All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S01E01.Cantilevers.and.Lifts.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: How does
this incredible skyscraper

defy the laws of physics?

Man: This house always is
on the verge of falling down.

Narrator: What happens when
one of the world's richest men

and its most extreme architect

create the impossible?

Man: Obviously we know
that levitation of buildings

hasn't been invented yet.

Narrator: And how do you
build a 1,000-foot-high elevator

in an area so remote,

heavy machinery can't be used?

This is the age of
the extraordinary...

Man: Where else can you swim
from one skyscraper to the other

300 feet in the air?

Narrator: Where
ingenious engineers

have unleashed
unchecked creativity...

Woman: Everything
in this building

pushes at the boundaries
of what's possible.

Narrator: Building
structures so outrageous,

they defy logic.

Woman: The forces on this thing

look like it should
be torn apart.

Narrator: Now their
secrets revealed.

Discovering the incredible
stories of their construction...

Woman: These are
extraordinary feats of engineering.

Narrator: To try and understand

how did they build that?

New York's Manhattan island,

where the skyscraper
rules the roost.

Ever since the first one
went up over a century ago,

the drive has been to push
towers taller and cheaper.

But the resulting
demands on engineers

have created repetitive,
predictable shapes.

Creative flair and
groundbreaking design

were rare exceptions.

That was until 2017,

when in Manhattan's
Tribeca district,

a spectacular new
tower was unveiled.

This is 56 Leonard street,

where a team of
engineers and architects

stepped over the cutting edge,

ripping up the
skyscraper rule book.

Woman: The shapes
are extraordinary...

Boxes stacked on one another.

And some of them are slid out.

The whole thing
looks so precarious.

Narrator: At Leonard street,

56 stories of unique apartments

are stacked ever more daringly
right up to its 820-foot summit.

Here at the top,

engineering logic seems
to have been recalibrated

to defy the laws of gravity.

Woman: It all just
looks a bit scary.

Narrator: Unique apartments
with sky-high impossible overhangs

created a complex and
expensive construction.

So, how did they build it?

Even more than most cities,

Manhattan is space-hungry,

resulting in tall buildings
with simple layouts

that are a compromise between
the engineering challenge

of building a skyscraper

and the practical economics
of doing it at a price.

Nehemiah mabry: Most
skyscrapers and tall buildings

are either
rectangular or tubular

because those are
really efficient shapes

when it comes to
supporting themselves.

Joshua macabuag: For
construction purposes,

developers like to have
buildings be fairly regular

and columns going
straight down, et cetera,

@so that every floor is the same

and they can just
build it nice and quickly.

Narrator: These uniform layouts
are now so efficient to build

that a conventional
high-rise with over 50 floors

can be completed in just weeks.

But the results are often
a little underwhelming.

Woman: Imagine, you wanted
to change things up a bit.

Ellie cosgrave: You could
put this cantilevered section

in there...

This box section in there.

And you might want to
even like take out bits...

Oops.

Narrator: Changing it up

in the world of
skyscraper construction

means taking risks.

But that wasn't going to
stop developer izak senbahar.

Izak senbahar: We knew this
was gonna be a very tall structure

and very visible from
almost every angle in the city.

So we said, ok,

we have a responsibility
to do something iconic.

We didn't want
something repetitive,

some just straight up building.

We wanted something
more interesting,

more sculptured.

Narrator: When izak
bought the site in 2008,

Tribeca was not
one of Manhattan's

glamorous residential districts.

But building something
special anywhere in New York

is expensive,

so these apartments would
have to command top dollar.

Needing a design that
would attract the uber rich,

izak headed to Europe

and world-renowned
Swiss architects

herzog & De meuron.

Jacques herzog: We
felt that izak was ready

for a new approach,

a more radical approach.

Narrator: Herzog &
De meuron's portfolio

includes some truly
incredible buildings,

like bayern Munich's
arena stadium

and London's Tate
modern extension.

But no skyscrapers.

Jacques: Even if we had
done a building before,

a tall building,

we would always look
at it from a different angle

and would give him
something unexpected.

We want it to be a
stack of apartments

but not an anonymous one.

The building could be understood
as a pile of individual pieces,

even in the middle part,

and then the top,

which would have even
more exclusive apartments

which we decided could become
like stacked private homes.

