All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S01E05.Supertalls.and.Firehouses.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: What happens

when the world's
most radical architect

tries to revive a
hundred-year-old building?

Man: This project
obviously stands and falls

with structure.

I mean, this is a
structural masterpiece.

Narrator: How is
one of the world's

tallest residential skyscrapers

even standing?

Man: Columns are what
make a building stand up.

You take away that
structural support

and...[imitates explosion]

Narrator: And how do
you create a building

that would have been
impossible just 10 years ago?

Woman: Building in water

is incredibly difficult.

You've gotta hold
back an entire river

while you're building.

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.

Discover the incredible
stories of their construction...

Woman: These are
extraordinary feats of engineering.

Narrator: To try and understand

how did they build that?

Ever-growing cities are in
a constant battle for space,

risking demolishing the
old to make way for the new.

But in antwerp, Belgium,
one of Europe's busiest ports,

a forgotten
100-year-old building

has been transformed
beyond imagination.

A ground-breaking architect
has turned this historic firehouse

into a landing pad
for an extension

that is truly out of this world,

challenging engineers to float
the new addition effortlessly

above the original building...

Hayley loren oakes: It leans
forwards, it's backwards,

it's completely off
centre on the legs.

Narrator: Manufacturing
the entire structure off-site,

and then shipping it in
massive 400-ton pieces.

Ellie cosgrave: We're
dealing with making sure

we protect this
precious building

that lies underneath.

Narrator: Breathing new life
into every inch of its new home.

This is the antwerp port house.

So, how did they build it?

The antwerp port authority,

the government body
that controls the busy port,

needed a new home.

They decided on a
long-forgotten firehouse

in the centre of the
industrial complex.

It needed some serious work

if it was going to function
as their new headquarters,

but they didn't want to demolish
the original listed building.

Joshua macabuag: Adding
to existing historical structures

is a real challenge.

You've got the
technical challenge

of being able to work
around and load and repair

what can be quite old
and historic material

of the building.

But then you've
also got the aesthetic

and the kind of
heritage issues as well.

You need to build something

that's gonna be true
to the original history

and aesthetic of the structure

or complement it in quite
a stark and interesting way.

Narrator: They brought in

one of the world's
most famous architects,

zaha hadid,

to come up with a solution.

Her visionary designs, like
the Guangzhou opera house,

were known for pushing
engineering to the limits.

It needed some serious work

if it was going to function
as their new headquarters.

But they didn't want to
demolish the original building.

Joris pauwels: This is maybe
the biggest and most prominent

existing building we've taken on

to develop into a
new overall project,

@and it's definitely
a challenge,

but it's something
that we relish,

it gives all kinds
of new perspectives

on how to deal with
existing fabric, urban fabric.

Narrator: They had to figure out

how to build a
futuristic extension

to create a space
to house new offices,

while protecting a
beautiful historic building

that would form the
rest of the port authority's

new headquarters.

Joris: The original design

had four equal facçades,

meaning there's
no front entrance.

The four sides were
equally important,

so we definitely
wanted to preserve

that quality of the
existing building

by building a volume on top

and not blocking visually
one of the main facçades.

Narrator: The
architects also wanted

to preserve the building's
central courtyard.

Conservation specialist
Philippe lemineur

was charged with protecting
this piece of antwerp's past,

making sure the radical
design didn't destroy the building

or Rob it of its
original identity.

Philippe lemineur: We
can see in the typology

of a fire station
a lot of elements.

One you can see
on the right side

is that there are a lot
of gates for fire trucks,

and then you have the back
side in the middle of the facçade,

the dry tower.

Those elements are very
important for a fire station.

Narrator: Studying the
plans for the firehouse

gave the architects an idea...

One that would honour
the original design

and let them build
something out of this world.

It turns out the building
was never actually finished.

Joris: It was built in 1921,

and the original
design of the fire station

had a big tower on top,

which was twice the
size of the building,

very extravagant,
was never built,

and which made us consider

an extension on top
of the existing building

as a kind of
contemporary endpoint

to the existing building.

Narrator: This
monumental extension

not only brings the building
into the 21st century;

it completes the vision
of the original architect.

The plan was to build

a precision-engineered
futuristic extension

over 60 feet above
the historic building

to house new offices,

supporting the
1,500-ton structure

with two massive concrete legs,

and to join the new
extension to the firehouse

through the old tower,

where the firemen used
to hang their hoses to dry.

