All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.2021.S02E02.Swamps.and.Swagger.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] How do you build a
brand-new university on a swamp?

We didn't have room
for error out here.

[Narrator] What happens when a
visionary architect is given

almost 80 million pounds
of high-grade steel?

[Ellie] They've created a 33,000
piece titanium jigsaw puzzle.

[Narrator] And how do you create
a 4,000-ton building that moves?

[Jamie] When you see that
there's wheels at the bottom,

you say, what? How?

[Narrator] This is the
age of the extraordinary.

[Hayley] It's like one of
those insect-eating plants,

only enormous and white.

[Narrator]
Where ingenious engineers have

unleashed unchecked creativity.

Now their secrets are revealed.

As we discover the inside
stories of their construction.

This is an incredible feat of
planning and engineering.

[Narrator]
To try and understand,

"How Did They Build That"?

Have you noticed how
architects don't do easy?

It's not enough to design a
world-class university building

like no other.

They then go and build it
in the middle of a swamp

and give it a massive pair of
wings to trace the sun's

daily passage around the earth.

It sounds crazy... and awesome.

[Narrator] Florida,
home to the Gators.

Wrong gators.
That's more like it.

Over 31% of Florida,
some 18,500 square miles,

is made up of wetlands,

which are home to
over a million alligators.

Add that to temperatures
as high as 100 degrees,

and in July, it can be a
fairly unforgiving place.

So when they decided to build
a huge new university campus

on an area of swamp,

it was never going to be easy.

[Santiago] From the beginning,

we were working
in a wild environment.

This was a real challenge.

[Narrator] The design
from one of the world's

most exacting architects comes
complete with superpowers.

This building has wings.
It does take your breath away.

[Narrator] It was a project
that would push engineers

to their limits.

I knew in my mind that
it had to be perfect.

[Narrator] A huge cathedral
of architectural concrete,

curving steel and glass

with virtually no
straight lines in sight

and no room for
engineering error.

This is the
Florida Polytechnic University's

Innovation, Science,
and Technology building.

So how did they build it?

Home to NASA's
Kennedy Space Center,

Florida is no stranger to the
world of science and technology.

And in the early 2000s,
the state decides it needs

to take that to the next level

by creating a new university
focused on engineering,

physical sciences
and mathematical sciences

that would be like
no other in the world.

[Randy] We want to make sure
that when the students come

to the university
to study engineering,

that they're inspired by the
architecture of the university.

[David] The Innovation,
Science, and Technology building

is kind of a cornerstone
for our campus.

It was important to have
this building that, you know,

served as a little bit
of an icon for us.

[Narrator] To create it,
the university turns to

one of the globe's
most visionary architects,

Santiago Calatrava,

who much prefers a curve
to a straight line.

On the surface,
his idea sounds very simple.

It has to be a building,
very versatile.

You see where the small groups
can work and all of that.

The idea was really
to do a place very open,

very transparent
and full of light.

[Ellie] The thing about
Calatrava is his designs

and specifications are
incredibly complicated.

This means engineers have
to really think differently

about the materials they're
using and how they're going

to build his vision.

[Narrator] From the Oculus
Station House in Manhattan,

and Milwaukee Art Museum
in Wisconsin,

to the Auditorio de Tenerife
in Spain,

Calatrava's gleaming white
signature buildings are

both stunning and phenomenally
difficult to build.

Florida Poly will be
no different.

Set on a 170-acre campus
in the soft Florida marshland,

Calatrava's design will see five
vast lakes with curved walls

created in a nod
to its wetlands home.

From the sixth,

a gleaming white 162,000 square
foot oval structure will rise.

At its centre, a ribbed and
glazed auditorium roof creating

a vast atrium leading to
26 classrooms, labs and studios.

On its roof, two huge shades
will move with the sun

to protect the interior
from the blistering heat.

The perimeter will be ringed
by a 39-foot-high steel pergola,

built to provide extra shelter
from the intense Florida sun

and high winds.

