All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S01E02.Towers.and.Roofs.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: What happens
when an ambitious builder

tries to join two skyscrapers

high up in the
Manhattan skyline?

Man: You can't
call a friend and say,

hey, what did you do the
last time you built a bridge

300 feet in the air
in New York City?

Narrator: How does
this huge wing-like roof

not take flight in
Gale-force winds?

Man: The whole canopy
has an ability to move

15 to 20 centimetres.

Narrator: And how can
a building be constructed

without a corner in sight?

Woman: It kind of goes against

everything we think
engineering should be.

Narrator: This is the
age of the extraordinary...

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

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 are 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.

With the total area
of buildable land

worth over $1.7 trillion,

its eye-watering prices

have created one of the
world's most memorable

and expensive skylines.

With space at a premium,

it's forcing developers

to come up with
groundbreaking solutions

to make the most out of even

the least inviting
scraps of land.

Developing one awkwardly
shaped plot in midtown Manhattan

tested engineers
to their limits,

leading to panic on the streets.

Man: You hear
the fire department,

they pull up and the guys
come screaming, running in.

"We got a call.

One of the buildings
is falling down!"

Narrator: And
creating the city's

first skybridge in 80 years,

giving rise to one of New York's
most incredible new skyscrapers.

This is the American
copper building.

Ellie cosgrave: Building
two skyscrapers,

wanting to join
them in the middle,

and then deciding that
actually you want them bent...

That is next level.

Narrator: In 2013,
developer Simon koster

had his eye on a
plot next to the river

that should have
been prime real estate.

But the site came
with a major problem...

New York City's zoning laws,

the rules that decide what
can be built and where.

Simon koster: The zoning
of this site was prescribed

before we bought the site.

That approval prescribed

the exact footprints
of the tower

and the exact
heights of the tower.

They assumed, by prescribing
the footprint and the height,

that they were prescribing
the exact building shape,

but when we bought the site,

we didn't want to
create two buildings.

We wanted to
create one building.

Narrator: There was
an existing building

in the corner of the plot

and a piece of land that
had been zoned as a park.

So how could they create

their dream of a
single building?

Simon: We didn't want
anyone to be going to the gym

in their neighbor's building,

we didn't want someone
going to a lounge

or going to visit someone
else in a neighbor's property.

We wanted to use the scale
of the property and the block

to create one community.

Narrator: Koster brought
in Greg pasquarelli

from shop architects
to find a solution.

Gregg pasquarelli:
When our client bought it,

he said, I could go
through a rezoning,

which takes many years

and has a lot of risks
and is very difficult,

or he said,

can you come up with something
with these handcuffs on?

And that was our challenge.

Corina kwami: They
could have built two towers,

but they came up
with a much better idea.

Simon: There end up
being a lot of great ideas,

a lot of terrible ideas.

And what usually
ends up happening

is one of the terrible ideas

turns out to be a
really wonderful one.

And it's terrible at first because
somebody says, you know,

let's build a giant bridge
between two buildings

hundreds of feet off the ground.

And for those of us
that have to pay for it

and figure it out,

we go, no, let's not do that.

Um, but of course, as you
start to wrap your head around

kind of all the
different aspects

that could make it possible,

you start to realize that it's
actually very approachable,

and the way we approach
building the skybridge

was the same way we
approach building everything else,

which is kind of
one step at a time.

Narrator: It would be
the city's first skybridge

in over 80 years.

Joining two giant skyscrapers
almost 300 feet in the air

on the banks of the east
river on a site prone to flooding

was always going to be
an engineering headache.

But it was also an opportunity.

Gregg: The idea was we could
make a sort of amenities package

or a shared space

that would be sort of
typical for each building,

or if we built a bridge,

we could build one
phenomenal one

that brought everybody together.

And so getting that
designed and built

and making it work

was the greatest challenge,

but I also think is the
greatest success of the project.

Narrator: The easiest way
to connect the two towers

would be with a straight line.

But that would mean going
over the existing building,

which they didn't own.

The architects came up
with a gravity-defying solution.

They decided to
bend the buildings.

Ellie: How did they
bend the towers?