And I think that's really new

and hadn't been
done before anywhere.

Narrator: There's good reason
it's never been done before.

In order to make a
strong, stable building,

irregular spaces
are normally built

into the super
stable lower floors,

with smaller
structures at the top.

The architect concept that
the higher the apartments are,

the more off-balance
they appear,

flipped conventional high-rise
engineering on its head.

To pull this trick
off at the top,

they needed to reduce

structural complexity
lower down,

while still making the
floors appear to be different.

To do this, they hatched
an ingenious plan.

The first 46 floors would be
built in the conventional way,

using continuous outer
columns and inner walls

to provide support
for the floors above.

The floor layouts
would also repeat,

but they'd be made
to appear different

by changing the size and
position of balconies and edges.

The 46th floor
would be unoccupied

and so could be packed
with load-bearing walls,

creating a 47th floor plate

that would be super-strong,
super-stable platform.

Skyscraper specialist hezi mena

was the structural engineer
tasked with making it happen.

Hezi mena: We tried to
stiffen up the building enough

up to the 46th floor.

So when we reach the 47th floor,

the first sky villa,

the building will have
sufficient stiffness

@that we can
have the flexibility

of doing whatever
we want structurally

and give the
architect the freedom

to do whatever he
wants with the space.

Narrator: And what
the architects wanted

was to create an
extraordinary visual effect.

Jacques: If you
make this upper box,

let's say, hover to
a certain degree,

you don't make it
hover so it collapses.

You can push it to
an extreme, you know,

like in chaplin's
movie, you know,

where this house always is
on the verge of falling down.

Together with the
structural engineer,

you find the right moment
between something fragile,

something even dangerous.

Narrator: The vision for
off-balance apartments

that still had wraparound views

meant pushing structural
concrete engineering

right to the edge.

The lower floors

used conventional
skyscraper engineering,

where continuous
columns share the load.

But because the top
nine floors are all offset,

that same system wouldn't work.

Each of these floors
has to be stiff enough

to support huge
cantilevered overhangs,

some over 23 feet.

And they had to do that

without compromising
the view from within.

To pull it off,

engineers turned to
a 125-year-old idea...

The vierendeel truss.

A regular truss uses
diagonal cross members

to create triangles

that make it very strong
both laterally and vertically.

But the views from
within would be ruined.

A vierendeel truss

connects the two floors
using only vertical columns.

So it's just as
strong vertically

and it keeps its
lateral strength

through the massively
strong central lift shaft column

that also connects the floors.

So the vierendeel truss
allows huge openings,

and the apartments above can
be offset with crazy overhangs.

Nehemiah: A vierendeel truss
is actually a brilliant solution

for a long cantilever.

They were developed
by Arthur vierendeel,

a 19th-century Belgian engineer

who developed this
super strong truss

particularly resistant
to bending forces.

Hezi: The advantage of
utilizing a vierendeel truss

is that it's not
obstructive architecturally.

A traditional truss

would have a diagonal member
crossing through the space,

and that would be very
obstructive architecturally

and kind of prohibitive,

so we came with a
different approach.

Narrator: So this is
how the vierendeel truss

became the key to
building the sky villas.

On super stable floor 47,

concrete columns
are precisely placed

where they will give
support to the floor above.

This creates the
first vierendeel truss.

The central lift shaft
provides all the lateral strength

so the floor remains
beautifully open plan,

but can still support the
tremendous downward forces

from the eight unique
stories built on top.

These trusses
create such rigidity

that the upper floors

don't have to sit directly
on top of one another,

allowing the amazing overhangs,

all helping to
make the sky villas

some of the most
spectacular homes in the world.

Hezi: There's literally
nothing underneath us

other than the slab.

And then it's straight
down to the street level,

800 feet below us.

Narrator: Not only are
they over 650 feet up,

at up to 5,900 square feet,

the nine sky villas are huge,

each exclusively
occupying its own floor,

and each with a unique layout.

Situated in up-and-coming
midtown Manhattan,

it was hoped homes here
would fetch sky-high prices.

Hayley loren oakes:
This is a building

@aimed at some of the
wealthiest people in New York.