Calatrava's creation
will be unlike any building

any university in the world
has ever had.

It was going to require
a team of people willing to do

something new and push
the limits of construction

because the limits of design
were pushed as well.

[Narrator] What's more, they've
got just 30 months to do it.

[David] Students needed to
begin classes

at the start of fall semester.

[Chuck] There was no extension.

They were opening
August 14, 2014.

Everybody on site knew that.

We made t-shirts up
that said that.

We've gotta get it done.

[Narrator] The first task is
to build a set of foundations

strong enough
for the huge structure...

Not usually a problem,

but this site is on acres
of waterlogged soil.

[Chris] The first time we visit
it, it was like marshlands.

This area here was
soft soils, silts.

So the soil as it was,

it was not adequate
to support the foundations

for the building.

[Narrator] Usually when
you build on soft soil,

you hammer in piles
till you hit solid bedrock.

But not here.

The swamps of Florida
are less than ideal.

It's basically like trying
to build on top of a massive

key lime pie.

[Santiago] Florida is a place
with a lot of marshland

and the hard rock
or the bedrock, you know,

it's very deep,
so we needed to find a solution.

[Narrator] The bedrock is up
to 80 feet below ground,

so traditional piling would be
eye-wateringly expensive.

The engineers, though,
have a solution

called vibro replacement.

Vibro replacement is
a technique we use to improve

poor base-level conditions
in areas like marshland

and make it capable
of load-bearing.

[Narrator] It works like this.

Holes three feet wide
are drilled deep into

the fragile soil and then
filled with stones or gravel.

Next, this filler is
vibrated and compacted,

which makes the ground
as strong as solid bedrock.

[Chuck] When we're
drilling into the ground,

if there's any clays,
if there's any roots,

if there's any unsuitable
soils as we're going down,

it's being replaced with rock.

That's just like concrete,

more than enough
to support this building.

The stone columns were completed
and they worked like a charm.

[Narrator] With a solid
structure for the building

to sit on, the team starts work

creating the enormous
concrete slab on top.

Like every aspect of this build,
it's far from straightforward.

The math and the geometry
is very tough.

It was a series
of radiuses and rotations.

I knew in my mind that
it had to be perfect.

[Narrator] The plan is to cast
two huge curving,

concrete beams, which will
link up to form the base.

And on that, they'll then
construct the building.

Using a technique called
formwork, they build a

massive spider's web of
steel reinforcement bars

within huge
curved plywood moulds.

Then they fill it with concrete.

Every five feet,
we had a pin in the ground

to make that ring beam
perfectly formed.

[Narrator] An error
at this stage

could have catastrophic
repercussions.

We put coordinate points
on every single element

that's out here.

The light poles,
switches, toilets.

Everything that we did in this
building had a coordinate point

and a dimension to it
off of a baseline.

[Narrator] With the huge
concrete curves cast,

the next challenge is
overcoming Florida's weather,

because as they install
the 43 aluminium cupola beams

that will create
the 250-foot-long roof,

they hit a major problem.

The afternoon summer
temperatures are reaching

105 degrees, causing the metal
to expand

and changing the dimensions
of the beams.

[Chuck] We would have
to erect these cupola beams

in the early mornings,

and we couldn't go past 10:30,
because they would heat up.

And as we put them in
and the members in between

that brace them,
they would heat up

and they would go out of plumb.

So we would have to stop,
hold that brace where it was,

and in the next morning
or at night time,

we would continue our erection,

so that they wouldn't
be out of plumb.

It's very complex...

Not only the geometry,
but the heat and the cold.

[Narrator] Working through
the night and early mornings,

the beams are installed,

ready for the next bit of
Calatrava magic, glass physics.

The glass arrives
in large dimensions, you see.

And then the glass allows
you with an adequate pressure

to curve it and then fix it
into the frame.

It's very simple.