The engineers got to work

figuring out how to support
the massive steel structure

above the 100-year-old building,

without damaging it.

Joris: This project obviously
stands and falls with structure.

I mean, this is a
structural masterpiece.

We'd like our buildings
to float if we can,

so we definitely try
to minimize the points

and keep this
idea of a hovering,

large hovering volume
over the existing building.

The new building cantilevers out

over the square in front
of the existing building.

It's quite a dramatic effect,

pointing towards the
city centre of antwerp.

The structure of
the new building

is a steel structure.

It's held by two
concrete pillars.

Narrator: The engineers
built two concrete legs

to hold up the new offices,

with the front leg
designed to widely lean out.

It looked dramatic,

but without
precise calculations,

it risked dropping
the brand-new building

on top of the firehouse.

Ellie: Because the front
leg is leaning out at an angle,

it's gonna want to
push out at the top

and slip under the
building at the bottom.

Narrator: They decided to
connect the front and back legs

at the top and bottom,

turning the structure into
a massive concrete ring,

with the bottom part of
that ring underground.

Corina kwami: By connecting
these two legs at the top,

they are kept from
falling out at the top,

and at the bottom,
stopped from slipping in.

Joris: The two pillars
are obviously not vertical,

so that we have a very
dramatically inclined

front pillar,

which needs the concrete ring

to keep it from falling
over the square,

so that's why this
ring is very important

as a structural element.

Narrator: The ring is joined

just under the massive
steel and glass structure,

and the bottom
connects these stories

underground in the carpark,

keeping the legs in place

and letting them support
the weight of the extension.

The top section stops the giant
concrete leg from falling over,

and the bottom
stops it sliding out

from under the
massive steel structure.

The whole thing is
steadied by another four

internal-connected
steel supports.

The engineers did all this

while barely touching
the old firehouse.

Joris: We tried
to keep the impact

on the existing
building very minimal,

and that is equally important

when we created
this structural ring,

which goes through
the foundation work

of the existing building,

so it's a very
minimal connection,

both structurally, where
we connect the foundations,

as well as physically

where we introduced
the small staircase

leading up to the entrance
hall inside the existing building.

We've got a two-story
underground car parking,

so it's two stories down.

Underneath that,

so the third basement
level, if you like,

that's where we
made the connection

between the foundation
of that inclined front pillar

and the central pillar,
which rests in the courtyard.

Narrator: What did the
conservation specialist think

of this radical approach?

Did it do justice to
the original building?

Philippe: The opportunity
to do the second feet

at the inside of the
building, in the courtyard.

But we still needed to have
the aspect of a courtyard.

You can't fill it up with
feets and structure.

Then you have no more courtyard,

and you have no
more light inside.

You can use even
more this space.

So the engineer and zaha
hadid tried to find a way

that you could
have this structure,

but with the kind of subtlety

that these are sculptural
elements in the inside,

and so, you can see
that those elements,

even not touch
the old structure...

Just landing
inside the building,

and they make possible that
this big volume above our heads

is standing over there.

Narrator: With the gigantic
concrete legs in place,

the engineers
were ready to tackle

the futuristic glass structure.

But constructing it was going
to be a bigger undertaking

than anyone had imagined.

Joris: Having the new
building floating in mid-air,

it's important that it's not a
super heavy construction.

So it's a steel structure.

It also is a
sustainable structure.

So we looked at the whole
number of possibilities

of constructing the building.

We did a lot of analysis
with the contractor

to see how they
could build platforms,

how they could get
enough people up there.

Narrator: To preserve
the original building

and realize the precise design,

the engineers decided to build
almost all of the new extension

in a factory 55 miles away.

Joris: It was clear,
after initial analysis,

that building the
steel structure off-site

in big modules,

shipping them to site,
and installing them

was a much faster and
more economical way

of constructing the building.

Corina: Normally
with steel structures,

you build upwards
with scaffolding support

and welding as you go.

But in this case,

they were building over
the existing structure.

You're looking at a lot
of scaffolding support,

with all the risks of
building over and around

this listed precious building.

So what do you do?

You build it 90 kilometres
away, in 400-ton pieces,

and ship it in.

Joris: So building the
structure of the new building

off-site in factory

means it's much more
controlled in terms of tolerances,

making sure everything
is completely right.

They even installed
a temporary structure

to ship the modules
on boats to the location,

and then all they had
to do is lift them in place,

so it's a much faster
construction procedure

to build the overall volume.

