Characters

A Brooklyn kid sharp with his hands, quick with ideas, and always ready to lead the next big build. He’s the team’s materials expert and a natural leader who takes pride in getting things right. Outside the lab, he’s skateboarding through the city or planning his next chess move. 

JAMAL IS: Fun, confident, and intensely curious about the physical world around him. He can spend hours examining a piece of bamboo or a handful of mud. Jamal believes every material has a story and a purpose, and his job is to figure out what they are. Jamal has a gift for understanding people the same way he understands materials; he can sense when friends are upset, even when they’re trying to hide it. He tends to be the group’s peacemaker when conflicts arise. Kingston leads with words; Jamal leads by example. 

PEOPLE SEE JAMAL AS: The one who somehow always knows exactly what’s going to work, whether it’s materials or helping his friends work through problems. 

JAMAL SEES HIMSELF AS: Just trying to help his friends understand each other and the world a little better. 

JAMAL’S FRIENDSHIP STRENGTH: Empathy. He naturally understands how his friends are feeling and accepts them without judgment. 

JAMAL’S FRIENDSHIP CHALLENGE: Focusing on everyone else’s conflicts and harmony makes it easy to avoid his own problems. 

A funny, kind, and clever biracial kid from the suburbs of Denver. He's a designer and builder who turns the turns the team’s ideas into detailed digital plans and 3D models. As a leader, he brings creative insight from many angles and helps the group stay focused.
His controller's never far from his hands, both steering his drone when he building, and dominating various videos games when he's not. 

KINGSTON IS: A natural-born leader with an engineer’s mind and a carpenter’s heart. He approaches every problem with a question, whether it’s “How has this wall stood for centuries?” or “Why is my friend so unhappy?” He’s full of opposites: thoughtful but impulsive. Funny but focused. Kingston has learned that being a good leader means making sure everyone feels heard, even when he disagrees with their ideas. He’s the kind of friend who remembers what you’re good at and finds a way for you to contribute that to the situation. 

PEOPLE SEE KINGSTON AS: Quick with the quips, bit of a rebel, but always has an idea, never panics, and somehow makes everyone feel important to the task. 

KINGSTON SEES HIMSELF AS: Just trying to make his friends laugh while they get the job done and maybe have a good idea or two along the way. 

KINGSTON’S FRIENDSHIP STRENGTH: Encouragement. He honestly celebrates his friends successes and helps them see their own strengths. 

KINGSTON’S FRIENDSHIP CHALLENGE: Sometimes he forgets to ask for help when he needs it. 

A quick thinking Costa Rican kid who sketches ideas on the fly and solves problems before they grow. He’s focused, steady, and always ready to back up the team when things get tricky. After hours, he’s biking through the neighborhood or making beats on his tablet. 

MIGUEL IS: A tech-savvy master of CAD Design and 3d modeling who believes every great building starts with a perfect blueprint. He can visualize complex 3D structures in his head and loves the precision that digital tools provide. Miguel sometimes gets so absorbed in the technical details that he forgets about the human element, but his teammates help ground him. Miguel is learning that friendship means accepting that others do things differently - and that their "imperfect" methods often work just as well as his calculations. He's discovered that admitting his mistakes to his friends actually makes relationships stronger.

People see Miguel as: A little genius who can make any ridiculous idea work, but who's also learned to laugh at his own mistakes.

Miguel sees himself as:  Trying to learn from history with friends who keep him connected to what really matters.

Miguel's friendship strength: Honesty. He's learned that admitting his mistakes and being real makes friendships stronger.

Miguel's friendship challenge: Understanding he can't always do it "better" alone.

The visual stylist of the group, always remixing design with detail
and flavor. He brings his Filipino background into how he experiences the world -- and his sneaker game stays sharp. When he’s not designing, he’s out admiring street art or climbing anything that looks like a challenge. 

KAI IS: An artist's soul in an engineer's world. He sees the beauty in Everything and believes that anything worth building is worth making beautiful. Kai is deeply respectful of cultural traditions and takes time to understand the aesthetic values of each community they help. he's the kind of friend who knows exactly what to say to make someone feel better, and he's not afraid to share his own feelings when he's struggling.

People see Kai as: The one who makes sure their projects feel like home, and who makes sure every friend can talk about their feelings without getting made fun of.

Kai sees himself as: Making sure no one gets left behind - whether it's traditions or his homeys.

Kai's friendship strength: Emotional support. He creates safety for friends to be vulnerable and ask for help.

Kai's friendship challenge: He sometimes gets overwhelmed trying to take care of everyone's feelings and forgets to set boundaries.

An Irish-American kid who uses drones, sensors, and sound to accommodate his visual impairment and explore and document the world around him. His tools help the team experience things from new angles and work more closely together. Off the build site, Luke loves superhero movies, recording stories, and narrating the next big adventure.

LUKE IS: A natural storyteller who believes every building has a story and a history that needs to be preserved. He's fascinated by people and cultures, always asking questions and recording everything with his specially modified camera. Luke can spend hours listening to elderly craftspeople share the techniques they've passed down through generations. For Luke, being a good friend means being a good listener: not just waiting for your turn to talk, but really hearing what others are saying. 

People see Luke as: The one who remembers every good thing each friend has done and every good idea they've had because he's listened to every word they've said.

Luke sees himself as: A keeper of memories and history, making sure the crew remembers why they work so well together and why they're friends in the first place.

Luke's friendship strength: Active listening. He truly hears what friends are saying and can tell the story of what they need.

Luke's friendship challenge: He sometimes gets so focused on documenting moments that he forgets to fully live them.