[Narrator] It's also something
the team has never done before,

to take an enormous,
flat sheet of glass

and bend it into an exact curve,
which fits the beams.

Luckily, Calatrava has
in his previous buildings.

[Chuck] In his brilliance
and in his experience,

he taught us that
you can bend glass,

so we bent those glass panels
in the field.

So all that glass is
under tension on the first

and second floors all the way
around the building,

and we bent it to the
geometry of the radius.

How cool is that?

[Narrator] Calatrava's
awesome glazed atrium

is almost complete.

Now he has one more demand
of his engineering team.

Was a real challenge.

[Narrator] They have to stop
the 22,000-square-foot

glass atrium from becoming
a giant greenhouse.

Our roof is one big skylight.

[Narrator] With so much glass,
how can they shield the building

from Florida's
super-intense sun?

Calatrava's solution
is beautifully elegant,

but unsurprising highly complex
to build and install.

94 movable aluminium shades
will be placed above the roof,

able to extend outwards
by more than 60 feet.

Sensors will control hydraulic
pistons to open and close them,

optimizing the amount
of shade they provide

to the atrium inside.

And while controlling
the solar gain,

it will still allow in
the beautifully cool morning

and evening sun.

They can pull
their roof, you know,

in a vertical position,
but they can also hold the most

convenient inclination
of the two roof wings.

The building itself
can change its shape

to deliver shadow down below,

[Narrator] This giant sun shade
may protect the building

from the sun,
but can it withstand

the greatest danger Florida's
weather has to throw at it?

[Corina] On the West Coast,
you worry about earthquakes.

On the East Coast,
you worry about hurricanes.

[Narrator] Next,
will it survive the weather?

[Narrator] In Florida,
construction of the new

university building's incredible
moving roof shades is underway.

And the engineers there have
to make sure it will survive

the worst Mother Nature
can throw at it.

You cannot ignore hurricanes.

Unless you design for
hurricanes, you have problems.

Every element you see here,

especially the exterior
envelope, is designed

to withstand the
hurricane wind forces.

[Narrator] They decide the
solution is to fit sensors

to the louvres,
which detect wind speed.

Anything over 25 miles per hour,

and they should
automatically retract.

The team is ready to see
if the system really does

automatically retract
in the wind

and whether it will
track the sun.

It's a tense moment
for everyone.

[David] I don't think any one
person remained in the building.

I think everybody came out
to watch the arms move

for the first time.

[Chris] Everybody like, was
waiting for that with anxiety.

Is it gonna work?

Is it gonna behave in the way
it was designed to?

It was exactly
as it was planned.

And it was a gratifying moment,
actually, the first time

you saw these things moving.

And it was, whew, you know,
like, great.

This is doing what
it's supposed to be doing.

It was a sense of achievement
for everybody at that point.

When they went up, we
were like, holy moley, Batman.

We high-fived it.
We high-fived it.

Trust me.
We got it.

We're a part of something
that's never been done

in the world.

This will be the only one.
How cool is that?

[Narrator] The finishing touch
is to surround the completed

building on either side
with water.

They dig out the five
remaining giant ponds,

and don't need any innovative
technology to fill them.

[Chuck] They filled the ponds
themselves, rain and water

runoff from the roads.
They filled themselves.

Pretty amazing.

[Narrator] And not the only
thing that's amazing

about the ponds.

We discovered
in the ponds, alligators.

Nobody was thinking
we will get alligators.

But in Florida,
these things are very common.

And it's interesting
to have a little, some

pieces of the local fauna.

[Narrator]
Ahead of the official opening,

Santiago Calatrava flies in
to check on his building.

Finished in his
signature gleaming white,

it's a massive moment
for the man who designed it

and the people who built it.

[Santiago] It was a lot of
enthusiasm by these people

and certainly, the quality of
the building emerge out of it.

[Chris] There's no sharp angles.

When the diagonal meets a
vertical, usually, you know,

it comes at an angle,
but the rounded corners,

rounded corners everywhere.
No sharp edges.