The structure of
the new building

is built in six
separate steel parts,

two steel pieces per level,

and they were lifted in place

and then assembled on
top of the existing building.

Narrator: The
330-foot-long, 200-foot-high,

and 65-foot-wide steel structure

was broken up into six
enormous 400-ton pieces

and shipped from the factory 55
miles away on massive barges.

The builders used a
remote-controlled Dolly system

to offload these giant sections.

Joris: So it's both
light construction,

it's lightweight
construction time,

which is important,

and also the kind of
environmental concern

that we had,

so this is achieved

by having this steel
structure made off-site

and coming on site by boat.

Hayley: The scale
of this job is immense.

Just look at the
size of the platforms

that are used to drive off
the sections from the barges.

They're each
the size of a truck.

It just seems mad that this
is the safest and quickest

and most efficient
way of working.

But it just illustrates that
to make a building like this,

you really have to approach it

from a completely
different way of thinking.

Narrator: With the steel
mega structure in place,

they turned their attention

to the building's
signature glass facçade.

Joris: We wanted a glass
volume to maximize views out,

maximum light coming
into the office environment.

And what we looked at

is to create a dynamic over
the length of the facçade,

as if this building
is in motion.

And we did that by playing
with the faceted triangles

that go from a flat
facçade on the south side

to a completely faceted
pineapple structure

on the north side.

So this transition makes that,

when you observe the
building from distance,

it seems to be in constant
flux with light, with clouds,

with sunlight playing
on the triangles.

It seems to be a
kind of moving object

over this static
classical building.

Corina: The finished effect

means the glass is
constantly changing

as you walk around it.

There's something of the
effect of the glittering sea

or fishy scales.

Narrator: The gigantic
extension was secure,

glistening above
the old firehouse.

But there was still no
physical connection

between the two structures.

How do you connect
two massive buildings

with the least impact possible?

They decided to use the
firehouse's old dry tower.

Philippe: You do an
extension to a building...

At one place or at one moment,

the two parts have a place
where they meet together.

What we see is

maybe the only physical
touch between old and new

is the dry tower.

When we see the dry tower,

we see a little bit of
masonry above the roof,

and then we see the start
of a glazen elevator shaft.

The elevator starts
in the old dry tower,

go to the glazen shaft,

and then enter in
the new building.

Joris: Although
you enter the lifts

at the bottom of the
existing building in the tower,

the lifts take you up to the
new building and connect,

but the structure of these
lifts is hung independently

from the steel structure
of the new building,

so there is, it's not actually
touching the brickwork

of the existing tower.

The existing brickwork
tower acts as a sleeve

in which the steel
structure is hung

independently
from the brickwork,

completely loose
from each other.

Corina: The amazing thing

is that both of these
buildings are separate.

Replace the bricks,
and good as new.

Of course, that would be a
very expensive change of heart.

Narrator: The radical new
extension was in place,

transforming the
original fire station,

seamlessly combining
groundbreaking architecture

with a sense of history

to bring a forgotten
firehouse into the 21st century.

Joris: I think actually
that our project

allowed this building
to be reinstated

as an important landmark
within the antwerp urban fabric.

There might have been
all kinds of other scenarios

where this building would
have been demolished

and something new
would have been built.

I think it was very important
also for zaha herself

to keep this existing
building, to stay with this,

and to have a separate
layer coming over it

to layer the city,

instead of demolishing
and rebuilding.

Philippe: We have
a larger building

with a bigger capacity,

working 500 people in it now.

And we have also a
remarkable site now here,

a site maybe
forgotten in the past.

Ellie: What we have
here is a building

that deeply
respects the original

and gives it space.

Yet it also reacts against it,

with something so
crazy and outlandish.

The overall effect is that
we have these two structures

that exist together

but have their own identity.

Narrator: Deep in the heart of
New York's Manhattan island,

one of the most prestigious
addresses in the city

has a new resident.

An 88-story skyscraper,

one of the highest
residential towers in the world.

It's classed as a "super tall."

Corina: There's only about
146 of them in the world.

Nehemiah mabry: It's
really become a club

that people are
desperate to be a part of.

Narrator: Not just
tall in the extreme,

but at just 92 feet across,

it's also very slim

and vulnerable to
the city's wild winds.

Debbie sterling: 432 park Avenue

is 15 times higher than
the width of its base.

