All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S03E02.Jungles.and.Bricks.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

[music]

[Jay] How do you defy gravity

and make a tower ripple
in every direction?

[Mat] The whole building
wants to topple over,

so it really needs some
clever engineering behind it.

[Jay] Can engineers construct
a tornado-proof art center

without a single
right angle in sight?

My first reaction to
this design was, wow.

I am not exactly sure how
we're going to accomplish that.

[music]

[Jay] And how do
you build an office

with a shape never used
before in construction?

Holy cow, how does something
like that get built?

[music]

[Jay] This is the age
of the extraordinary.

[Amma] It's totally different
from everything around it.

It's like a visitor
from another planet.

[music]

[Jay] Where ingenious engineers

have unleashed
unchecked creativity.

Now their secrets are revealed

as we discover
the amazing stories

of their construction.

[Dr. Mabry]
It is simply mindblowing.

I mean, how do you come up with
an idea like that?

[music]

[Jay] To try and understand

how did they build that?

When the legendary
architect Frank Gehry

was asked to design
an iconic building

for a brand-new business school
in Sydney, Australia,

he was determined
to pull something really special

out of the bag--

a totally unique
and amazing building known as

the Squash Brown Paper Bag.

Sydney, Australia.

It's a city
that is world famous

for its quality of life,

amazing weather,

and incredible architecture.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The opera house.

And now a university building
that defies the laws of gravity.

[Nigel]
You can see it 100 times,

and you can still
stand outside the building

and just wonder
how this was designed

and how it was built.

[Jay] Designed by
one of the world's

most celebrated architects,

it leans perilously
in all directions.

Every one of its 320,000 bricks

looks set to topple
to the ground.

Look at this building and
your brain just screams at you.

This building
does not make sense.

[Jay] Sculpting it from
brick, concrete, and steel

pushes the team to its limits.

We will identify challenges
not just at the start,

just throughout.

[Jay] As the design
and even the site itself

throw up more and more problems.

There's an old, fragile sewer
right at the edge of the site.

And if it's punctured,

the site gets
flooded with sewage.

[Jay] It takes five
long years to create

the UTS Business School,

an architectural vision
that snakes and twists

in a way no building
ever should.

So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Jay] It's 2008,

and despite being
one of the world's

top young universities,

the University of
Technology Sydney,

or UTS for short,

has a problem.

Established in the 1980s,

many of its buildings
date back even further.

The campus is
tired, dilapidated,

and unattractive to students.

In that period of time,

the whole precinct
was largely one

that required
significant improvement.

[Jay] To survive,
the university needs to rebuild.

It embarks on
a $600 million program

to renew the campus
with a series of sustainable,

beautiful buildings.

The centerpiece will be

an extraordinary
eye-catching new home

for the university's
business school.

[Daniel] UTS wanted
a bold statement,

something that helps
advertise their presence

in a competitive
education market.

[Jay] They turned to one of
the most celebrated architects

in the world, Frank Gehry.

With a style unlike any other,

Gary has spent over 60 years

creating extraordinary buildings
around the world,

including the Guggenheim
Museum Bilbao in Spain

and the Louis Vuitton
Foundation in France.

He redefines
what a building can be

and sets incredible
challenges for engineers.

Frank Gehry has a way
of bending buildings,

completely twisting
them out of shape

so it just looks like
they shouldn't stand up.

[Jay] In March 2010,

and in typical Gehry style,

the design starts as a sketch.

One of my first impressions of
Frank Gehry's initial squiggles

on a piece of paper,

they were hard to understand how

that transformed
into a building.

[Jay] In Gehry's mind,
there is one clear ambition--

In my experience,

there's been a fear
of exploring the unknown.

And it does tend to
lead to banal buildings.

We're talking about
breaking through that

and showing how
a building can have character

and become a catalyst
to creativity.

[Jay] Gehry builds
hundreds of models

to turn his drawing
into the final design.

It will be every bit as bold
as the university demands.