No sharp edges anywhere.

And no visible
construction joints.

[Chuck] He told all of the
workers, thank you.

He wept some.

I saw some tears in his eyes,
as there were in mine

and I'm sure
a lot of the workers.

And all my workers are giving
their heart and blood,

and soul into this.

It's what a builder dreams of.

When you're working with
an architect of his calibre,

that's the best feeling
that I could ever have.

[Narrator] Right on schedule,
30 months after work started,

Florida Poly's new flagship
is ready to welcome students.

[Man] It's unusual.
It is really something.

You don't see anything
else like this.

It's awesome.
It's like, how did they do that?

It was one of the high
points of my career,

so I'm extremely proud
to have been a part of it.

It does inspire me.
I still can't believe I'm here.

[Narrator]
16,000 cubic yards of concrete,

1,400 tons of steel

and 80,000 pounds of glass

have been crafted
by hundreds of workers

to create a brand-new
architectural wonder

for the world.

[Chuck] I proved to a
world-class architect

that we were able
to deliver and execute

something not only
that is beautiful,

but it works.

I think the stars were aligned.

It was chance for us
to take his art

and build a building
out of his art,

because this is truly art.

[music]

For our next
extraordinary building,

we travelled to Bilbao
in northern Spain.

I say building, but it looks
more like several buildings,

as if some challenging pieces
of sculpture have

fallen from the sky,
and against all odds,

landed in just the right
place to create one

single architectural
masterpiece.

Now, that takes genius.

[Narrator] In 1991,
the formerly prosperous docks

in the northern Spanish city of
Bilbao were down on their luck.

But that was about to change.

Because after years of decline,
the city has decided to fund

the building of a modern
art museum right there.

[Hayley]
Before the Guggenheim arrived,

Bilbao was not on
anyone's cultural radar.

[Narrator] This is the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

So extraordinary,

it's described as the most
important building of the time.

So revolutionary,
many said it couldn't be built.

There was a lot of scepticism
about can this be built.

[Narrator] It took pioneering
computer tech, combined

with old-school construction
skills, to make it happen.

They've essentially
created a 33,000-piece

titanium jigsaw puzzle.

[Narrator] Every piece had
to fit perfectly on the inside

and on the out.

The Guggenheim in Bilbao
is the mind-bending, 250,000-ton

building that revived a city

and shocked the world.

So, how did they build it?

[Narrator]
As the 20th century wound down,

Bilbao's steel industry, once
its life blood, had dried up.

And the old city port
had relocated,

leaving behind a scar.

It had left all this
left bank of the river close

to the centre of the city
without any real use.

[Narrator] In the 1990s,

the city came up
with a bold plan for change.

Fill the empty riverside space
with something extraordinary.

A building that can host
world-class exhibitions,

but that's also in itself,
a huge show of confidence,

putting Bilbao back on the map.

[Juan] The museum was meant to
be the catalyst of that change.

You cannot do this
by, uh, small jumps.

You have to do this
by huge leap forward.

And this project provided that
opportunity, I think.

[Narrator] To help Bilbao
take this huge leap,

they choose architect
Frank Gehry,

creator of some of the world's
most extraordinary buildings.

If you want
a signature building,

Frank Gehry will not disappoint.

[Narrator]
He's one of the only architects

who is a household name.

One look at Gehry's buildings
and you understand why.

From Paris'
Fondation Louis Vuitton,

to the Lou Ruvo Center
in Las Vegas,

Gehry's designs
have changed the world.

But the huge museum in Bilbao
could be Gehry's masterpiece...

If anyone can work out
what's on his mind.

[Juan] His first models,
they were strange.

It was difficult to understand
exactly how they would work,

but there was some sort
of magic in them.

[Narrator] Gehry soon fuses
the models to create a design

for a single, coherent, but
utterly extraordinary structure.

The heart of the building will
be a 165-foot-high central hall

constructed using a lightweight,
but super-strong steel frame.

