Groundwork is a three-part film and exhibition series exploring architectural responses to the climate crisis. The project follows Xu Tiantian as she mediates between pressures of heritage and tourism on fragile marine ecosystems, bplus.xyz (b+) as they organize a political campaign against speculative demolition and propose legislation to value existing buildings, and Carla Juaçaba as she develops pavilions for smallholder farmers reforesting a territory exploited by extractive industries. Groundwork  observes the designers during the conceptual phases of their projects, to witness how ideas—rather than buildings—take shape.

First launched at the CCA as an open-ended and experimental process of using film as a curatorial tool, the documentaries were screened within sequential exhibitions, alongside artefacts from the field and research fragments. Presented together for the first time at the Swiss Architecture Museum, the panorama of contexts and approaches brings into focus the fundamental ways spatial practice is being redefined today.