A curving
and contorting building

in his signature style.

[music]

[Jay] The first challenge
will be shoring up

the soft, swampy local soil

as they dig down to create
foundations and the basement.

Then, at the center
of the building,

they'll construct a standard
core of reinforced concrete.

But Gehry's design will require
undulating floor planks

that are anything but standard,

so to support them,

they will design
a unique system of

individually engineered columns.

Last, but not least,
they'll have to find a way

to make more than
300,000 straight-edge bricks

conform to the building's
dizzying curves.

If they can pull it off,

they will create
an educational centerpiece

unlike any other in the world.

[music]

[Jay] In 2011,
the team starts preparation

for the foundations
and basement,

and immediately
they hit a problem.

The site was once a swamp.

As soon as
they dig to any depth,

it floods with water.

It was a significant exercise

to continually pump water
out of the site

so that the work could continue.

[Jay] To hold back
the groundwater

and the soft soil,

they construct
retention pile walls

one side at a time

around the perimeter
of the basement.

This involves drilling
deep piles close to one another

before reinforcing them
and filling them with concrete.

But at the fourth wall,

they discover
a fragile Victorian era sewer.

It can't be removed
and must remain intact.

The oviform sewer,

which is essentially
an egg-shaped brick sewer

running down the one side,

it is really
sensitive to movement.

They have to be
incredibly careful

with the vibrations of
the work they're doing,

because if the sewer moves
by only 5 millimeters,

it's gonna shatter.

[Jay] The engineers have to find
a way of building the pile wall

and protecting the sewer.

We were able to
come up with a system

which we called

the "World War II
gun turret brace system."

[Jay] This involves using
a system of diagonal props

resembling gun turrets.

They hold
the pile wall in place,

but can be moved while
they excavate the basement.

[George] As we excavated
the remainder of the basement,

we were able to
jack up the braces

to keep the wall
in the right location

and to limit the
movement on that sewer.

[Jay] It works beautifully,
holding the wall in place

while the team
constructs the basement

without damaging
the historic sewer.

The trickiest bit eventually

was installing
the ground floor slab

and then being able to release
those big steel diagonal props.

[Jay] With the slab in place,
the sewer is safe.

Now they can start
to build the main structure.

In an ordinary
rectangular tower,

the forces it creates
are transferred down vertically

through the internal columns.

But this is something
else altogether.

If you want
a Frank Gehry building,

you have to accept the challenge
that comes with it.

[Jay] Because of
the shape of Gehry's design,

the forces push out sideways,
as well as down.

[George] The building would
twist under its own weight.

How do we limit those movements?

How do we get those
loads to the ground?

Those would be
big challenges for us.

[Jay] The solution
is to use sloping columns.

These are often used
to manage complex forces.

But every building is different,

and this one
is more complex than most.

A lot of the sleepless nights
that we had

was around
how we would deal with

the sloping columns.

[Jay] They have to work out

exactly where
every column will go

and how much
it will need to slope

to cope with
the different forces

created in each location.

[George] We had
columns that were starting

on the top of the building,

quite far away from each other,

that ended up
intersecting each other

lower down in the building,

which made the detailing

and how we were actually able
to construct them

quite involved.

[Jay] The interior
skeleton is complete.

Then, in August 2013,
the team faces

their biggest test yet--

creating the building's façade.

The curving buildings
Gehry's renowned for

are often finished
in sheets of metal,

but not this one.

The neighborhood is composed
primarily of brick buildings,

and so we started to
try and make a building

that really speaks
to the neighborhood

and fits into that context.

[music]

[Jay] By choosing brick,

the façade material
can be locally sourced,

which makes it more sustainable.

But making curves
out of it won't be easy.

[Craig] The level of
curvature on this building

is beyond what
we had done previously.

The interest here is
to get this flowing shape

in a material that doesn't
necessarily want to do that.

[Jay] To achieve
the swirling look,

they have to design
custom-made bricks.

We spoke to many
brick suppliers.

