All language subtitles for Building.Giants.S05E10.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM_track3_[eng]

[narrator] In Greece...

an elite team of engineers is
embarking on

an extraordinary endeavor.

Up, up!

They're attempting to build
a state-of-the-art skyscraper

in one of the world's
oldest cities.

Working along the coast,
the team must battle

unstable ground...

We always say,
whenever you excavate in

the soil, you have no idea
what you're gonna find.

...the threat of earthquakes...

Lots of buildings were damaged
and a few of them

even collapsed.

...and dizzying heights...

The higher we go,
the riskier it gets.

...to build this one-of-a-kind
structure that will transform

the skyline of Athens forever.

This incredible tower ranks in
a league of ambitious new

engineering wonders that are
bigger, faster, taller,

and more advanced than anything
ever constructed before.

This is the inside story of
the extraordinary challenge of

building these giants.

[explosion blasts]

Athens, Greece.

A city where modern apartments
sit alongside some of

the world's most famous
ancient structures.

This city's three million
inhabitants live in one of

the most densely populated
areas in Europe.

Athens desperately needs
space to grow.

The city planners'
bold solution is to redevelop

the site of Athens former
Ellinikon International
Airport.

Covering over 66.5 million
square feet

beside the Mediterranean,

it is one of
the world's largest

urban regeneration projects.

The plan is to transform
the site into

a new coastal district...

with premium homes,
luxury hotels, retail areas,

and a huge park.

Antoinette Nassopoulos-Erickson
leads the design of

the new development.

[Antoinette]
The Ellinikon master plan
is really defining a sort of

a new way of living
in Athens, I believe.

The concept, which is built up
around this park

as a central focus,
and then several

different neighborhoods
that sit around

the edge of the park.

Once complete,

this smart city will be super
efficient and ultra-connected.

It will feature public Wi-Fi
and shared e-bikes,

alongside an intelligent
waste management system

that notifies workers when it
needs to be emptied.

The centerpiece of the plan is
the Riviera Tower.

The Riviera Tower is to be
the icon and a symbolic element

for the whole development.

This green city, this new way
of living, which was

this connection between nature
and lifestyle,

all of those principles
came in to shape

and form the idea
of this tower.

At over 650 feet tall,
Riviera Tower will be

Greece's first true skyscraper,

housing 170 luxury apartments.

At its center will be
47 open terraces.

All 23 of the sea-view terraces

will have their own
infinity pools,

where residents can soak up
the glorious

Mediterranean climate.

29,000 aluminum
composite panels

and 1,600 panes of
special wind-resistant glass

will cover the exterior
of the building.

To help it blend in with
the surrounding parkland,

the team will embed
38,000 plants across the tower,

including the world's tallest
continuous green wall.

Constructing this tower
within the projected

four-year time limit
won't be easy.

It falls to development
director George Giannakopoulos

to hit the deadline.

The project requires
three million

cubic feet of concrete.

Summer temperatures
in Athens can reach

nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperatures this high can

cause concrete to crack
as it dries.

And powerful storms batter
this coastline.

Winds above 30 miles an hour
will shut down the build.

[George] It is
a challenging one.

There's a whole team of people
which we need to work around

the clock to make
this project a reality.

And building tall in this part

of the Mediterranean
presents a big risk.

On average, Greece experiences
25,000 earthquakes per year.

In September 1999,
an earthquake registering 5.9

on the Richter scale
struck Athens.

More than 100 buildings
collapsed,

and 143 people
lost their lives.

Engineer Alfredo Gonzalez must
design a foundation for

the tower that is strong enough
to withstand

a powerful earthquake.

[Alfredo] It's a big challenge
for us.

Greece is in the confluence of
four tectonic plates,

and the foundation is required
to stay solid and as undamaged

as possible because they hold
the building in one place,

they anchor it to the ground,
and they prevent damage from

spreading beyond the structure.

This is how
Alfredo's solution works...

First, the team drills 111
five-foot-wide holes to reach

the bedrock nearly 165 feet
beneath the surface,

followed by 205 shallower holes
around the outside.

Workers drop steel
reinforcement cages

into the holes.

Then pour concrete over them to

create super-strong
pile foundations.

Next, they excavate
a 16-foot pit around the top of

the deep piles,

and fill it with
steel reinforcement.

The last stage is to pour
more than

18 and a half thousand
tons of concrete to

make the main raft foundation
for the tower.

It's the responsibility of
Konstantinos Terzis

to make sure the team sinks
the foundations correctly.

Nobody has done this
in Greece before.

We are the first.

The foundations are actually
the most important aspect

of the high-rise building.

The foundation work begins
in 2022.

The team uses a huge piling rig
to drill 111 holes,

165 feet
into the ground.

This is the first time anyone
has drilled this deep for

a residential project
in Greece.

[Konstantinos] As we always say,
whenever you excavate in

the soil you have no idea what
you're going to find.