Narrator: The lower
apartments up to the 45th floor

would be priced between
$3 million and $10 million,

while the plan was
the sky villas would sell

for over $20 million.

And those hefty price
tags were needed,

as it became clear
the top nine floors,

with their unique layouts,

were going to be slow
and expensive to build.

Izak: You know, you
do three, four floors

of all the same thing,

and then you're used to
it, then it's just automatic.

Narrator: But of course
herzog's nine sky villas

were all unique.

Hayley: Every floor plate is
a different size and shape.

Izak: So every floor,
there was a learning curve,

and then you learn that,
and now it's a new plan.

It's just like, you know,

the game changed
every time we poured.

Narrator: Because each
of the sky villas is different,

before work could start
on the apartment above,

the one below needed to be
strong enough to support it.

And that meant more
time for the concrete to set.

Hezi: The biggest
challenge for the contractor

is to hold the forms
and scaffoldings in place

until the concrete cures and
reach its required strength,

and then he can
remove the scaffolding

and the temporary supports.

Izak: You know, in New York,

we're used to pouring
one floor every other day,

here some floors took six weeks.

Narrator: By 2014,

the lower 46 floors had
taken 20 months to complete.

And with the top nine floors
set to take nine more months,

extra measures were taken

to make the site safe
and weatherproof.

Hezi: It was actually
very interesting

to see during construction

that it had this black
curtain protection

around the entire 10 floors.

Once everything cured,

they start stripping
down the scaffolding,

and then this
beautiful structure,

it's almost like a sculpture,

revealed itself to the public.

Narrator: So with Patience
and engineering ingenuity,

the impossible overhanging
sky villas had been created.

But before anyone moved in,

the building needed protection

from something
that spells trouble

for any skyscraper...

The wind.

Joshua: Tall buildings will
always move in the wind,

and that can't ever
be completely stopped,

and they'll always move...

In some cases, by quite a lot.

Narrator: New York
has recorded winds

of up to 100 miles per hour,

and Leonard
street's sheer height

and comparative isolation
from other scrapers

means in high winds it can
move by up to a foot at the top.

It's engineered to handle
this amount of movement,

but left unchecked,

these movements
can keep on increasing,

potentially collapsing
the building.

So it's crucial
there's something

to counteract these forces.

Corina kwami: A
lot of skyscrapers

have what's called mass dampers.

They're basically
counterweights.

So, for example, if the
wind is pushing one way,

the counterweight
pushes the other way.

Narrator: Most
skyscraper counterweights

are large suspended
blocks like this.

But at Leonard street,

they chose a damper system
sometimes used to cope

with the ultimate
threat to buildings...

Earthquakes.

Skyscrapers in earthquake
zones have water tanks

to cope with the swaying
induced by a massive quake.

This is what 56
Leonard street uses.

Hayley: At the top is
a giant a tank of water.

When the building moves
one way due to the wind,

the water in the tank moves
in the opposite direction.

Narrator: So 56 Leonard street

was ready for the
forces of nature.

But in 2016, just a
year from opening,

the engineers needed
to get the inside prepared

for new residents.

To do this, a twist was given to
an otherwise ordinary feature...

The lobby staircase.

Herzog: You have a stair,

so do the stair in the way that
it's nice to walk up and down.

It's inviting, I would
say, to take the stairs

if it's one, two,
three floors perhaps.

Narrator: As usual
at 56 Leonard,

the stairs would be
made of poured concrete.

Debbie sterling: So the way to
design something in concrete,

it's called form work,

and it's really simple.

It's basically just
creating a mold

of whatever shape you want

and pouring the
concrete in, letting it dry,

and there you have it.

Narrator: Sounds simple,

except when the pour involves
nearly 50 tons of concrete

and the architect is
demanding a seamless finish

for his stairs.

A seamless finish is created

by not letting the concrete
set between pours,

so preparations
needed to be meticulous.

Hayley: It took five
months to plan the stairs

and create the mold

that the concrete
would be poured into.

Izak: It started with experts
conducting the whole pouring

because concrete
has air bubbles in it,

and that's why
they use vibrators.

This guy was
conducting everybody

where to use the vibrator.

It was a very, very precise
operation and a long day.

Narrator: The carefully
poured staircase

was typical of the
attention lavished

on every inch of this building.

