complexity.
Building 21 creates the conditions for this kind of thinking.
It gives students of all disciplines the space to explore complex questions without predefined answers, to test ideas across traditional silos, and to develop the intellectual flexibility that will be required in a rapidly evolving world.
At a time when artificial intelligence is transforming the foundations of knowledge and innovation, it is precisely initiatives like Building 21 that are essential to our innovation ecosystem here in Montréal, in Québec, in Canada. They help ensure that we are not only advancing technology, but also preparing the minds that will shape how it is used.
Mila proudly supports and endorses Building 21."
Director, Département des littératures de langue française, de traduction et de création, Université McGill
"Supporting B21 means investing in the rare and fragile moment where a young mind begins to imagine what the world does not yet know how to ask."
"The future will not ask permission before it transforms our world.
Artificial intelligence, climate disruption, technological upheaval, and geopolitical instability are reshaping the conditions of human life at breathtaking speed. The students sitting in our classrooms today will one day face realities that do not yet have names, challenges that do not yet belong to any discipline, and questions that our generation has barely begun to imagine.
Since 2017, Building 21 has been one of McGill’s most daring intellectual spaces.
We bring together brilliant individuals from McGill's 39,000+ student body spanning 11 faculties and 13 schools. At Building 21, we invite our scholars to do something universities rarely allows: to be bold, to explore relentlessly, and to push ideas far beyond the boundaries of the known.
For nine years, Building 21 has done this work with extraordinarily modest financial support. Almost every dollar we spend goes to supporting students and their projects, helping prepare the minds that will confront the black swans of tomorrow, the unexpected shocks and transformations that will shape the world of 2050 and 2075.
Today, we need your support.
Supporting Building 21 means investing in the rare and fragile moment where a young mind begins to imagine what the world does not yet know how to ask. It means giving brilliant students the freedom to explore the frontiers of the possible, and sometimes the impossible, so that new ideas can emerge where none yet exist.
In an age of uncertainty, this is not simply philanthropy. It is an act of faith in human imagination, and in the minds that will help us navigate the unknown worlds of 2050 and 2075."
Attracting Unconventional Thinkers
Recruiting Interdisciplinary Talent
Where They Are Now
"B21 totally impacted my path. I met my wonderful co-founder through B21 networks."
I think some of the best ideas I’ve seen come from collisions between people from different fields — we each have a unique perspective that can add a different dimension to a question or methodology for developing an answer. I think we need more opportunities for cross fertilisation and that true innovation often grows from asking bold questions, and leverage our different expertise to refine our questions and build solutions. Science demands a rigorous, disciplined approach to experimental design, but I think that tinkering with ideas and having the freedom to see where they can lead and think ‘out of the box’ can yield some of the most exciting possibilities. Its difficult to find opportunities that support and allow you to ‘play in the lab’ and just follow your ideas… B21 totally impacted my path. I met my wonderful co-founder through B21 networks. B21 also gave me a safe space to explore alternative career paths post PhD.
“We’re currently working on a 5-year research study to extend the ideas I developed at Building 21.”
My non-profit social enterprise, Water Rangers, is supporting hundreds of communities across Canada to collect baseline water quality for their local waterbodies. We’ve collected over 200,000 data points and trained over 10,000 youth, 90% of which had never tested before. We’re currently working with the University of Regina on a 5-year research study to extend the ideas I developed at Building 21, and we continue to prototype and build tools that help keep people excited and motivated about monitoring. Just this week, we were featured in a campaign for The Centre for Social Innovation; the campaign was designed by Tristan who we met at Building 21.
“The relationships and conversations at B21 produced an undeniably generative impact. ”
I am completing my Master's in Environmental Management degree in May with a focus on global sustainability and renewable energy transition. My research assesses the feasibility of distributed solar generation in Southwest Colorado: Can we meet our energy needs with local renewables? How much might this cost? Cost and benefit analysis of various energy sources and storage options using HOMER.
Over the past year I have completed a GHG emissions inventory for San Miguel and Ouray County as well as a climate action plan for the same region. My next research/consultant deliverable will be a paper and series of policy briefs exploring the intersection of mineral availability, transition to a green economy, and colonial capitalism. At the very least, my experience at B21 motivated and prepared me to think about challenging systemic issues from a space of curiosity, gratitude, and a cautious optimism. At the very most, B21 provided me with a worldwide network of collaborators and friends. The relationships and conversations shared amongst the network produce an undeniably generative impact.
“Though my project was based on imaginations of a time that is half a century away, I realized that some of the ideas can actually be realized in the short term with the right partnerships and investments.”
I am organizing projects with refugee-led organizations and refugee-supporting NGOs on initiatives in higher education, gender equality, and socio-economic inclusions for refugees. I currently serve on the Committee of Advisors for one of the projects run by the World University Service of Canada (WUSC).
My interest in refugees and refugee welfare was sparked by my internship at Building 21, where I decided to base my project on the idea of imagining refugee camps in Kenya as viable cities, rich in innovation and technology.
Though my project was based on imaginations of a time that is half a century away, I realized that some of the ideas can actually be realized in the short term with the right partnerships and investments. I therefore intend to be involved long term on these kinds of projects to see some of the ideas I had imagined at B21 come to life.
“B21 provided me the creativity that my academic commerce degree could not.”
As a BCom graduate who found Landscape Architecture early on her degree, I sought refuge at B21 where I worked on spatial/sustainable projects at my own initiative. With its explorative resources and community support, B21 provided me the creativity that my academic commerce degree could not. Without my experience at B21, I would not have been accepted into (my dream of) Rhode Island School of Design's Master of Landscape Architecture with merit scholarship. It was my time at B21 that granted me the dream opportunities I have now.
"The skills and mindset that B21 helps cultivate have been incredibly valuable and interesting to apply to my current work as a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab."
As I've been reflecting, the B21 experience has genuinely shaped my approach to problem-solving. The skills and mindset that B21 helps cultivate have been incredibly valuable and interesting to apply to my current work as a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab.
I've talked to many of the master's and PhD students here, and it's interesting how much their program resembles the structure of B21 projects, particularly in terms of balancing independent creative freedom with producing tangible outcomes.
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B21 is distinctive because it manages to be simultaneously rigorous and free, both radical and welcoming, at once wildly exploratory and close to home.
Get in Touch Today
Building 21
info@building21.ca
Ollivier Dyens
Founder & Director
Email
Where
651 Sherbrooke St. West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1E3
When
Monday - Friday
9:00am - 5:00pm
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