That's the real question.

Simon: They bend
towards each other, right?

One on the long axis
and one on the short axis.

It moves the edge
of the west tower

out to the corner
of the property line

so that we can actually
connect the two buildings

with a straight line.

Otherwise our bridge would have
had to be kind of l- or v-shaped

which is obviously
much harder still to do.

Narrator: By bending
the two towers,

they'd not only overcome
the zoning issues,

but also the engineering ones.

Hayley loren oakes:
Making small adjustments

is a great way to
make a big change.

A couple of inches can
quickly become meters,

and it's something
that clever designers

can use to their advantage.

Narrator: And that's
exactly what they did here.

By slightly moving each floor
closer to the other building

as they go up to the skybridge,

and then moving away again,

they were able to
bend the buildings.

Simon: We were able to
solve both of those problems

with these really elegant
architectural moves.

Narrator: In 2012,

work began preparing
the site for construction.

It was clear from the start

this was going to
be a tough build.

The site was right
next to the east river,

a location that had
previously flooded.

@joshua macabuag: It's in an
area that's subject to hurricanes,

and so in 2012, there
was a very large hurricane,

hurricane Sandy,
which affected New York,

and during that hurricane

this actual site was flooded

before the building
was constructed,

so that's really highlighted

two of the main risks
to the construction...

The wind and the water.

Narrator: The man who
had to face this challenge

was Michael Jones.

Michael Jones: The
foundation of the building

was kind of a monster
process on our end to build it.

We're very close
to the east river,

and the water
level is very high.

So to dig a hole as
deep as we had to dig it

into our foundation elements

was a serious challenge.

Narrator: Michael and the team
had to dig down almost 50 feet.

With the water table only
4.5 feet below the surface,

they needed to stop
the site from flooding.

The engineering solution was to
create a huge concrete structure

to keep the water out.

Michael: What you do is
you create a perimeter wall

around your site
from the ground level.

You can push steel sheets,
push those down into the ground,

and they interlock,

and so you more or less
build a bathtub with no bottom,

and then the water
level inside the bathtub

is the same as it is outside.

So then what you can do
is you drill Wells down there

and you De-water
inside of your bathtub.

You can locally bring
that water level down

by putting a pump.

You have to kind of
artificially drop the water level,

and to do that with, you
know, a few cups of water

is really easy.

To do it with a few
million gallons is difficult.

Narrator: It took a
year and a half to do it,

but with the bathtub
built and the foundation in,

they could turn their attentions

to the next big
engineering challenge...

Building the bending towers.

Joshua: Generally,
a leaning building

is very much a bad sign,

and the designers

would very much have
had to have factored in

the kind of sideways forces that
are caused by something leaning.

But there's two
things to consider,

and that's they've designed
a building that's able to lean,

but also that that building

is going to be leaning
throughout it's construction,

which means you
have to really think about

the stability of
the final building,

but also all the intermediate
stages during construction.

So it's an engineering feat.

Narrator: The person making sure

this bent skyscraper
didn't come crashing down

was structural
engineer Susan hamos.

Susan hamos: Because of
the leaning of the building,

every floor we had to tie
back to the shear walls.

What shear walls
means, they take shear,

they take horizontal load,

they take shear
from the wind load,

shear from the seismic loads,

and shear from gravity loads.

You imagine, if you
put something like this,

it wants to fall down.

So we had to put some rebars
to pull it back to the vertical,

long concrete walls

that were designed to take
all these horizontal loads

from the gravity.

Narrator: Although
the building bends,

the lift shaft and
the shear walls

stay vertical

and act like a spine,

taking the force of the floors

as they create the
bending skyscrapers.

Michael: The main structure,

which is the core,
the elevator core

and the shear walls, which
are massive structures,

those stay straight.

But all of the columns
were on an angle.

So we got really good at
building columns on an angle.

Narrator: As the
extraordinary skyscrapers

took shape on the
Manhattan skyline,

they didn't go unnoticed.

Michael: This
tower, the east tower,

goes about 8.5 inches per floor.

So by the time, you know, we
are really offset maximum distance,

we're over 20 feet,
22 feet, I think it is,

out of plumb

before we start
working our way back.

