55 minutes / Color
Spanish / English subtitles
Release: 2014
Copyright: 2013
When Puerto Rican architect Fernando Abruna Charneco began designing buildings in the 1970s, many called him as crazy for putting nature first... a practice which later would be heralded as "sustainable green architecture."
For more than 30 years, he confronted climate change with sustainable constructions: including a house without a roof that is completely independent of the power and water utilities, a micro-eco-house on wheels, a pre-designed sustainable house, a parachute-house and a solar-electric car.
Abruna Charneco inherited the design mantra of "doing more with less" from R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the Geodesic Dome and the Dymaxion car, for whom he worked as an apprentice.
In times of climate change and the dramatic challenges it poses, THE ABSENT HOUSE delivers a much-needed, hopeful and proactive message that we can live sustainably while preserving the planet for future generations.
"A positive, exciting documentary that will make viewers optimistic about the possibilities of changing the way we create environments in which to live and work."—Video Librarian
"Architect Fernando Abruna Charneco prioritizes nature in his ingenious designs. In the 1970s, critics scoffed; now, however, his innovations exemplify the green architecture movement."—Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
Select Accolades
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus with this lively, wide-ranging documentary exploring the history, present and future of the utopian design and architecture school and communal social movement around the world.
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An exploration of the design and philosophy behind a 20 year-old experimental, ecological collective housing project in the center of Berlin.
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Based on the theories of William McDonough and Michael Braungart, major corporations embrace environmentally sustainable architecture and production in an ecologically-inspired industrial revolution.
Rob van Hattum | 2007 | 51 minutes | Color | English
