PRICKLY MOUNTAIN AND MY DESIGN / BUILD LIFE 

Directed by Allie Rood
Duration: 93 mins
Year: 2025/6
Documentary

In the late ’60s and ’70s, a group of architects landed in Vermont with big ideas and a simple plan: to stop just designing buildings and start making them too. Drawing from Bauhaus ideals but rejecting the rigidity of academia, they built by hand, embraced mistakes and turned architecture into a wild, creative experiment. More than just structures, they built a way of life—one rooted in community, empowerment through doing and the belief that process matters more than perfection.

Allie grew up in the middle of it all, playing in half-finished houses where learning happened by trying and failing, and trying again. Years later, she picks up a camera to trace the movement’s history, only to find herself pulled back into its ethos—this time, by building a house of her own. Both nostalgic and full of momentum, the film is a celebration of making cool stuff, messing up, and making more cool stuff—a reminder that the best way to build anything is to just start.