And that's the
sort of visual thing

that people really weren't
accustomed to seeing.

Hayley: The bent
shape of the skyscrapers

caused panic as the
buildings were going up,

which is something that the
main builder had to deal with.

Michael: One day, you
know, we're down there,

we're all working,

and you hear the
fire department,

they pull up, and the
guys come screaming

and they're running in, and
it's all chaos for a second.

We're trying to figure
out what's going on.

Finally I grabbed the
guy. I go, "what's going on?

What's happening?
I'm in charge here.

What's going on?"

He said, "we got a call.

One of the buildings
is falling down."

And I kind of kind of stopped,

I had to think about
it for a second.

I go, "no, no. It's
supposed to be like that."

We showed him pictures
and renderings of the building

and showed him the
plans and everything,

but it's such a unique
architectural feature

that people didn't know
how to respond to it.

Narrator: Once the builders
had convinced new yorkers

that the towers
weren't collapsing,

they still faced one of
their biggest challenges...

The skybridge.

Central to the design,

the skybridge nearly
300 feet in the air

would join the two
towers together,

making one community.

Michael: The bridge
is several layers.

There's private terraces on top,

there's a public lounge,

in between there's
a pool and hot tubs.

You can kind of swim
from one building to another.

And then below all that,
the bottom level of the bridge

we use to transfer
mechanical water

and we use emergency
generator power.

We transfer from one
building to another.

And that's really
my favourite part,

is it allows us
some kind of leeway

in terms of where
we put equipment

so each building doesn't
act isolated to each other.

Narrator: The bridge came with

some serious
engineering challenges.

How would they
stop the hurricanes

that regularly hit New York

from tearing it apart?

Simon: The biggest
design constraint

on tall buildings in
New York is wind,

so buildings move
back and forth,

towards each other and
away from each other.

The total movement
between the two buildings

is about 12 inches.

12 inches is in a windstorm,

so that movement was
our number-one challenge.

From a structural perspective,

that skybridge is like putting
a toothpick between two rocks.

Narrator: Skyscrapers are
built to cope with high winds,

and at the top, can move
about 3 feet in any direction.

Fine when they're not
fixed to another building.

But here, two
independently moving towers

would be linked by the bridge.

And when they moved,
they could rip the bridge apart.

Susan: Is it possible
to put the bridge there?

We said, of
course it's possible.

So how would we do it?

And we said no problem,

we'll connect it
to one building,

and we let it
slide on the other.

So when the wind is
hitting the two buildings,

one would move out, the
other one would move in.

And we don't want the
bridge to like buckle,

to pop out of its place,

so we have to
slide it on one side.

Narrator: Their solution

was to join only one side
of the bridge to the towers

and balance the other
side on huge teflon plates,

letting the bridge slide in
and out of the east tower.

Michael: It slides on
these giant teflon plates

that account for 28
inches of movement in total,

14 in any given direction.

Narrator: Now they
knew it was possible.

All they had to do was build it.

Michael: Unfortunately,

when you're doing
something unique like this,

you can't call a friend and say,

"hey, what did you do

the last time you built a
bridge 300 feet in the air

in New York City?"

Narrator: Building a 300-foot
high and 240-foot wide

scaffold tower
between the buildings

to allow construction
of the bridge

would be difficult.

So they decided to
build a temporary bridge,

from which they'd
construct the real one.

Michael: We were
trying to figure out

the best way to do it,

and it started with someone
was supposed to bring a football in,

and we were going
to tie a string to it

and kind of throw it from
one building to another.

But I think we forgot
the football that day,

so we took a stick
and wrapped it up

with a bunch of
literally small string,

made sure everything
was clear below,

everything was
safe, we were good.

Threw it from one
building to another,

and so we had one string.

Then we pulled back a
string that was a little thicker.

Then we pulled back a rope,

then we pulled
back a thicker rope,

and then we could finally
pull back the steel cable

and literally just started
weaving the cable

back and forth
and back and forth

until we got it.

From there, we
could work off there

and start building the
bottom of the bridge,

build another platform,

build the next level of
the bridge, and so on.

