As the world faces an increasingly urgent climate crisis, there is growing pressure for the construction industry to reduce its carbon emissions, prompting a rethink of the way buildings are developed. Carbon Confessions, a travelling exhibition by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV, reveals what that looks like in practice. Arriving in Toronto, the exhibition offers a candid look at the ideas, ideals, everyday actions – and yes, the missteps and missed opportunities – of MVRDV’s quest for carbon reductions.

Drawing on more than three decades of work, the exhibition shares lessons from experiments, milestones, and missed opportunities, showing how sustainable ambitions evolve in practice. In Toronto, where climate ambitions are increasingly tied to how the city builds, questions of carbon become questions of architecture. The exhibition reflects this context through content tailored to the local framework, including the Toronto Green Standard and MVRDV’s projects in Canada.