Narrator: To create
luxury apartments

with unspoiled views,

the engineers had to do
away with internal columns.

The project would
cost $1.25 billion

and push skyscraper
engineering to its limits.

This gravity-defying
wonder is 432 park Avenue.

It's 2011,

and on a small
plot in Manhattan,

an ambitious plan is
being put into action

to build a 92-foot-wide tower

and just under
1,400 feet in the sky...

Dimensions never seen
before in skyscraper engineering.

Engineer hezi mena was
tasked with figuring out

how to build this
developer's dream.

Hezi mena: It's not a
normal typical building.

It's very tall, small
footprint, it's very slender.

There was a lot of challenges.

It's a tremendous effort
put in for over five years

from start to finish.

Narrator: This super-tall,
super-slim design

was difficult enough
to build as it was,

but there was another curveball
coming the engineer's way.

With the apartments needing
to fetch $75 million plus,

no one wanted internal columns

getting in the way
of luxury interiors.

They told the engineers
to get rid of them.

Joshua: Taking away
columns is all well and good,

but unfortunately
they're very important

for holding up the structure.

If you take them away, úthen
you need an alternative way

to carry those loads
down to the ground.

Nehemiah: Columns are
what make a building stand up.

You take away that
structural support,

and...[imitates explosion]

Narrator: With a
building this tall,

you need a way to hold
up the weight of 88 floors.

Normally this is done
with internal columns.

Without them,

they needed a way to support
this super-tall skyscraper.

Hezi: So like a typical
20, 30-story building

would have a central core,

what we call the
backbone of the building.

And that will hold wind
and the earthquakes,

seismic, horizontal forces.

Ellie: This is the
backbone of the building.

It's what gives
buildings their strength.

Narrator: For 432 park Avenue,

at 88 stories high,

that wasn't enough.

The engineers decided

to make the building's
outer shell super-strong

to reinforce the structure.

Hezi: This building
has a backbone,

which is also the central core.

But we also supplemented
the exterior columns,

so together they are
providing the stability

that the building needs.

Narrator: They inserted
supersized steel rebar

into the concrete outer shell

for added strength.

Corina: To make
concrete stronger,

you put steel
reinforcement into it.

Ellie: And in this case,
it's a gigantic piece of steel.

Narrator: Architects Chuck
knapp and Gloria glass

kept a section of
this super thick rebar

as a souvenir.

Chuck knapp: You can see
the size and the diameter.

These are major rebar, and...

Gloria glass: In general,

they are this size,
you know, right?

Chuck: The information'súon
the side of the bar normally.

Not this, this is screw,

because they need to be able
to screw these in the couplers,

so it's a different animal.

Um, but it's pretty big.

And this thing's only about
an inch, inch and a half,

and it's very, very heavy.

Narrator: It wasn't
enough, though,

just to have a super
strong facçade.

Corina: It had to be tied
to the core of the building,

that area that houses
the elevator shaft.

Narrator: This supersized rebar

made the outside
of the skyscraper

incredibly strong,

but the engineers
made it even stronger,

connecting it with steel beams
to the concrete elevator shaft,

which acts like a spine

running down the
length of the building.

The skyscraper's core
and reinforced exterior

gave it the strength to tower
almost 1,400 feet into the air.

But this height
made it vulnerable

to New York's infamous winds.

Hayley: A skyscraper
is a structure

that people live in.

You hang out there,
you sleep there.

And if the architects
and engineers

don't do anything
about the wind,

then you're really
going to feel it,

especially if the
building's thin.

Ellie: All structures
that we build move,

but in tall structures,

they're particularly prone
to being moved by the wind,

and the thinner the structure,
the more vulnerable they are.

Narrator: The
skyscraper was vulnerable

to turbulence
created by the wind.

If the wind was strong enough,

it could make the
building shake,

making it uninhabitable

and even risking
damage to the structure.

Joshua: When you have
a tall, thin structure like this

and when the wind strikes it,

the wind then wants to
pass around the building,

creating turbulence
on the back side.

That turbulence creates
vortices and swirls of wind

which pass up the full
height of the building,

and the turbulence
creates the swirls

to first be on one side,

and then the other,
and then the other.

This is called vortex
shedding, and what it does

is it starts to actually to
buffet the building sideways

even though you're
blowing it straight on.

Now, any building
has a natural frequency.

Think about pushing
a child on a swing.

If you push the child
at the right frequency,

the child will
start to go higher.

Same thing
happens to a building.