Narrator: With the
temporary bridge in place,

Michael then had to figure out

how to lift the huge
sections of steelwork

300 feet into the air.

Michael: We were limited
with what equipment

we could actually lift it with,

because, as you can imagine,

lifting something very
heavy, probably 40 to 60 tons,

at that height, over
300 feet in the air,

requires a serious
piece of equipment,

and you can't always fit a
serious piece of equipment

in New York City.

Hayley: To lift the
giant steel trusses,

the skeleton of the
building into place,

the builders attached
a tower crane

to the skyscraper

to stabilize it
against the wind.

Michael: Now that we know
the maximum piece of equipment

we can get in here,

how do we break
the bridge into pieces

that that piece of
equipment can lift

and so that we can
then construct it?

Narrator: 200 tons of steel

had to be hoisted up 300
feet one piece at a time,

to where construction
crews could connect them.

With the skybridge in place,

work began on fitting the
extraordinary copper facçade.

Ellie: They're called
the copper buildings

because they're covered in
over 4 million pounds of copper.

Narrator: Like everything
else on this project,

creating that copper finish
was not going to be easy.

Simon: The first time
this idea was presented,

we thought we'd have
to put copper plate

on the outside of the building,

and we did the math on how
much copper we'd have to buy

and then looked at the
raw material price of copper,

and realized that we'd have
to pay more for the copper,

just to get it here,

than we paid for
the property itself,

which means that
we couldn't afford it.

And so what we ended up doing

was coming up with a pretty
unique laminating structure

where the copper face,

which is very, very
thin copper foil,

actually thinner than
what's even on a penny,

and it is laminated
to a fireproof core,

and then on the backside
of that core is stainless steel.

Narrator: The raw copper
is then left untreated

and open to the elements.

Michael: The copper's
gone from shiny penny colour,

and it will patina and
continue to turn green.

Narrator: The rest will
be done by the weather

over the next 50 years.

Michael: It's going
to be beautiful.

I can't wait for that.

I love the copper,

but there's something
very American

about that colour green,

especially in New York.

It reeks of kind of old
beautiful New York buildings,

all the flashing,

but ultimately it reminds
me of the statue of Liberty,

so can't wait for it.

Hayley: The designers
and developers

have truly built the incredible
from the impossibly difficult.

Narrator: The
American copper building

takes its place in
the New York skyline

as a testament to how

ingenious engineering
and clever design

can create amazing living spaces

in one of the world's
most crowded areas.

Joshua: Two
spectacular buildings

forming a single
iconic project...

It's a real engineering
achievement.

Gregg: Taking this kind
of restrictive set of rules

and celebrating it

into something that looks
beautiful and inspiring

and makes people
wonder about it...

Whenever you can
do that as an architect,

I think that's something
you should strive for.

Narrator: 5,000
miles from New York,

in the ancient city
of Athens, Greece,

engineers and architects have
been battling mother nature

to create an enormous
100,000 square foot floating roof.

Man: To my knowledge,

it's the first
application in the world.

Narrator: Over
half a billion Euros

created a cultural
centre for all athenians,

complete with a new hill,
with a public park on top.

Hayley: This isn't just
about creating a building;

you're creating geography.

Narrator: And all of which
has to be tough enough

to withstand any potentially
devastating earthquakes

woman: Building in
an earthquake zone

is a dangerous game.

Narrator: So how
did they build it?

In 2006, the stavros
niarchos foundation,

a wealthy philanthropic
organization,

wanted to give a new home

to Greece's national
opera and national library.

They wanted somewhere that
would inspire the people of Athens.

Elly andriopoulou helped
manage the 566 million euro Grant

given to the stavros niarchos
foundation cultural centre.

Elly andriopouloi:
Pushing the boundaries

@of architecture and engineering

wasn't a goal in itself,

but it was a very
important means

to achieve the
vision of the sncc.

So we didn't want to
just provide new premises

to these two national
organizations;

we wanted to give
them a new home,

which would become a landmark.

There were a lot of risks taken.

The people
involved in the project

were very passionate about
pushing these boundaries,

and they certainly had
the expertise to do so.