And when we'd show them
the façade of the building,

their initial view was,
"You can't build that."

[music]

[Jay] The design will push
the bricklayers to their limits.

[Jay] In Sydney, Australia,

world-renowned architect
Frank Gehry's mindbending

curved design for
a new university building

is forcing
the team to use bricks

as never before.

To make the curved façade,

they turn to
a bricklaying technique

known as corbelling.

They have to corbel the bricks,

which means that
each successive layer

steps out slightly
from the one below it.

You've gotta be really
careful when corbelling

because in engineering terms,

you're potentially creating
a massive stability problem

for yourself.

If bricks are
stacked vertically,

the forces are
going straight down.

As soon as you start
to step in one direction

or the other direction,

you introduce a lateral force
in that direction.

And that force
has to be resisted.

[Jay] This building
requires corbelling

on a scale never seen before.

Bricks have been done
with corbels before.

But it hadn't been done
corbelling in two directions,

corbelling inwards,
corbelling outwards,

across two planes
vertically and horizontally.

So the challenge
in the design was,

how do you make sure that
these corbels don't topple over?

[Jay] As they build the
walls either in or out,

each course of
bricks will step out

by almost two inches.

Sloping by over 25 degrees,

these walls are literally
gravity defying.

The whole building
wants to topple over,

so it really needs some
clever engineering behind it.

We had to do a lot of homework
on how we were going to do this.

[Jay] The team turns to a local
brick producer specialist

for help.

The nature of this
building was such

that we had to
develop a new system

to hold the bricks
back to the building.

[Larry] They design bricks
with a central groove

that allows them to be anchored
to the building's structure.

And where we essentially
ended up in the end

was a steel prefabricated
backing system

that had
the membrane fixed to it,

that had the brick ties
connected to it already.

So the brickies, when
they were laying the bricks,

all they knew is when they got
to one of the mounting points,

they knew it had to go in.

So they didn't
have to think about

how many they were putting in
or where they went.

[Daniel] And eventually
we got to a point

where what seemed impossible
wasn't impossible anymore.

[Jay] It may not be impossible,

but the challenge
is far from over.

On a normal build,
a bricklayer would lay

some 500 bricks a day.

They were laying
less than 50 bricks a day,

which is very low
for a bricklayer

and very poor productivity

if you're looking at
normal bricklaying rates.

[Man] At the beginning,
there was some barriers.

I'm a bricklayer.

[indistinct] lay 100 bricks.

But this is the way the job is.

[Jay] The challenge of the job
proves to be too much

for some of the team.

Some of the bricklayers
that started on the project

either asked to be removed
and sent to another project,

'cause it was doing
their head in,

all these little rules
about the pattern and the bond

was just too much for them.

And they couldn't
stand the pressure.

[music]

[Jay] Those who remain
pick up the pace,

laying some 320,000 bricks

in order to complete
the seemingly unbuildable

new business school.

[Nigel] We were
very fortunate indeed

that the artisan bricklayers,

who took a significant
amount of pride in their work,

rose to the occasion

and delivered on the job.

[Jay] In 2015,

six years after
Gehry put pen to paper,

the new business school building
throws open its doors

to students.

Its magical twisting structure

putting the university
firmly on the global stage.

This is the first Frank Gehry
building in Australia,

and what a way to
make an entrance.

[Jay] It is not just a testament
to architectural vision,

but redefines what can be
achieved with a simple brick.

The corbelling creates shadows
and changes as the sun changes

and moves through the sky

that really makes
the building kind of come alive.

[music]

[Jay] As well as pushing
architectural boundaries,

it's also sustainable.

The brickwork is
durable, low maintenance,

and locally sourced.

The inside spaces are fitted
out with sustainable timber.

The building even
harbors rainwater.

[Jay] Above all, though,
this is a beautiful,

one-of-a-kind work
of architecture

that in typical Gehry fashion

is as much a sculpture
as a building.

[George] I actually think
it's a piece of art.