A series of curved bridges,
glass elevators and stairs

will connect 20 galleries
spread over three floors.

The exterior will be made up of
huge, sweeping natural forms,

turning the building
itself into a sculpture.

Finally,
it will be clad in titanium,

each sheet less than a
millimetre thick

and every piece unique.

It's a design no one has
seen before, let alone built.

There was a lot of skepticism
about can this be built.

Can this be built in time?
Can this be built on budget?

So we understood that it was
going to be a challenge.

[Narrator] With a budget of
around $90 million,

Gehry's build team must
be at their most innovative

to pull this off.

[Luis] It's quite complex
from the point of view

of construction.

What the client wanted us
to achieve here was to help

Frank Gehry to design
a world-class building.

And that included many things
like new shapes, new materials,

things that had never before
been done in architecture.

The Guggenheim is so
complex, that 2D blueprints

weren't enough to
communicate Gehry's vision.

[Narrator] Gehry's team turns
to computer software programs

used in airplane design
to create a feasible,

technical construction plan.

[Corina] They had
to build a virtual 3D model

of the entire building,
so that the engineers

and the contractors
knew what to do.

Today this is very common,
but back in the 90s,

this was revolutionary.

[Narrator] A design this
complex, featuring tall towers

and sharp angles,

means the team has
only one material in mind

for the framework...

Steel.

Steel is very much used
within buildings

when you want to get speed

and when you want to get
industrial production.

And it enables you to
do these type of things.

It's lighter than concrete.
It makes a lot of sense.

[Narrator] The very industry
that collapsed and created space

for this museum is now
needed to pull off

producing the complex frames.

Separate elements are
parcelled out to workshops

around the city.

Frank Gehry has been
able to design it,

but we have been able to build
it mostly with local elements.

[Narrator] These factories
are used to building ships,

not futuristic museums.

With no two pieces the same,
it's no easy task.

[Luis] It's complex
because of the shapes.

Every member is a bit
different from the others.

[Narrator] The construction
crew assembled the series

of interlocking triangles that
make up the intricate framework,

and give the residents
of Bilbao a first glimpse

of what's to come.

This building has a beautiful
steel structure that of course

you cannot see,
but once you could start

looking at that steel structure,
it was like a skeleton

of a dinosaur
suddenly coming up.

I think that was the moment
when we started to really

appreciate the,
the scale of the building.

[Narrator]
The skeleton complete,

they now need to clad it
in a tough outer skin.

One that will protect it
from the weather,

but that can be molded
to fit the building's curves.

Gehry opts for a material more
commonly used in aerospace,

titanium.

When you think about it,
cladding an ever-changing

and flowing material
has a lot more in common

with aircraft-making
than traditional buildings.

[Narrator] The next challenge
is that Gehry's hand-drawn

shapes mean installation
of the cladding panels

must be done in a precise order.

And there are more
than 33,000 of them.

[Ellie]
They've essentially created

a titanium jigsaw puzzle.

That's fine on a computer.

It's even fine
on the factory floor.

But then on site,

a team had to somehow
fit that all together.

[Narrator] Next,
how will they pull it off?

[Narrator] In Bilbao, Spain,
work is underway to clad the

new gallery, designed by one of
the world's leading architects,

in 33,000 individual
pieces of titanium,

each precisely fixed
to the steel skeleton.

[Juan] By bending, they produce
this pillowy effect.

When you look at it,
it's like a pillow

where it has these little holes.

It doesn't really, but it's
the way it reflects the light.

So for being such a
huge metal building,

it looks very handmade,
very human.

[Narrator] With the curves
complete outside,

work moves on
to creating the elegantly

flowing interior walls.

Here the engineers turn
to a system commonly seen

in domestic house construction.

Drywall fixed to a frame.

Though here, of course,
there's a twist.

Normally, drywall is always
flat, just a gypsum board

with cardboard on one side.

