Christopher Zelov is a filmmaker, scholar and writer who has co-creator many major Film and print educational projects including Ecological Design Inventing the Future and more recently City21 Multiple Perspectives on Urban Futures. Ecological Design focused on many Design Visionaries with particular attention to the work of R. Buckminster Fuller. Buckminster Fuller was a design outlaw. He shattered preconceived notions of how buildings and machines should be put together. The result was the geodesic dome, the 60 mile-per-gallon Dymaxion Car, the self-sufficient Dymaxion House and host of other inventions that influenced a new wave of designers. In making their award-winning film, Ecological Design, Chris Zelov and Phil Cousineau interviewed 26 present-day design outlaws. To expand on the film, they published this book. Both the film and the book are brimming with the ideas and prototypes of the trailblazers who have defined ecological design over the past thirty years. He has noted: While we have been delighted with the success of our late 20th Century documentary: Ecological Design: Inventing the Future and the mainstreaming of the green movement in general, we are convinced that powerfully destructive forces like: over-population, unimaginative urban sprawl, and bureaucratically driven generic design programs(dumb design), threaten the promising conceptual breakthrough of recent times. Most people respond these pressures with a debilitating resignation. Jaded phrases like: "you can't fight City Hall" make it imperative that alternative and eminently achievable visions of the future be known to as many people as possible. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, otherwise: we will get the Cities we deserve. About: City21 Multliple Perspectives on Urban Futures: The underlying quest of the filmmakers is to reframe the conventional and uninspiring visions of the urban future with an unprecedented combination of fresh, invigorating, sustainable, economically viable, and life enhancing concepts. . This production arises from a worldwide learning journey that was transmuted into a cinematic composition illuminating some of the key perspectives + initiatives that are shaping the 21st Century City. Below are some of the themes we have explored in an effort to loosen the geometric and economic grip on the urban imagination: -The Sacred Origins of the City: Arnold Toynbee on the origin of Civilization/City Plans through time. -Magical Architecture: The intentional Eco-Community of Damanhur, in Northern Italy. -Utopian Imagination: Poetry and Architecture/The Open City Project in Ritoque, Chile. -Regenerative Design: Nature and Architecture, the transformation of The Biosphere2 Project into Eco-Village design with Architect Phil Hawes. - Energy Independence: The White Gold of the North/Renewable Energy in Iceland. -The City as Memory Theater: Mythic design wisdom transmitted through the generations with David Mayernik. -The Creative Green City: The Lighthouse Project in Glasgow. -Creating Eco-Villages: The Findhorn Experiment in Scotland -Cities and Time: The Long Now perspective with Stewart Brand.

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