When I look at it,
it is so different

to anything that
you can see anywhere.

[Nigel] It never ceases
to amaze me today.

And I've seen this
building many, many times.

I often want to just
stand and admire

the genius, really,
of Frank Gehry and his team.

[music]

When building
a cool new art museum

in Tornado Alley,

strength and practicality
should win the day.

But whatever the location,

genius architects just love
to think outside the box.

And while this
Oklahoma masterpiece

will stand solid
against the mightiest of winds,

it's guaranteed that
everyone who sees it

will be totally blown away.

[music]

[Jay] Oklahoma lies at midpoint

between the east and west coasts
of the United States,

and at the heart of
Tornado Alley.

The state is battered by
around 50 twisters a year,

which means buildings here
have to be tough beyond belief.

[music]

In a tornado zone,
right angles are the way to go.

[Jay] The problem
is that often means

buildings can be boring...

until now.

This is the Oklahoma
Contemporary Arts Center.

[Hank] When I first
saw it, to be honest,

it looked like a icicle
had dropped and splattered.

[Jay] It's a shimmering
sculpture of a building

that's as far from a sensible
box you can imagine.

[Rand] It's about discovery.

It's about surprise.

[Jay] And surprise it does.

With an extraordinary façade

that doesn't have
a single right angle in sight.

Ninety degrees is
an engineer's favorite angle.

So a building without any?

It's a nightmare.

We thought, wow, how the
hell are we gonna do this

with all
the different directions

and the zigging
and the zagging of the walls?

[Jay] Constructing it
was beyond complicated.

There's, like, 37 miles
of fins on the building.

[music]

[Jay] So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Jay] In 1989, in Oklahoma City,

a new arts organization
set up shop

in an abandoned building on
the city's state fairgrounds.

Known as Oklahoma
Contemporary Arts,

it offers people
from all backgrounds

opportunities to enjoy dance,
theater, and the visual arts.

Our mission focus is
completely on education.

All varieties of people, all
ages, and all ability levels.

[Jay] By 2003, though,

the building it calls home
no longer fits its purpose.

[Christian] Nothing was
built for what it was doing.

We were having art classes in
what used to be a planetarium.

We all started fantasizing,

what would it be like
if we were someplace else?

And then all of a sudden,
I just am like,

okay, I'm not gonna fight
this tidal wave anymore.

Let's do it!

[music]

[Jay] The vision is for
a bold new arts center

that will welcome
all Oklahomans.

In 2012, a fundraising
drive gets underway

with an ambitious target
of $30.7 million.

Meanwhile, they need someone to
overcome the design challenges

of creating their new home.

This building
had to be beautiful,

but it also has to be strong.

[Jay] In fact,
it has to be very strong.

In 2013, the Mora Tornado alone

causes around a billion
dollars' worth of devastation

in the state.

[Corina] Making a
building tornado proof

is no mean feat.

you have to factor in all
sorts of unpredictable forces

and pressures on the structure.

It's risky to prioritize
style and aesthetics

when strength is
really your main priority.

[Jay] The designer asked
to rise to the challenge

is architect Rand Elliott

[Rand] My parents
were wheat farmers

in western Oklahoma,

so I have a background
where you appreciate the land

and the skies and the wind.

All of those things
a part of my DNA.

[Jay] Elliott has a vision
for a show-stopping building.

[Rand] The concept
for this building

was to react to
the wind, the heat, the sun,

and the reflective
colors and qualities.

And then you have
the need for wind control

when it comes to tornados.

And so this building
is built to withstand

105 mile an hour winds.

[Jay] His design will
also need to stand up to

whatever debris
the tornados throw at it.

But Elliott is determined
that the last thing

this fortress will look like
is a boring box.

[Christian] When I get something
that has no right angles in it,

I was amused at first.

But in the end, it's genius.

[Jay]
Rand Elliott's final design

is as unpredictable
as the Oklahoma weather.