Once finished in 2017,

the quality of Leonard
street was obvious.

But potential buyers

had understood this
was a special building

way before that.

Sales had opened in 2013,

and almost immediately

someone agreed to pay
$47 million for a sky villa...

A record for any address
below midtown Manhattan,

and a sign that the risks
taken by its developer,

izak senbahar,

would pay off.

Izak: I think we broke a record.

We sold close
to a billion dollars

in nine months.

Narrator: 2.5 million man hours,

nearly 100,000
cubic feet of concrete,

and 5,000 tons of steel

went into creating
Leonard street's

half a million
square feet of space.

It had taken over five years,

but a towering landmark now
graced Manhattan's skyline.

And if proof of its
success was needed,

locals have affectionately
given 56 a nickname.

Jacques: Someone
spoke of the jenga tower.

At the beginning, I didn't even
know what he was talking about,

but, um, people
like it, and, um...

If people like it
over a certain time,

this is a good, good sign.

Izak: It was difficult.

It was 10 years of my life.

But to build a building
like that in the skyline,

it always feels good

that, you know, you've
built something like that

corina: 56 Leonard
is remarkable.

I mean, it stretches the limit
of what's possible to build,

what's structurally possible,

and then celebrates that.

Narrator: 12,000
miles from the ma

of Manhattan

are mother nature's skyscrapers.

The towering sandstone
columns and miniature rainforests

of zhangjiajie national
park in central China

are a unique spectacle
on planet earth.

Corina: This is a unesco
world heritage site.

Beautiful yet strange landscape.

There's nowhere else like it.

Narrator: Unsurprisingly,

millions of people
want to see it,

and what's the best way to
enjoy that incredible view?

By taking the world's
tallest outdoor elevator.

The 1,000-foot-high
elevator of a hundred dragons

is better known as
the bailong elevator.

Joshua: This is the elevator

that hangs off
the side of a cliff.

It's taller than
the Eiffel Tower,

taller than the shard in London.

Narrator: The site was so remote

that heavy machines
couldn't be used to build it.

All the work had
to be done by hand.

Hayley: It carries 1,380
passengers an hour

and all in the middle
of an earthquake zone.

Narrator: But laser
systems and escape tunnels

keep the tourists safe
from the seismic danger.

Debbie: And if you don't
want to take the elevator,

you can just go ahead and
take the 999 stone steps.

Narrator: Stepping
all over the park

is exactly what thousands
of people used to do.

In the 1990s,

word about the stunning
landscape spread,

and soon, huge
numbers of curious tourists

were tramping through
the delicate forests

and climbing its fragile rocks.

Its ecosystem was suffering.

The Chinese
government had to act.

One of the best views of
the park is from this peak.

So to keep visitors
under control

but still let them see the
incredible natural wonder,

they built this
astonishing elevator,

half inside, half outside
a huge rock face.

The visible 550 feet

is actually only just over
half the elevator's total height.

The lower 500 feet

is hidden in shafts
tunnelled inside the cliff.

And at the bottom of those
is a 650-foot access tunnel

leading to the main concourse.

It all works smoothly now,

but its creation
was an epic feat

of human endeavour
and engineering.

The first stage was to
tunnel into the mountain

to where they
were going to build

the base of the lift shafts.

Today, it's used
by hordes of visitors

to reach the elevators

after they've gotten
off their coaches.

But when the project
was started in 1999,

road access was severely limited

and no heavy equipment
could be brought in.

Liu jie is manager
of the elevator facility.

[Speaking Chinese]

Liu jie, translated: We
used 100% human labor,

with no heavy equipment
and industrial machines

used during construction.

Workers carried all the
equipment and materials

on their shoulders
or with their hands

to the hillside.

Narrator: So using
only hand tools,

the tunnellers got to work.

Jie, translated: We
first dug a tunnel

into the mountain at its foot.

Then we drilled the
elevator shaft in reverse,

from bottom to top.

Narrator: Yes,
you heard correctly.

They drilled the shaft upwards.

This is called reverse
circulation drilling.

Jie, translated: Drilling
Wells from bottom to top

is actually very
difficult and dangerous,

as the Wells above the
workers can collapse at any time,

and yet workers had
to keep drilling upward.