Narrator: The foundation
turned to the company

that had transformed
the London skyline

with the shard,

the renzo piano
building workshop.

Giorgio Bianchi
oversaw the project.

Giorgio Bianchi: We had in mind

this idea to raise
the land in some way

and hide the opera
and the library

under something like a hill.

The hill was a park.

I create my hill,

and on top I put
the solar canopy.

And then I plant my park.

And here you have...

The opera house and the library.

Easy!

Narrator: Building it would
prove to be anything but.

The futuristic buildings
would hide behind a massive

100-foot-high artificial hill.

At one end, the new
earthquake-proof complex

would be home to the
Greek national library

and the 300,000-square-foot
national opera building.

It would be topped off with a
huge square floating canopy

over 300 feet long

that would protect the complex
from the fierce Greek sun,

and generate
electricity to run it

from 5,700 solar panels.

Many of the building
techniques needed

had never been
used in Greece before.

Elly: There were certainly many
challenges during construction,

because we were pushing
these boundaries in engineering.

The canopy was certainly
a very challenging element,

the hill in the park.

The seismic isolation
of such a large building...

All of these challenges
were overcome

and led to great innovation.

Narrator: One of the
most important challenges

was going to be protecting
it from the earth itself.

[Alarms beeping]

Ellie: Greece lies
on several fault lines

and has a long
history of earthquakes.

Traditionally, though, Athens
has remained unscathed.

Unfortunately, that
changed in 1999

when an earthquake
hit and killed 143 people.

Narrator: In 2018,

Greece was hit by
nearly 300 earthquakes.

Quakes greater than
6.3 on the Richter scale

can destroy a building.

Ellie: If you're creating
any new building in Athens,

you've got to take
earthquake risk seriously.

Narrator: Structural
engineer Gregory penelis

was part of the team
that took on the challenge.

Gregory: Greece has actually
50% of the seismicity in Europe.

So it's obviously a very
seismically prone area.

Such a complex structure
was obviously a challenge,

not only because
of its complexity,

but also because
of its criticality,

considering that it is an opera

that has thousands
of people inside

when in operation.

So seismic safety
was a very big issue

for the design of this building.

Narrator: With
millions of people

expected to visit each year,

they couldn't take any chances.

Joshua: The purpose
of any structure

is to carry load or forces
from where they are

down into the ground,

and that's true of anything...

Buildings, Bridges,
chairs, my skeleton.

But when you have an
earthquake, what's happening is

that the ground is shaking
violently from side to side,

and it's that sideways force

that has to be carried
down into the foundations.

So if a structure is in
an earthquake zone,

then it has to have a way to
resist that sideways motion,

or it will fall down.

Narrator: Most buildings
are made to resist force

from the top down.

But with an earthquake,

you get sideways
or lateral movement

that can easily
destroy most structures.

Gregory: Both the
opera and the library

are actually
seismically isolated.

Seismic isolation is like you
put the building on rollers.

So when the earth moves...
Because the earth moves,

not the building...

It moves underneath, and
the building stays the same.

A very easy analogy
for the non-engineers

is when you have a wooden
table and on top of it a toy truck,

and you move the table,

and the truck stays
without movement.

The table moves.

Or when you take the
tablecloth under the plate,

and the plates stay,

if you can do that.

Narrator: All well
and good in principle,

but how do you pull it off
with two huge buildings?

Gregory: Here we're in
the basement of the opera.

We are at minus 2
meters from the sea level,

from the ground floor.

Every column of the
opera and the library

has a seismic
isolator underneath it,

and underneath
this seismic isolator

there is a concrete pedestal,

and then we are standing on
the foundation of the building.

So, the whole building

is seismically isolated
from the ground

so that when the ground
moves due to earthquake,

the building remains stable.

So when the earthquake happens,

the pedestal and the ground
moves with a tolerance

of 35 centimetres,
back and forth each way.

One of them is
actually the largest one

ever installed in Europe.

The critical thing
is how we design

all the mechanical
and electrical

and architectural
features of the building

that connect the ground
to the upper stories

so that they can follow this
35-centimeter movement.