An extraordinary
shimmering building

without a 90-degree
angle in sight,

covered in 16,800
reflective aluminum fins.

If the team can figure out
how to securely attach them,

they'll not only mirror
the incredible Oklahoma light,

but deflect away
tornado-force winds.

Behind the fins, the
engineers will need to devise

a very special
underlying structure.

It will have to be strong
enough to withstand the wind

while also creating
the building's

irregular zig-zagging shape

and accommodate
the art center's requirement

for big, open exhibition
and performance spaces

on the upper levels,

with classrooms
on the floor below.

The whole building will need
to be set firmly into the ground

so that it can stand up to
whatever

the weather throws at it

and create a striking
cultural landmark

for all Oklahomans--

if, that is,
the engineers can pull it off.

My first reaction
to this design was,

wow, I am not exactly sure

how we're going to
accomplish that.

[Jay]
In March 2018, work begins.

And the first
challenge is deciding

where to place
the concrete piles, or piers,

that will
make up the foundations.

Usually you arrange your
piers in a nice, even grid.

[Jay] Instead,
they will need to be placed

wherever the wall
changes direction.

And this irregular
arrangement poses a risk.

These piers are
literally underpinning

the entire structure.

You can't afford
to miscalculate.

[Jay] If two piers
end up too close together,

the ground around
them might not be able

to handle the combined load.

It's a checkers game
to figure out

how to move those
different piers around.

[Jay] The team
carefully calculates

exactly where to put each
pier and how big to make it.

I believe our largest
ones on this project

were seven feet in diameter,

so large enough
you could get a small car

almost into the hole.

[Jay] It's a slow process.

They have to bore down
as much as 50 feet

to reach suitable soil

and be within
a quarter of an inch

of where they're supposed to be.

But eventually,
all 47 piers are in place.

It worked out great,
but it was one of those

very complicated first steps

that had to be
done exactly right.

[Jay] Next, they start
constructing the steel frame,

which despite its many angles,

will need to be strong enough
to cope with tornados.

This is going to be
a very real challenge.

[Corina] The frame of a
typical square building

is a neat grid of
beams and columns,

all connected to
each other by a right angle.

These right angle connections
are naturally strong and stable.

And we already know how they
respond to forces like wind.

[Jay] Here, the shape
of the outside walls

means that all the connections
will be at different angles,

and so the impact of the wind
won't be distributed evenly.

[Darcey]
Askew of those connections mean

that we end up with
added eccentricity,

so that can create torsion
on that connection.

[Amma] Torsion,
or twisting forces,

are something that
you need to mitigate.

Otherwise, the building is
going to go under that strain.

[Darcey] To combat that,
we have to really look through

how that can be
beefed up and reinforced.

[Jay] The engineers analyze
every single structural element

in the building,

choosing stronger steel

or chunkier bolts
in some places,

adding extra bracing in others.

[Darcey] There is no
one size fits all solution.

Every column had to be
looked at differently.

For the majority of them, we
had to pick a different shape,

or a different size, or
a different orientation

to be able to work.

So in essence, the entire
building was a custom review

of those beams,
columns, connections.

[Jay] Piece by piece, the
meticulously designed frame

is assembled by construction
superintendent Hank

and his team.

The columns, the beams,
everything was brought in,

and then bolted
and welded together.

It all went pretty well.

[Jay] The final job is
to clad it in something

that will be tough enough
in these harsh conditions,

but also simple and beautiful.

We wanted something that
would maintain straight lines,

and we wanted material
that is durable.

[Jay] The architects
look to aluminum cladding

for the answer.

[Rand] One of the things that
I've always loved about aluminum

is the fact that it's malleable.

You know, you can extrude it.

You can melt it.

You can do any number
of things with it.

[Jay] They need to come
up with something special

to make it beautiful,

because aluminum's not
known for its good looks.

[Corina] You think of aluminum,

and you think of corrugated
cladding on a warehouse.

Not a glamorous art center.