If these vortices start to form

and push the building at the
right or the wrong frequency,

then the vibrations will
start to get out of control.

Narrator: The engineers
started to take out windows,

letting the wind
rush through floors

that contain the skyscraper's
pumps and other utilities.

Hezi: We found that when
you make these penetrations

in the building at
certain locations,

it reduces the wind pressures
by about 20% to 25%.

Hayley: Every twelfth
floor is open to the air.

That lets the wind blow through.

Really clever.

But it doesn't solve
the problem completely.

Narrator: To make
sure the skyscraper

could survive even New
York's strongest winds,

the engineers had another
trick up their sleeves.

The masterstroke, the
brilliant engineering trick,

is hidden away at the
very top of the tower,

on the 84th floor...

Two secret giant machines
that directly counteract the wind.

Joshua: The wind
acting on the building

wants to make it sway.

To stop that happening, they've
used tuned mass dampers,

which means a
huge lump of concrete

high up in the building.

It's an active system,

which means that
when the building

wants to sway in one direction,

the hydraulic Jacks

will move that lump of
concrete in the other direction,

counteracting that force

and hopefully
keeping the building

not moving too much.

Hezi: This particular building,

we have a damper,
weighs about 1,300 tons,

absorbing the energy of the
wind that exerts on the building.

So it has to be fast enough

so the occupant that
sits in the apartment

doesn't feel the
movement of the building.

Narrator: Which is good news

if you've paid over $75 million

for one of the
incredible apartments.

Ellie: 432 is without a doubt

a feat of world-class
engineering.

It costs a staggering
$1.25 billion to build,

and by my estimation,

it's about as beautiful
as a skyscraper can get.

Narrator: 432 park Avenue
towers above the competition,

giving it one of the most
sought-after addresses

in New York.

Its best view as well,

using clever engineering

to take skyscrapers
to their limits.

On the rugged east
coast of Scotland,

a ship-building
powerhouse had fallen quiet.

But all of that was
about to change,

thanks to one
extraordinary structure...

The brainchild

of one of the world's
most radical architects.

The Victoria & Albert
museum in dundee

rises from the river tay,

forming a man-made cliff.

This revolutionary design

forced engineers to
construct a huge dam

in the middle of
a raging river...

Build a gravity-defying
86,000-square-foot shell

in one piece of concrete,

without a column in sight...

And hang 3-ton slabs
off impossible walls.

Ellie: It looks like the
forces of this building

should just
completely rip it apart.

Narrator: So, how
did they build it?

In dundee, Scotland,

the city's industrial
heart needed a kickstart.

The radical plan was to build
Scotland's first design museum

in the historic shipyards,

where Scott's and shackleton's
legendary antarctic ship

had been built.

Phillip long: It's been very
important in this project

to have a remarkable building.

This is a new design museum,

so it seemed right to look
for an ambitious design

that would inspire people
to come and see the building,

a building by an
architect who is so brilliant

at responding to
a particular place,

about the relationship
between the river and the city.

Narrator: Visionary Japanese
architect kengo kuma

designed this
brutalist masterpiece.

He used Scotland's
stunning landscape

for inspiration.

Narrator: The plan...

To lay the foundations in
the middle of the tay river,

while battling the
Scottish weather

and protecting local wildlife...

To cast a giant concrete shell

that uses nothing but its
own strangely shaped walls

for support...

And hang the signature cladding,

with pieces
weighing up to 3 tons

from the gravity-defying walls.

Their first task was
to lay the foundations,

but this wasn't
going to be easy.

The design called for a
huge portion of the building

to stick out into the tay.

@corina: There are serious
issues with building in water.

Debbie: Building in
water is incredibly difficult.

You've got to hold
back an entire river

while you're building.

Narrator: How do
you lay foundations

in the middle of a river?

Structural engineer Dan clipson

had to tackle this
monumental task.

Dan clipson:
Building in the water

isn't fundamentally different
from building on the ground.

@the foundations of the building

still need to go
down to bedrock.

So whether it's in the river

or on the land
behind the river wall,

we're still piling down
20 meters into the rock

to get a good foundation
for the building.

Dundee is a very nice
sunny city most of the time.

It's also cold and wet in
winter, like many places.

So the weather plays quite
a key part in construction.

We're working by a tidal river,

working in a climate that has
extreme colds during the winter

and rain and wind.

They all need to be
considered during construction.

Narrator: They had
to lay the foundations

on a seriously difficult site.