It's not easy to bend.

To bend it, you need to use
a very thin drywall

that can be somehow humidified
and then bent.

[Narrator] The construction crew
perfect a technique

of using thin drywall,
which they dampen and bend

to create flowing forms

that would have been immensely
heavy if cast in concrete.

It's not only lighter,
but cheaper and quicker.

At first, no other building
has this type of complex shapes

with drywall.

[Narrator] The next challenge
Gehry sets to the team

is to construct a series
of curved walls,

some in glass
and others in solid limestone.

A lot of the stone is
curved in two directions.

That is very,
very complex to do.

You need to cut
each stone separately.

[Narrator] Too complex
to cut the limestone by hand,

the team turns to
computer-controlled

milling machines
normally used to shape metal.

It had to be manufactured by
machinery that did not exist.

The contractor had to acquire a
milling machine that works for

the aircraft industry and
to adapt it to carve stone.

[Narrator] Bending the glass
is too expensive.

Instead, the engineers opt for
an illusion to trick the eye.

[Luis] There are some places
in the building in which

you see the glass curving,

but it's not curved at all.

It's flat glass made
with triangles

to create that illusion.

[Narrator] The sculptural
glass is the final component

in a building that's about
to take the world by storm.

In 1997, four years after
construction started,

Bilbao's stunning new
museum opens its doors

on time and on budget.

The building more
than fulfils its brief.

The Guggenheim was
built to house great works,

but arguably the building
itself outshines them all.

[Juan] It has become an icon
for the city of Bilbao

because it has signalled the
transformation that the city

has lived through
the last 30 years.

[Narrator] Since it opened,
the museum has ignited

a whole new cultural scene,

and now brings in millions
of tourist dollars,

all driving new business
and creating jobs.

For the people from Bilbao,
it changed completely the city.

It was a great thing for us.

[Narrator] More than anything,

figuring out how to build
the Guggenheim

didn't just put Bilbao
back on the map...

It redrew it.

With Manhattan real estate

amongst the most expensive
on the planet,

designers of New York's
hippest performing arts centre

came up with a genius
space-saving solution.

It uses a sophisticated
version of what I call

the elasticated waist
trousers principle.

If you suddenly find
you need a little more space,

then everything just expands.

You can pack twice as much in

while losing none
of the comfort.

Neat, huh?

[Narrator] In 2017, on a tiny
pocket of Manhattan's West Side,

New York City decided to build
an enormous new arts venue.

[Thomas] We have a limited
amount of real estate here,

and we really needed to get
the best bang for the buck.

[Narrator] A place so clever,
it can shapeshift to provide

different venues
for different shows.

Everything that
underpins the idea behind

The Shed is
complete flexibility.

[Narrator] A chameleon-like
building that defies logic

and sense, doubling in size
at the touch of a button.

When you see that there's wheels
at the bottom, you say, what?

How?

[Narrator] The world's only
arts and entertainment venue

that rolls out the razzle-dazzle
in the evening,

then magically disappears
before morning.

It's kinda like a super-sized
version of a trundle bed

that you only take out
when you have guests over.

[Narrator] A hybrid of giant
railroad engineering,

cutting-edge materials,
and extraordinary vision.

This is The Shed in Manhattan.

So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Narrator] New York has
perhaps the most famous

entertainment district
in the world.

Nearby are galleries
and museums that combine

to create a feast for anyone
seeking a cultural hit.

It's all been here for years.

It's also, perhaps just
a little old fashioned.

But in 2012, just one mile west,

an opportunity arises
for something fresh.

An ingenious new development
is underway to create America's

largest private residential
development in history

called Hudson Yards.

It's being built on
a huge new deck

created to sit above an enormous
railroad storage depot.

Along with 18 million
square feet of high-end living

and working units,

a small space is kept for a
new super-flexible arts centre.

At the heart of it, they wanted
to have a cultural centre.