Ellie: Allowing a
building of this size

to have 70 centimetres
of movement

requires an awful lot
of forward planning.

Every wire, every pipe

that's going in and
out of this building

requires an extra
flexible section

in order that they don't break
when the building is moving.

Corina: Every wall
joint and every staircase

has to have a movement gap,

which they then
fill with silicon filler.

When the building
shakes, the silicon breaks.

That's a lot of filling
and repair work,

but its much better
than the alternative.

Narrator: Their next challenge

was to create the
enormous 100-foot-high hill

that gives the building
its signature shape.

Hayley: This isn't just
about creating a building.

When you're making
a whole new hill

you're creating geography.

They've actually altered
the skyline of Athens.

Narrator: This
10-million-cubic-foot hill

is made up of enough dirt

to fill 120 olympic-size
swimming pools.

3,500 gravel pillars had to
be constructed underneath

to hold the soil in place
and prevent landslides.

Then, the top was planted
with over 1,000 trees.

The effect of creating the park

was to lower the
local temperature

from the shade
the trees generate.

The hill, though, had
another purpose, too.

Giorgio: It was just to give
back to this part of the city

the idea that they
have the sea very close,

they can use this area

to get to a point where
the sea is visible again.

Narrator: At the summit,

looking over the
mediterranean sea,

sits the engineers'
greatest achievement...

The canopy,

a huge technological marvel

that needed
engineering solutions

used nowhere else in the world.

Gregory: It is a structure

that's 100 meters
by 100 meters in plan.

The magnitude of this

and the need to create
this very large structural spot

of more than 75
meters clear span

led to a lot of innovations.

Hayley: There are 750 panels,

creating a 100-meter
by 100-meter canopy

that simply floats on
the Athens skyline.

It's a beautiful
piece of engineering.

Narrator: As well
as being beautiful,

the huge 4,700-ton canopy

had to survive the
mediterranean storms

that hit Greece every year.

With wind speeds reaching
over 60 miles an hour,

the canopy had the potential
to act like a giant wing

and be ripped off the building.

The engineers had to
come up with a solution.

They decided to make the roof

so it behaves like
a spoiler on a car,

creating down-force when
it's caught by the wind.

So instead of lifting,

it pushes down onto
the supporting pillars.

To test it out,
they built a model

to see how the wind
would affect the roof.

Its aerodynamic shape could
survive the powerful storms.

They then had to find a
material that was strong enough

to span the huge distance and
cope with the force of the wind.

They chose ferrocement.

Gregory: Ferrocement
has been used extensively

in boat building.

So tankers were built
from ferrocement in the '70s,

and also it was used
as cladding material

for very elaborate buildings.

Hayley: Ferrocement is
made of a fine wire mesh

with a thin layer of concrete.

It was first invented
in the 1840s in France

and is thought to be the
first ever reinforced concrete.

Ellie: Ferrocement
confounds our expectations

about what concrete
can be used for.

This is concrete that is
thin and delicate and light.

Narrator: Ferrocement
can be made much thinner

and outperform traditional
reinforced concrete.

But that requires the
exact right combination

of cement and reinforcement.

Gregory: We needed to go
through very extensive testing

for the ferrocement.

Narrator: When tested,
the 2-inch-thick panels

were able to support

nearly 1,000 tons of
force per square foot...

The weight of six blue whales.

Gregory: This thin mesh
of 1 millimetre diameter

is not produced normally
as a structural material.

It's produced as a fence.

Narrator: The ferrocement
was thin enough

to keep down the
weight of the structure

and strong enough to span
over 300 feet in each direction.

The next problem

was that the down-force
of the canopy in high winds

would be enough to push
the supporting columns

through the roof underneath.

The engineers came up
with a radical solution...

To build the canopy its
own suspension system.

Gregory: Above us and
below us is ferrocement.

Now we can see it,

the whole structure
with the ribs,

and we are seeing
the suspension system

of the canopy from the column.

Narrator: Instead of
sitting on the columns,

the canopy sits on
the suspension system,

which absorbs down-force
even in heavy storms.

Gregory: The columns
enter the canopy,

and then it is suspended with a
system of Springs and dampers

from the column,

so it's hanging from the column.