Narrator: With the
500-foot shaft reinforced,

the exposed mountainside above

needed to be made much
more stable and strong

before it could take the
weight of the elevators.

Jie, translated: More
than 4,000 rock bolts

were inserted up all 326
meters of the mountainside,

and anchor cables were
connected to the rock bolts

so they could
surround the mountain.

Narrator: With the
500-foot shaft reinforced,

the exposed mountainside above

needed to be made much
more stable and strong

before it could take the
weight of the elevators.

Next, the huge steel
derricks, or frames,

were bolted on the
reinforced cliff face.

Finally, the elevator
cabs would be installed.

Those three huge
double-Decker cabs

can each carry a
payload of almost 5 tons,

or over 50 people.

With their high speed of
over 16 feet per second

and world-record
1,070-foot climb height,

they demand state-of-the-art
control systems.

Computers kept the cabs
balanced and smooth in transit.

To save power,

electrical energy is
recovered by the motors

as the cabs descend.

But perhaps the most
important engineering at bailong

are its safety systems,

because the stunning
beauty of the zhangjiajie region

hides a deadly threat.

Joshua: It is an earthquake zone

where they've had historically
quite significant earthquakes

that have killed a
large number of people

in the vicinity and
in the surroundings,

and it's something that
could happen again.

Narrator: With the elevators
in almost constant use,

raising over 20,000 people
up to the viewing platform

every day of the week,

the consequences
of a major quake

could be catastrophic.

So bailong's engineers

have built in every
safety feature they could

to quake-proof the structure.

Jie, translated: We
have seven wire ropes

above the cab,

and actually, every
single one of them

can hold the weight of the cab.

The second safety measure

are the guide rails along
both sides of the cab.

The cab is tightly
fitted to these rails

and has brakes which will
stop the elevator from falling

even if all seven cables fail.

The third safety guard

are the four hydraulic
bumper posts

we installed in
the elevator pit.

This is to soften
the impact of the cab

if the other safety
gear fails to work.

Narrator: Of course, prior
warning of an earthquake

would be the best
safety feature of them all.

Just a few seconds' warning

could save hundreds
of lives here.

So a system of lasers is
sighted on distant hillsides,

which train back to receptors

mounted onto
the steel structure.

Hayley: The lasers
shining across the mountain

are extremely sensitive.

They can monitor the tiniest
of movements in the earth

and can notify the control room

to perform
evacuation procedures.

Narrator: Just a few
millimetres of movement

will trigger the alarm,

and instantly,

the elevators will
automatically take passengers

to one of the evacuation exits,

built every 36 feet
into the cliff face.

For now, the earth moves
only for those lucky enough

to gaze at one of the
planet's great natural wonders.

Jie, translated: Since 2015,

we have experienced
an explosive increase

in the number of visitors,

with about 4.5 million
tourists coming here in 2018.

Narrator: The park is now

the second most popular
tourist attraction in China,

and it's being kept
in pristine condition,

all thanks to the engineers

who figured out how to
build this incredible elevator.

Paris, France.

Carefully planned.

Very traditional.

Famous for its
immaculate boulevards

and ornate apartment buildings,

all combining to create
its unique character.

No wonder, when bold
new structures are proposed,

it often takes a while before
the parisians appreciate them.

In 1889, the Eiffel
Tower was described

as "a truly tragic street lamp;"

in 1977, the Pompidou
centre simply "monstrous."

And in 2006, a new
building joined their ranks.

Debbie: This building
is definitely out there.

It's weird.

You look at it, and you're like,

is it a broken perfume bottle?

Is it a giant ship?

Is it a ufo from outer space?

Narrator: A building designed

by one of the world's
greatest architects

that locals hated

and set out to stop.

Man: In Paris,

it's difficult to imagine
this kind of a building.

Narrator: Bankrolled
by a billionaire,

money was not the problem.

Figuring out how
to build it was.

Man: I think it's fair to say
there were some very dark days

in the process of putting
this building together.

Narrator: The
challenge of creating

this astonishing building

took hundreds of engineers,
architects, and craftspeople

eight years and
800 million Euros

to overcome.

So, how did they do it?