The idea we had was that
The Shed could be

a commissioning centre,
a place where things are made

and presented
across all disciplines,

so across performing arts,
visual arts, popular culture.

So it would be a place
really that is for all types

of creativity.

[Narrator] Despite
a very modest footprint,

the building also needs
to be able to take big crowds.

It's a big ask for a tiny space.

But led by Elizabeth Diller,

architects Diller,
Scofidio and Renfro

come up with a radical
design called The Shed.

Really a tale of two buildings.

One half will be
a permanent structure

built onto one of
the skyscrapers.

115 feet tall,

this section will house
eight floors

of permanent exhibition and
performance space.

But here's where the fun begins.

This part will be completely
encased in another structure,

a huge steel shell that
despite weighing 4,000 tons,

will be able to move out
across the piazza,

instantly doubling
the size of the building

and creating
a 17,000-square-foot

multi-use performance space,

complete with climate control

and state-of-the-art
staging systems.

It will be an
incredible building

with the ultimate
flexibility the clients want,

but also needs a
big leap of faith.

[Alex] I looked at this design,

and I kept turning
it around, going,

there's very little
it couldn't do.

Let's make it happen.

[Narrator] In 2015,

work gets underway
on the fixed half of The Shed.

This is the easy part.

It's built using a
tried-and-true steel frame

construction method permanently
fixed to the concrete slab.

But then comes the hard part.

The team has to figure out
what they're going to build

the 4,000-ton outer shell from

and how they're going
to make it move.

Even for the most
experienced engineers,

it seems like a crazy idea.

My first reaction
had been to say,

why would anybody
want to do this?

That's not practical.
That's not possible.

So I had to train myself
literally to instead say,

well, how could
we best achieve that?

[Narrator]
In search of inspiration,

the team turns to
commercial cargo docks.

[Jamie] A gantry crane, which
is a crane that rolls in and out

on two sides of the boat

and is able to pick things
off the side of the boat,

so that technology is actually
very influential

in the design of The Shed.

When you think about
the movable shell,

it's the same idea of two wheels
with a frame on top of it

that rolls in and out over
a fixed building or a boat.

[Narrator] The team decides
to build the moving half

of The Shed using a
4,000-ton steel frame.

And, to make sure it's super
strong and able to hold up

to whatever is thrown at it,

the architects settle on
a design based on triangles

called a diagrid.

[Scott] We have a series
of these verticals

and a series of intersecting
diagonals that creates

this overall structural form.

And when we move it,
we want it to be lightweight

and we want it to be stiff.

So this idea of a
diagrid structure

ticks all of those boxes for us.

[Narrator] The team may have a
design for a super-strong shell,

but now they need
to get it to move.

Inspiration again comes
from the gantry crane

and its huge sets
of motorized steel wheels

running on tracks embedded
into the ground.

But unlike a container port with
its strict safety procedures,

these need to be safe enough
for the public to wander over.

That means the tracks
have to be both immensely

strong to cope with the weight,
but also very shallow.

Getting something
that's straight enough,

flat enough, stiff enough,

so that it doesn't
deflect as The Shed moves,

this is really where
all the magic happens.

[Narrator]
At just 272 feet long,

this super-sized railroad
will be one of the toughest

in the world.

Its tracks are six inches deep,
much the same as a normal train.

But these have to move the
incredible 4,000-ton load

from the building above.

So they're made three times
wider and five times heavier

to be strong enough
to shift The Shed.

They also have to be
perfectly installed.

[Jamie] The rails need
to be constructed at very

tight tolerances to make sure
that the building doesn't

lock up because we are
talking about moving a

very heavy building over them.

[Narrator] The next big
technical challenge

is designing a completely
unique wheel system

that will run on these
special tracks and spread out

the massive load.

[Thomas] So a bogey
is a pairing of wheels.

This is a four-wheel bogey,
so there are two wheels

side by side, and
there are also two rails,

so there's some depth to it.

They came in as a pair
and essentially a crane came

and lifted them and put them
right exactly on the rails

where they go.

