Architects are called upon to build society’s greatest structures. We marvel at the museums, performing arts centers and spaces of worship that dot the globe and represent the peculiarities of the world’s many cultures. Yet, at the core of the roles and responsibilities of the architect lies a calling for a far more elemental human need: shelter.

This doesn’t imply that architects are always involved in the creation of all the forms that shelter takes. However, a deep understanding of how people dwell provides an appreciation of the diversity, resilience and alacrity of the human race. The Human Shelter, a documentary about what people value or “need” in their lives, ties into a fundamental quality that any architect would be foolish not to cultivate: the ability to listen and perceive what makes people feel at home.

Told in seven “chapters”, this film weaves its way in and out of different dwellings around the world. It opens with Sámi reindeer herders in Norway and ends at a remote cabin in Iceland. In between, we visit New York, a refugee camp in Iraq, a NASA habitat in Hawaii, a tree house in Uganda, tiny living quarters in Tokyo and a lagoon shanty town in Nigeria.

Boris B Bertram is a documentary maker interested in conflict resolution and humanitarianism. “During my career, I’ve filmed people fleeing from war and natural disasters, people in motion and without homes,” he says. “‘Shelter’ is the first concept we have of a home. A place where we’re supposed to feel safe. That’s how the idea for making the film came up.”