[music]

[Jay] The team's design, though,

takes metal cladding
to the next level.

Dipped in acid to
smooth away imperfections,

it creates a glowing,
reflective finish.

[Rand] The light changes.

The color can be
navy blue, or orange, or yellow,

or green, or any of
those kinds of things,

depending on what the
angle of incidence is

for the light itself.

And it just,
it brought the building to life.

[Jay] Not only is
the cladding beautiful,

it's also practical too.

It's 100% recyclable,

and the reflective
coating deflects heat,

helping to cool the building.

It's also tough enough
to withstand flying debris

in a tornado.

But the team must
make sure the fins

can't become
projectiles themselves.

On the back side of
every fin on the building,

there's actually--as part
of the extrusion process,

there's a C shape.

And the C shape
actually connects to--

I can't make a T with my finger,

but more or less it will
slide on that T shape

to allow the fin to move
in multiple directions

in any kind of, say,
weather or wind condition.

[music]

[Jay] They have a design.

Now they have to fit
the 16,800 fins in place.

[Rand] There are 10-foot links

that had to be
perfectly aligned.

They could not waver.

It was pretty intense.
They're all different shapes,

so there's a certain
sequence you put them in.

We shot lines with lasers

to get 'em
straight and plumb, level.

They're just screwed
to the building

with heavy-duty screws.

There's no telling
how many thousands of screws

[indistinct].

[Jay] It's a
painstaking process,

but the hard work is worth it.

[Rand] One of the craftsmen
is kind of running up to me,

he goes, "Rand! It's working!

"It's reflecting!
It's glowing!

It's fabulous!
Come look."

[music]

[Jay] Thirteen years
from concept to reality,

the new Oklahoma
Contemporary Arts Center

opens in March 2020.

People would kind of
walk around and go,

"Oh, wow, I've never
seen that before.

I never imagined that before."

[Jay] Inside, there's
almost 30,000 square feet

of exhibition, learning,
and performance space.

Not only is it beautiful,
it meets all of our needs.

We have more space
to make statements.

[music]

[Jay] From the outside,

Oklahoma's sensible
square skyline

has a striking new addition,

one that stands steadfast
against anything

the weather might throw it

while looking
incredible doing it.

[Rand] People say it's a
surprise to have this building

in Oklahoma City.
And I say it's perfect.

It is Oklahoma City.

If you knew about
the place and its history,

and its time, and its
weather, and its conditions,

you'd say, of
course this building

couldn't be anywhere
else than Oklahoma City.

[music]

[music]

Breathtaking buildings
come in all shapes and sizes.

But this Seattle landmark
is made up of a shape

that's never been used
before to make a building--

a pentagonal hexecontahedron,

a shape that's almost
as difficult to say

as these super cool offices were
to design and put together.

[music]

[Jay] Seattle, Washington
is surrounded by

some of the most
spectacular scenery

and lush green forests
in the United States.

But in its bustling downtown

with its packed streets
and skyscraper offices,

you could be in almost
any city on the planet.

That is, until one of the
world's biggest companies

decided to reimagine
its headquarters

and redefine the workplace,

capturing a sense of
countryside on the doorstep.

And this building is
completely out of this world.

It's fiction.

[Jay] Three
interconnecting spheres

made with 620 tons of steel.

It's packed with
more than 40,000 plants

from over 30 countries.

Each must have the exact
conditions to flourish.

Fine if you're creating
a botanical garden.

A huge challenge
when you're building

a tech company headquarters.

How do we create an environment

people would work
in during the day,

and yet, the plants
would thrive?

[Jay] To make it strong
enough to withstand

even a catastrophic earthquake,

they base it on a shape never
before used in construction.

Holy cow, how does something
like that get built?

[Jay] Five years in the making,

it's now the jewel in the crown

of a $4 billion corporate campus

and one of the most
extraordinary offices

in the world.

This is the Amazon Spheres.

So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Jay] It's 1990's Seattle,

and the most northern city
in the United States mainland

is booming,

driven by an explosion
in tech company startups.