The maximum that one wheel
is designed to handle is

about 800,000 pounds.

We don't know of anywhere
else where these wheels exist

in the world.

[Narrator]
With the six-foot wheels

and oversized tracks in place,

the next challenge is designing
a system that will move

the frame back and forth
across the piazza.

It needs to be powerful enough
to move the entire structure,

but also not be visible
at ground level.

[Thomas] If you were to go
to a retractable stadium roof

for a sports facility,
the motors that actually drive

the wheels are located
directly at the wheels.

They're somewhat greasy.
They're mechanical machinery.

They can be fouled by the public
if they were down there,

but so it's better to have
them out of harm's way

in a secure location.

[Narrator] Their solution is to
hide the motors up in the roof.

It's not unlike a
baby carriage, where

we're giving it motor force
up at the top,

so all of that force essentially
goes through the building

and is translated down to the
rolling wheels on the rails

at the bottom.

[Narrator] To make the
motors move the frame,

they turn to
the tried-and-tested

rack and pinion system.

This was first used on
the Mount Washington Railway

in New Hampshire
over 150 years ago,

so that its locomotives could
easily climb the steep tracks.

For The Shed, they mount 12
electric motors under the frame.

These then power the small rack
and pinion system

located on the roof
of the fixed Shed building,

which in turn moves the frame.

It doesn't take a lot of power
to actually move the object.

You're really overcoming the
initial friction,

and then you're sliding the
building out.

So the equivalent power
of moving The Shed

is roughly equivalent
to two Tesla cars.

[Narrator] Some 20 months into
the build, the moment arrives

when the team will see if their
calculations are correct.

It's a tense moment.

Will the gliding arts centre

produce a stellar
dress rehearsal?

[Jamie] The night before
we moved The Shed,

there was a lot of trepidation.

The proof is in the pudding
and I was actually surprised

at how quietly it moved
the first time.

Not a squeak at all.
It was virtually silent.

[Scott] That day when we moved
it for the first time,

it was slow in terms
of the movement,

but it was flawless as well.

Everything went exactly
as it was expected to go.

[Narrator] The next challenge is
to create a weather-proof shell

that's strong, lets in light,
looks amazing,

but also doesn't weigh an
ounce more than it needs to.

[Scott] One thing that was
very important is

we've got a moving building.

We're trying to minimize the
weight as much as possible.

[Narrator] So when it
comes to the glazing,

the team turns
to a cutting-edge material

rarely used in construction.

Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene,
or ETFE for short,

weighs in at 100th
the weight of glass.

ETFE is another product
that has migrated

from the aerospace industry,

and is now used for all sorts
of large-scale covering.

[Narrator] The biodomes
of the Eden Project in England,

in the Allianz Stadium
in Munich,

both show how ETFE can be used.

[Hayley]
Not only does this material

have insulating properties,

it's also super flexible
to work with.

ETFE is a system that is made by
inflating two panels of plastic

with air on the inside.

They're continuously pumped
in with new air,

so that they don't start
deflating or anything like that.

And they're able to create
this very ethereal look.

And it allows the building

to be lighter, and then
it's easier to roll it.

[Narrator] 38 months
after construction began,

it's a big moment for the
architects and engineers behind

this groundbreaking building.

April 5, 2019.

There's first night nerves as
The Shed finally takes its spot

in the New York limelight.

[Jamie] To see it delivered
exactly as promised,

that was a pretty big wow.

[Scott] We took this basic,
simple idea with all types of

complexity, and we developed it.

And I'm proud of some
of those technical challenges.

The Shed will always
be very special to me.

[Narrator]
It's taken three years

of bold design and engineering

and cost $475 million,

but now this theatrical
masterpiece in motion

has finally arrived
on the New York arts scene.

[Alex] It represents the
possibility for change,

for adapting to the world
that is changing.

It's one of the most
flexible spaces.

There's very little it can't do.