At the start of the twenty-first century our ability to shape the planet we live on seems matched only by our ambition to break new boundaries. Ever higher skyscrapers, ever longer bridges, ever deeper tunnels and mines. Construction projects on unprecedented scales that take decades to complete. Cities built in deserts, or on man-made islands. Roads and railways at high altitudes and across the Antarctic. But this is nothing new – this desire to engineer the world around us, is primal, an essential part of being human. Our unique ability to reshape and exploit our environment is integral to our astonishing success as a species.
Building The Future is a landmark series for Discovery about man’s phenomenal ingenuity in engineering and shaping the world around us. But its starting point is people, not construction projects: the driving editorial proposition is that taming nature is part of human nature, and this underpins both content and form in terms of the thematic organization of the programs and the visual and filmic approach.