One of them is a bookstore
operating out of a garage--

Jeff Bezos' garage.

By 2012, Amazon has become
a multibillion-dollar

global business.

And when Bezos is looking to
expand the company headquarters,

he wants to create
an environment

that will spark creativity
in his employees.

He turns for inspiration
to his backyard.

He has, on his own property,

a large kind of Victorian-style
conservatory, or greenhouse.

And when he needed to take
a break

from everything else,

he would go walk through
his conservatory.

We know that when you
go for a walk in the park,

that your cortisol
levels are improved,

people's heart rates come down,

that they're able
to think clearer.

[Jay] Not only must
this greenhouse office

offer the stress-busting and
productivity-boosting benefits

of being surrounded by plants,

it must look
incredible doing it.

The architects take their cue
from historic conservatories.

[John Savo] Most of
those old buildings

had the dome in the middle.

And that kind of
got us thinking about

what is the origin
of the dome, really?

It's part of a sphere.

And while spheres would've been

very difficult to
build historically,

in modern times,
the idea of a sphere

is much more doable.

[Jay] The futuristic
bubble-like spheres

they come up with

will test the limits of
21st century engineering.

Having anchored
them to the ground

with three vast
concrete ring beams,

they'll need to build a core
up to four stories high

to create space for
hundreds of employees at a time

to collaborate
and find inspiration.

Then, they will need
to design and build

a self-supporting
dome steel structure

that's 90 feet
tall at its peak

and is as beautiful
as it is strong.

They'll also need to
find a way to cover it

in thousands of pieces of
glass which won't shatter,

even if hit by an earthquake.

If they can pull it off,

they'll have created space
for a vast inside jungle

and have built a workplace
straight out of the future.

[music]

[Jay] In winter 2015,

they break ground
to dig foundations.

Once complete,
they'll quickly move on

to building the central core,
which will be the office space.

Ultimately we decided
that it just--

given the curvilinear
shape of the structure,

the internal core structure,
I'll call it.

It was better to just cast
and format as concrete,

just because you can set up
a big, you know, floor,

and then just set your form
and pour the concrete in.

[Jay] It is made with
12 million pounds of concrete

reinforced by
2.5 million pounds of steel.

So far, pretty straightforward.

But now the fun begins--

the challenge of
actually designing and building

the three spheres.

Now, how does this idea
and vision manifest itself

in kind of the final structure?

[Jay] The answer lies in a shape

never used before
in construction.

[Jay] It's 2015, and in Seattle,

the engineers redesigning
Amazon's headquarters

are trying to devise a structure

that looks like
floating bubbles,

but is strong enough
not to need columns.

[Jay T] We found the sweet
spot as we found a solution

that not only
worked well structurally,

we knew would be
an effective and efficient way

to fabricate and to erect,

but it also was
absolutely beautiful.

[Jay] To create the
building's frame,

they use a shape never before
used in construction--

a pentagonal hexecontahedron.

It's what you get when
60 identical pentagons

are joined up to make a sphere.

And there's a very good reason
to use it now.

This shape distributes pressure,

which makes it strong
enough not to need

any columns to support it.

[Jay] They spend months
experimenting with the shape

of the individual pieces that
will make up the steel frame.

[John Savo] We didn't
want to actually see

the pentagons in the final form,

so we thought, well,
we can create something new

by creating a hub
in the middle of the pentagon

and have five arms that
go out to the five points.

[Jay] Each hub has
five curved arms.

When these are connected,
they form multiple pentagons,

which join up to make a sphere.

What they've created is one of

the most complex distribution
of forces imaginable.

At each distinct point,

the stresses will be
completely different.

[Tom] Structurally
they're responding to

their individual location.

You could imagine that
the ones at the top

are operating in tension and
sort of almost pulled apart,

and then the ones on
the bottom are heavily loaded.

[Jay] The design is
phenomenally complicated,

even for the team's
modeling software.