To make it possible,

they decided to build a dam

out of 12,500 tons
of stone and earth,

called a cofferdam.

Corina: A cofferdam
is an enclosure

built within a body of water

to allow the enclosed
area to be pumped out.

Ellie: That means that you
can get on with your work

in a nice dry environment.

Narrator: The cofferdam
would let the engineers

extend the existing dockside,

pushing the site into the tay.

Building the dam was
a race against time.

Phillip: There are
protected species in the river,

particularly a species of seal,

and so we had a
very short time-scale

that would allow us to build
our foundation out in the river.

We went on site
in march in 2015,

and we had to make sure

that all of that work that
was done out in the river

was done by the
beginning of June,

the beginning of the
seal pupping season.

Narrator: The local
grey seal population

lives close to the site.

Their breeding season
was just around the corner,

and the second it started,

all work in the river
would have to stop.

The construction team

hammered massive
steel slats into the riverbed,

filling in the
centre with rubble

to hold back the
force of the tay river.

Dan: What was done in this case

was a temporary bit
of land was created,

so the contractor installed
a piled wall out into the river

and filled it in with ground

to create a new bit of land

that we could then
build the building on.

We were constructing
the building

on top of solid ground,

even though it
was above the river.

Narrator: The engineers
drilled down 65 feet,

anchoring the
building's foundations

to the rock bed
on concrete piles.

At the same time,

they would have to make
sure the corrosive salt of the tay

wouldn't eat away
the foundations.

They decided to use a
concrete with a special formula,

specifically
designed to resist salt.

Dan: Salt and chlorides are
the enemy of our structure.

So they cause corrosion

and damage to the
building over time

that we have to prevent.

The concrete mixes
we've used in this building

had to be different.

We had to change them
from what we'd normally do

in order to make
them more resistant

to the elements, to the salts,

to all of the things that are
trying to attack the building.

Narrator: The
foundations were secure,

and a new piece of land had
been built into the tay river,

ready for the next
step of the build.

The engineers now had to
tackle the building's radical shape.

They wanted the walls to
support the entire structure,

removing any interior columns
from the gallery spaces.

But the leaning
and twisting design

threatened to tear
the museum apart.

Hayley: Normally you
would never build walls

that are sloping outwards,

and that's because,

as well as the usual
gravitational forces

that are pushing
down on the building,

you're adding an
extra layer of strain

as the walls are
being pulled apart.

Joshua: The shape
of this building is,

it's really incredible

@and something that
you don't see in architecture

very often for a reason,

@and that's
because it just takes

a lot of expertise,
science, and maths

to achieve what
they've achieved here.

Narrator: To get
the calculations right,

they used the very latest
3D computer modelling

and sculptural techniques.

Dan: This is a building
that is a very modern design.

We needed to use a lot
of computational power

to create the design
of this building.

We looked at the shape
at the concept stage,

and we could have
put a frame in here

and hung the facçade
off the outside of it.

It could have been
a traditional building.

The problem with that is

we'd fill the building
with a lot of stuff,

and this is a museum,

this is an art space,
this is a gallery,

this is a place for
people to come and enjoy

that we didn't want to fill
with bits of steel and concrete.

Historically we'd
build buildings

with the walls
carrying the weight...

Stone huts back
in the dark ages.

The walls carried the roof,

and that was how we protected
you from the wind and the rain.

So we took the option of
using the shell of the building

as its structure,

kind of going back to the
old way of doing things...

Make the outside of the
building hold the building up,

and then you don't need
to put anything inside.

Because of the way
the building is pulling

on all the different
bits of itself...

The roof pulls on the walls,
the walls pull on the roof...

We had to design
it as one big object.

Narrator: To make the
most of the exhibition spaces,

the architect didn't want
any interior columns.

To achieve this, the
shell of the building,

the exterior walls,

had to support the
roof and themselves.

No easy task, given
their extreme shapes.

The solution was to design
the shell to work as one piece,

using its own weight
and steel reinforcements

to hold the building together.

But there was a problem.

The shell would be
only structurally sound

when the last
piece was in place.

Until then, the whole
building was unstable.

Joshua: So the leaning
walls and the whole building

is really held together
by these tension forces

pulling everything back
towards that central core.

Dan: The skin of
the building itself

is doing all the work.

It's carrying the
weight of the building,

it's pushing and pulling
with different forces,

it's resisting the
wind and the rain,

it's keeping the
building watertight,

holding the facçade up and
the cladding on the outside.