When a man worth $100 billion

decides he wants a new
building for his art collection,

he doesn't just
buy one at random.

Instead, in 2006,

luxury brand magnate
Bernard arnault

got in touch with
the man described

as perhaps the world's
most important architect.

94-year-old frank gehry

dreamed up Bilbao's
guggenheim museum

and the extraordinary Lou
ruvo centre in Las Vegas.

This time, gehry was inspired

by the great glass
palaces of the 19th century

and designed a building that
would set a new benchmark

in extreme
engineering challenges.

The 126,000-square-foot
building was to be called

the Louis Vuitton
foundation museum.

It would include a
massive waterfall,

11 galleries,

and a 350-seat auditorium.

It would have
huge steel icebergs

and all be shrouded in
12 billowing glass sails.

The budget was a
cool 130 million Euros.

Frank gehry's buildings
were already notorious

for challenging engineers'
abilities to innovate.

This building would take that
reputation to the next level.

James cowey spent a
decade of his life working it out.

James cowey: This was not
a smooth ride down the river,

as we say.

Myself and the engineers
went to Los Angeles

to meet with gehry partners

as they proudly showed us
their model of the building,

what they intended to build.

And they did a very,
very long exposition,

and they finished by saying,
"well, what do you think?"

And the structural engineer
next to me thought for a second

and then said, "I think
you used a lot of glue

to make your models
stand together."

Narrator: Gehry's "glue
happy" model makers

had good reason not
to confront the question

of how to build it.

The design's sheer originality

meant there was no
structural template to follow,

nothing to suggest it
was actually possible.

But cowey's team
took a logical approach

to planning the build.

James: It's a very tricky
and complex building

geometrically, obviously,

when you see it
from the outside.

You could break it down
to four basic systems

that put the building together.

Narrator: The engineers
devised a solution

that was based on illusion.

The huge glass sails
appear to be supported

by the small curving structures
known as the icebergs.

A signature of
frank gehry designs,

they look like the
core of the building,

but they're not.

Melt away the icebergs,

and some very conventional
concrete cubes emerge,

within which are the
gallery spaces themselves.

Now, these are not very gehry,

but they are very solid

and allow the building's
outer skin of sails

to be so extreme.

Nehemiah: They
give the appearance

as if the sails are floating
in the air unsupported,

but obviously we know

that levitation of buildings
hasn't been invented yet.

Narrator: To give the
appearance of levitation,

the flimsy glass sails

would need many
more smaller fixings

because, of course, being sails,
strong wind was a big concern.

The forces of gravity
and wind on a building

would normally be calculated
by computer models.

But so much was unknown about
these ultra-complex structures

that computer
modelling wasn't trusted.

Getting the plan right meant
going back to the basics.

James: We built a mini building,

which was not more than 50
square meters on the ground.

We have all of the systems...

The sails, the glass
enclosure, the icebergs.

And we did a test run

in which we evacuated
many of the problems

that we would have
been confronted with

if we had built
without doing this test.

Narrator: The successful dry run

of the Louis Vuitton
foundation museum in Paris

gave the builders
the green light.

By 2011, the project had been
underway for over five years.

But as the foundations and
central concrete structures

began to appear,

protests about the
size of the building

and its impact on
the park intensified.

Nehemiah: A group of
Paris residents challenged it.

They didn't like it.

They challenged the
original construction permit.

Narrator: A court order

found the building contravened
parisian planning laws.

The huge project was
stopped in its tracks.

James: When we were
asked to suspend construction,

we were quite in
the middle of things.

And so we had to keep working
for another two or three months

just to stabilize the building
so work could be suspended

because it was in a
bit of a precarious state.

Narrator: With one-third of
all the scaffolding in France

on site,

gehry, arnault,

and the hundreds
of specialists involved

found their dream in
the hands of the courts.

But Bernard arnault fought back.

The court battle
ended four months later,

when the city of Paris suddenly
changed its laws on land usage.

Frank gehry was
back in business.

While the foundations
and concrete cubes

were taking shape,

the components that would create

the steel icebergs
and glass sails

were being made off
site, a long way from Paris.

Gehry's mixed use of material
was typical and challenging.

Arcing beams of wood and steel

support impossibly
complex glass panels,

many exposed to the elements.