[Jay T] The time that we did it
here at the office was

probably the largest analytical
model we've ever built.

[Jay] By early 2016,
the design is complete,

and the 180 pieces that
make up the steel frame

have been manufactured.

Now they have to be put in
exactly the right place

with no margin for error.

Our surveyors were
on the ground,

and they were
shooting the plates

with their laser
surveying equipment.

And they were on the radio
like, "Okay, out three inches,

down 1.1, nail it."

That center of that plate
was perfectly positioned.

It was on the order of,
like, a tenth of an inch.

I mean, it's just astonishing,

that precision that
they had built this thing.

[Jay] What's more,

they won't know whether
they got it right

until they fit
the final piece of the jigsaw

and complete each sphere.

[music]

[Jay] In March 2016,
the day arrives.

Ultimately,
at the end of the day,

that last piece, you know,

everybody was a little
bit nervous about it.

And it dropped into
place just perfectly.

It was amazing.

[Jay] After 16 weeks,
the steel shell is complete.

The next challenge
will be the glass.

2,600 panes of it
will cloak the exterior.

The catch is, it needs
to be earthquake proof

because Seattle lies
on a major fault line.

In an earthquake, it's not only
the glass that's a problem.

The frame itself
can twist and can torque.

And if you haven't factored
that into your design,

you're going to have thousands
of little pieces of glass

raining down on
the people below,

and no one wants that.

[Jay] To prevent this,
the engineers built

a completely separate
structure for the glass.

And that is attached
to the main steel frame

with flexible connectors.

[Tom] In an earthquake
or a wind event,

the primary structure
will move a lot more

than the secondary structure,
which is quite rigid.

These flexible connectors
absorb the movements,

preventing the structure
from twisting

and shattering the glass.

[Jay] They may have made
the building earthquake proof,

but partway through the glazing,

they discover
a pretty big problem.

How do you put a 60-foot tree
into a complete building?

[music]

[Jay] The centerpiece of
the plant-filled interior

will be a massive fig tree,

which needs the protection
of the sphere to survive.

That's if they can get it in.

Wow, okay, so that
instituted a design change.

[Jay] They decide the solution

is to not weld the final piece
of the sphere into place.

The tree was lifted
up by a crane

to drop it into
the very tight space.

Inches to spare.

[music]

And then put the last steel in
and put the last glazing.

And then sealed up
that section permanently.

[music]

[Jay] The remaining
40,000 plants

will be easier to get in.

But making sure they
will happily coexist

with the office workers
poses a challenge.

Typical greenhouse
and conservatories

were very hot and very humid

and not indicative
of wanting to work

for long periods of time.

[Jay] The team spends months
visiting conservatories

before finally landing
on cloud forest plants,

which enjoy similar daytime
temperatures and humidity

to humans.

At night, though, they need
something completely different.

[John Savo]
So we have to think about

how the plants would be
cared for at night.

Be able to have 12 hours
where people are comfortable

and the plants are comfortable,

but another 12 hours where
it's all about the plants.

[Jay] The final
piece of the puzzle

to complete this
extraordinary building

is to install a highly complex
climate control system,

which at night
drops temperatures

to a chilly 55 degrees

and pushes the
humidity up to 85%.

After two and a half years
of relentless effort,

the team finally completes
the extraordinary office.

The challenges were significant.

But I think
the final result is probably

one of the most
elegant buildings I've done.

[music]

[Jay] On January 29, 2018,

Amazon's out of this world
new headquarters

is opened by Jeff Bezos himself.

An incredible fusion of nature
and groundbreaking architecture.

It was a big day
for all the team.

I was awestruck.

And I actually got
very emotional.

[Jay] A space age sanctuary
that allows employees to relax,

recharge, and be inspired.

I feel more productive
when I come here.

Like a booster for
my own brain to recharge.

I happily admit that the design
and construction completion

of the spheres is at the
apex of my personal career.

[music]

It was just a delight
to be part of it.

[music]