Additionally we
have vertical brakes

that don't allow the canopy
to move for small winds.

It only moves for large winds.

The whole canopy has an ability
to move 15 to 20 centimetres.

But this movement will
only happen in a hurricane.

Once or twice per year,

this is the actual frequency

that we have
vibrations of the canopy.

To have the actual vertical load

100% of it being
suspended from Springs,

to my knowledge, it's the
first application in the world.

Narrator: The canopy
isn't only for decoration;

its 5,700 solar panels

generate over 2 gigawatts
of electricity a year...

Enough to power 1.4
million houses for an hour

and most of what the
entire complex needs.

Joshua: This
building is designed

to be sleek and stylish,

full of tech, really
heavily engineered.

This is a fantastic
piece of engineering.

Narrator: The snfcc
took four years to build,

opening its doors
to the public in 2016.

The building is not
only a testament

to how modern engineering
can realize the impossible,

but built at a time
of crisis in Greece,

it gave hope to Athens

and a modern focus to the
city's history and heritage.

Hayley: The snfcc
is for everybody,

and it's a real gift to Athens.

Gregory: This building
has completely transformed

the whole area of Athens.

It has become a point of
attraction for all athenians...

Not only athenians,
but all Greeks.

Elly: I think this is one of
the most important things,

if not the most important thing,

that has happened in
Greece the last few years.

And I'm very proud
that I was part of it

and very fortunate.

Narrator: Named one of the
world's most beautiful cities,

modern Singapore certainly
has some incredible buildings.

But it also has some
of the cleverest...

like the hive,

built for the nanyang
technical university.

Corina: University buildings
haven't really changed

since the 16th century.

Boxy buildings,
teacher in the front,

children sitting quietly.

Narrator: It not only
looks eye-popping,

but has a
revolutionary design...

Classrooms with no corners,

and a building that
gets wider as it gets taller

to create an eco-cooling system

capable of combatting the hot
and humid Singapore climate,

creating a building for the
21st century and beyond.

Kam chan hin wanted
a building custom-made

to teach the next
generation of students.

Kam chan hin: This building
is very much designed

for the millennials.

The new generation of learners,

they like to explore,
they like to participate,

and they go for quick images.

The mobile phone
is a good example.

We felt that a
building of this kind

actually encourages
students to speak up,

to challenge assumptions,

to talk to one another, and
to learn from one another.

Narrator: Architect Matt cash

was ready to take
on the challenge.

Matt cash: No corners.

No corners. Okay.

Why no corners?

And the idea being

is that in a way,
corners are defendable,

kind of you can get
your back to a corner

and you're kind of like this,

and it sets up a kind of a
dynamic in the classroom

between again the kind
of the lecturer or the master

and the pupils,

and they didn't want to do that.

They wanted it in the round.

And it's if you meet
at a round table

there's no hierarchy there.

A round table is
completely Democratic.

Narrator: The innovations
didn't stop there,

because the university
also wanted the hive

to be one of the most
ecologically friendly buildings

in the city.

Chan hin: We have
an overall target

to reduce energy
consumption by 30%.

Narrator: The
only way to do that

was to get rid of
traditional air conditioning.

Matt: When we're thinking
about the geometry of the building,

we're thinking about how
do you cool that environment

in the best way possible,

not using too much energy?

Ellie: With a single room,
we can air-condition it.

When we get to the scale
of big buildings, though,

it starts to get expensive

and is a massive drain
on energy and resources.

It's not eco,

and we don't like it.

Narrator: So the hive came
with two monumental challenges...

To engineer a building
without a corner in sight

and to keep it cool

in one of the most
humid cities in the world

without air conditioning.

Matt and the team got to work,

reinventing how
a university works.

Matt: So we started
with one classroom,

which is in effect a
kind of an oval shape.

And then we took
that one classroom

and we arrayed it,

we clustered it
around a central atrium.

And in a way that clustering
created the coming together.

So each of the classrooms
arrayed around a central space

and then they
stagger up and climb.

It's about, in a way,
increasing student interactivity.