Making these to the
highest standards

meant using only the very best
workshops and craftspeople.

Engineer Bernard vaudeville

helped coordinate the
massive Europe-wide project.

Bernard vaudeville:
All the elements

are prefabricated,

they are made in workshops

which are 100 kilometres
away from Paris.

For the glass,
it's made in Italy,

and the wood was
made in Germany,

and some other elements
were made in Belgium,

so all these elements
had to come from far away

and they were all prefabricated.

Narrator: More than
400 specialist fabricators

in four different countries

would create the
23,000 unique pieces

that must somehow
all fit together perfectly

when assembled on site.

Ellie: That's basically the
Jigsaw puzzle from hell.

Narrator: So how
did they make sure

it would all slot together?

The designers used a system
created for a very different

but even more
demanding industry.

Hayley: The designers
used a technology

pioneered by the
aviation industry.

It's called b.I.M.,

building information model.

It lets all of the manufacturers
add information to a 3-d model

and then lets the designers
check what everyone is doing.

Narrator: This shared
virtual building model

meant teams on site and off site

were all fully aware of
any problems arising,

and could rapidly
plan solutions,

dodging time-consuming
meetings and expensive mistakes.

James: Basically this
model was the base

on which everything was created.

And it allowed
for the contractors

in different parts of the
world to fabricate pieces

of amazing
geometrical complexity.

Narrator: First of the
prefabricated structures

to be assembled on site

were the icebergs.

Cedric joie: We're
here in the iceberg,

the highest one.

These shells were
prefabricated in Belgium

and were transported
to the site, to Paris,

on trucks, trailers,

and assembled, as
you can see, with bolts,

simply bolts,

with joints that
you can see here.

All of these shells
were different.

There were 365 different shells

for all the icebergs
of the project.

It was assembled on site

to compose the external
shell of the iceberg.

Narrator: Now the iceberg
shells needed to be clad

with a huge number of
custom-made white tiles,

which all had to
be just the right size

before they arrived.

Corina: Normally
it doesn't matter

if you have to
adjust things on site.

I mean, that's part of
the building process.

But you can't really do that if
everything is so custom-made.

Narrator: Instead,

Bernard's team relied on
components being made

to within a few
millimetres of specification

so they weren't too
close or too far apart,

once assembled.

Bernard: Assembling
them on site is very difficult

because there is
something we call tolerances.

Tolerances means that
when you fabricate something,

it's never exact, never.

You can't do that.
Exactitude is only divine.

It doesn't exist.

Narrator: Because
every tile is different,

each one had to be attached
in precisely the right order.

Cedric: You have 19,000
of these white panels.

Almost all are different.

Bernard: So they came in boxes.

When you opened the box,

the panels had to
be in the right order.

You can't open 50 boxes

in order to find where
the good panel is.

Narrator: The icebergs complete,

next came the huge sails.

With nearly 140,000
square feet of curving glass,

these were perhaps the
most challenging features of all

to create.

James: 3,500 panels of glass,

with each one with
an individual design

for which special
ovens had to be created

to manage the curve,

to manage the way the
surface would be treated

to reflect or not reflect light.

Narrator: Commercial
car windshield-making

combined with meticulous
hand craftsmanship

to ensure each panel
curved precisely the right way

and was safe to install.

James: There were
multiple, multiple constraints

just on the glass

that required us to work
with glass manufacturers

to invent a whole new
way of fabricating glass.

Narrator: Finally, in 2014,

eight years after it began

and with nearly 800
million Euros spent,

the Louis Vuitton
foundation museum

was ready to hold
its first exhibition.

But for many, the art
inside was a sideshow,

because frank gehry,

his architects, engineers,
and craftspeople

had achieved
something extraordinary.

Joshua: The thing I really
love about this building

is that the structure
is on display.

So many buildings, the
structure, the actual bits

that hold up the
weight and the floors,

it's just not visible.

It's behind walls,
it's behind cladding,

you never see it.

But with this structure,

@you can really see the
columns, the frame, the skin.

And to me, that's
really inspiring.

Corina: Beautiful.

But the work that went
into it was extraordinary.

Narrator: Against what
seemed impossible odds,

Paris had a new
icon on its skyline

to match perhaps even
that famous tower of steel.