But it's primarily
supporting the building.

Narrator: They used their
advanced computer model

to make the walls
super-efficient,

making them as thin as possible,
and more importantly, light.

Dan: That resulted
in some of the walls

being half as thick.

They went from 600 millimetres
down to 300 millimetres,

which is a significant
saving in materials

and reduces the
weight of the building,

the size of the foundations.

It's a lot of positive
outcomes from that.

Narrator: Now they
faced the challenge

of building the
81,000-cubic-foot shell.

This would only be stable

when the last pour of
concrete had hardened.

It wouldn't be able to
support its own weight

until the very end.

Dan: Because of the
shell we had to make,

it was like casting
a giant mold.

We had to finish the casting

before we could
take the mold away,

'cause in a partially
completed state,

the building isn't stable.

Narrator: As the
shell started to go up,

the builders had to add
more and more formwork...

The molds that
hold the concrete...

To support the
precarious structure.

If they removed
a piece too early,

the whole structure
would collapse.

After a year and a
half of constant work,

the last concrete
pour was completed.

It was time to take
off the formwork

and see if all the
calculations were correct

and if this one-of-a-kind
design would support itself.

Phillip: Finally,

after nearly two years
of it coming into place,

it came down,

and it was a very,
very exciting moment

to see that formwork removed

and the shell of v&a dundee

finally born, finally revealed.

Narrator: When the
molds were removed,

the black concrete
underneath was revealed.

It was colourized
with a pfa paint,

or pulverized fuel ash,

made from the waste of
coal-fired power stations.

At last,

the v&a's groundbreaking
shell was complete.

But architect kengo kuma
wasn't going to leave it there.

He had big plans for the finish.

Narrator: He wanted to
use giant concrete blocks

to mimic the craggy appearance
of Scottish coastal cliffs.

But it turns out, creating
a random natural pattern

is harder than you think.

Dan: If you look at the
facçade of the building,

at the external
panels from outside,

you'll see that they all
look slightly different.

There's a random
pattern to them.

They step in and out,
they step up and down,

they kind of weave around

and create this sort of
vision of this cliff face,

of this random assortment.

In reality, they're
not that random.

If we did an entirely random
pattern for the facçade,

if every plank
was just generated

by some mathematical formula,

the risk is that two or three
planks next to each other

would look similar enough

that your brain would
see them as the same,

so we had to
create this algorithm

that allowed us
to fine-tune things

to make sure the architects

could look at the
building from every angle

and they could tweak and
adjust until it looked just so.

Narrator: With the shell
working as one piece,

it was ready to take

the massive weight
of the cladding.

All in all, there are 2,500
pre-cast rough stone panels,

weighing up to 6,600 pounds each

and spanning up to 13 feet.

Hanging them was
going to be a challenge.

Dan: The facçade panels

are made from a concrete
and reconstituted stone material.

They weigh an awful lot.

The facçade, the panels

weigh about the same as
the wall that's holding them up.

The panels on a more
vertical wall are smaller,

panels on the more
sloping walls are bigger.

That presents another challenge

because the walls that
are sloping and twisting

are working harder,

and the cladding hung
off them is heavier.

So it's a sort of double
whammy of challenge

that we had to
overcome in the design.

Narrator: The anchoring
points of the giant stone cladding

had to be seriously heavy-duty.

The engineers decided
to set them in the shell

when it was first being poured,

letting the outer shell
harden around them.

This, though, left
no room for error.

Get it wrong, and the
cladding wouldn't fit on the shell.

In the end, every
anchor except three

was in the perfect position.

The exterior of the
building was complete,

a testament to the
Scottish landscape.

V&a dundee is proof
that radical engineering

can breathe new life
into a long-neglected area,

using the natural environment
to redefine the urban landscape.

Hayley: The end result
is a beautiful building

that is truly built to last,

as tough and rugged
and as beautiful

as the Scottish
landscape that inspired it.

Phillip: Dundee's falling in
love with its waterfront again,

and people that come
to experience v&a dundee

now have a new
relationship with the river,

which has been suchúan
important part of this city.

Narrator: Extraordinary
engineering challenges

had been overcome to
create the designer's vision.

Dan: I consider this to
be a landmark project.

I find it fascinating

that people look at it
as a piece of engineering

as well as a piece of
art and architecture.

It's a visible piece of
structural engineering.