That was really the
beginning of the idea

and the beginning of the form.

Narrator: The hive is made
up of 12 8-story-high towers

that slowly creep outwards
from the base of the building.

Incorporating these
circular classrooms

had drastically changed
the shape of the structure.

Corina: You've got a building
that's getting wider and wider

before it goes in again.

It's much like a barrel
that wants to fall outward.

Narrator: Building towers that
get wider was far from easy.

Joshua: Whenever you
haveúanything leaning or at an angle,

@then it wants to move sideways,

and there's that sideways
force that also has to be resisted

and carried on
down to the ground.

The consequences
of not considering

the stability
correctly at all stages

can be quite severe.

Narrator: The engineers
tilted the columns

to work with the unusual
shape of the building,

letting them carry the
weight of the floors above

straight down to
the ground below

in one continuous motion.

Matt: The building kind
of progressively steps out.

So each floor

is slightly cantilevered
out from the next one.

Now, when you're doing that

with two kind of
curving columns like that,

the building wants to fall over.

As the levels step up,

at every level we
have a ring beam,

which is almost like in a barrel

where you have horizontal
things that ties the barrel together.

It stops the
columns falling out,

and that ties the whole
structure together.

Ellie: You don't often see
leaning columns like that.

It kind of goes against

everything we think
engineering should be...

Straight up and
down, solid, robust.

Narrator: They may have
overcome getting rid of the corners.

Now they had to work
out how to keep it cool.

Matt: Part of our
challenge, really,

was about the
environment in Singapore.

It's a very hot,
humid environment.

How do you cool
that environment?

And one way of doing that

is to create an
atrium in the middle,

and atriums work by hot air,

which hot air rises,
rising up the middle,

and then that drags air with it

and creates almost
like a chimney.

And that chimney
draws all the hot air

up and away from the building.

So the geometry was generated

by trying to kind
of cool the middle.

Joshua: This is a
form of passive cooling

which uses the
form of the building

to block, sink,
and dissipate heat

in a natural way,

and it's a great way of really
reducing the energy consumption,

which is really important

in somewhere hot and
humid like Singapore.

Narrator: The
shape of the building

draws hot air up
and out of the roof.

The constant
flow of air cools it.

And the hive's plants
provide added shade,

protecting the
building from the sun.

Hayley: The plants
inside the building

help to lower the
temperature in the hall.

Chan hin: This building
is totally energy efficient.

It's been given the
platinum Mark for excellence

in energy sustainability.

Narrator: Matt had
met the challenges

set by the university,

but he didn't stop there.

He wanted a
building that stood out.

Matt: We didn't
have enough money

to have a lot of
different finishes,

and so in effect
the floor, the walls,

the cladding of the outside
of the building is all concrete.

People are expecting
concrete to be grey,

'cause that's the
cheapest way of doing it.

And if you had just
a big grey building,

it wouldn't have the
kind of textural relief

that you would you would want.

And so we experimented

with lots of different ways
of playing with concrete,

treating it in a
way like wet Clay.

On the cladding of the building

we use something
called a retarder,

which is in effect

something that prevents
the concrete drying

at the same speed.

And if the concrete is
drying at different speeds,

then some of it's hard
and some of it's still wet.

And then you wash that off.

So some of the concrete
exposes the stone,

the aggregate
inside the concrete,

and some the top surface
just the concrete finish.

Having that variety

means your eye kind
of enjoys exploring it,

and I think rather than

understanding the
building immediately,

it kind of demands
you look at it closer.

Narrator: Although
it's a radical design,

the building has already won
the hearts of the community.

Chan hin: It's called
the dim sum building

by some locals.

That is because the shape
also resembles the tiffin trays

that are used to
serve the dim sum.

Joshua: This is obviously
a really beautiful structure.

It would be a great and
interesting place to work.

Chan hin: From what we know,

the students actually
love the place,

of course it's very iconic.

It's become a bit
of a tourist spot.

We're very proud of it.

Narrator: The hive
created an environment

that challenged the ideaúof
how a university should work

and succeeded
beyond all expectations,

showing how engineering

isn't only about keeping
a building standing;

it's about changing
what's possible.