Drilling this far down creates
a big challenge for the team.

The pressure on the hole
increases the deeper it gets.

The hole could collapse.

The team's solution is to pump

a material called bentonite
into the shaft.

Bentonite is
a clay-based slurry.

As it fills the shaft,
it closes the gaps in

the exposed ground and forms
a thin layer that

seals the walls.

The mixture prevents the hole
from collapsing.

Now, the team must install
the cylindrical lattice

of steel to reinforce it.

The site's coastal location

presents a big danger
to the steel's health.

[Konstantinos] We are
so close to the sea.

Groundwater is constantly
penetrating in the site.

In the long term, when seawater
comes in contact with

the steel, there's corrosion.

Corrosion is basically
the cancer of the steel.

So, this means that it's not
gonna carry the loads

as it should,
and...that's not good.

To prevent corrosion, no part
of the steel cage can contact

the wall of the shaft when
it's in its final position.

Workers carefully lower
the cage into the hole.

They attach concrete spacers to

keep the steel clear of
the shaft wall.

Inch by inch, the cage descends
into its final position.

Next, the team fills the hole
with concrete.

It takes just six hours to set
into a super-strong pile that

helps to pin the tower's
foundation to the bedrock.

Over the next seven months,

the team sinks
the 111 long piles

and the 205 short piles
into the ground.

The next challenge is to create

a huge foundation slab
for the tower's base.

In Athens...

a team of engineers is
constructing a brand-new

earthquake-proof skyscraper.

The 50-floor Riviera Tower will
need rock-solid foundations to

help it withstand
powerful quakes.

The engineers design
an over-21,000-square-foot slab

for the tower to stand on.

Imagine two Olympic pools side
by side, twice the depth of

an Olympic pool, so quite huge
foundation structure.

Constructing this massive
foundation slab presents

engineers with
a major challenge.

They must ensure the slab
connects with the piles to form

a single, unified
foundation structure.

[Alfredo] It's a very important
function.

It's used to hold everything
together and avoid

relative displacements
within the structure.

Workers must dig down to
reveal the top of the piles.

They then need to build
the steel reinforcement cage

around the piles...

before pouring over 18,500 tons
of concrete for the slab.

Workers excavate
a 16-and-a-half-foot pit to

expose the piles.

Next, they use a machine
called a pile cropper

to slice the top off each one.

This reveals the rebar
inside the pile to ensure

a strong bond with the concrete
that the team will pour

into the pit.

The team assembles
the steel reinforcement.

Workers fabricate a
158-foot by 158-foot steel cage

from 2,200 tons of steel rebar.

Now, it's time to
pour the concrete.

The concrete pour of
the foundation is very critical.

It's a very complex logistics
operation because we're talking

about a very big quantity.

The team must lay down

247,000 cubic feet
of concrete.

This will be the largest
concrete pour ever attempted

in Greece, and they must
complete it within 48 hours.

Weak points will form in
the concrete if the team allows

one layer to cure
before they pour the next.

So, they must pour
continuously.

This operation, you have to
get it right on the first go

because there's not going to be
another chance.

So, we are hoping for the best

and we're planning
for the worst.

The team builds huge concrete
plants on site to supply

a fleet of mixer trucks.

[Konstantinos]
We have to pour the concrete
as quickly as possible so

the truck goes away,
next truck goes in.

We are using three
batching plants as well as

one backup plant, just in case.

So there's a Plan A
and there's a Plan B as well.

The mega concrete pour begins.

More than 120 concrete mixer
trucks shuttle nonstop

between the plants
and the site.

The team uses eight pumps with
extendable arms to pour

the concrete into the huge
steel frame.

♪♪

Work continues into the night
to keep the pour going.

The team smooths the surface of
the concrete to ensure that

it's completely flat before
the next layer goes on top.

After 40 hours,
the pour is complete

and the huge foundation block
is finished.

[Konstantinos] The entire team
should be very proud,

from every worker
to any traffic master

who took participate
in the operation,

to the people in the batching
plants working day and night.

It was
a very fulfilling moment.

With the foundation in place,

the team can now build
above ground

and start the walls and floors
of the tallest tower in Greece.

The construction of the tower
is what follows next.

Now, the hard part begins.

Engineers in Athens
are building

Greece's tallest building.

The architects of
the Riviera Tower envision

a skyscraper that offers
its residents the perfect

Mediterranean lifestyle.

Nicola Scaranaro is part of
the team tasked with crafting

this revolutionary structure.

[Nicola] We wanted to
design a building

rooted in Athenian traditions
and way of life.

Nicola and the team
design the tower

with an outdoor terrace on
every one of its 50 floors.

The temperature in Athens in
the summer can reach

nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The team builds in
an ingenious solution to keep

the terraces cool.

The central spine of
the building is completely open

to let the sea breeze coming
through, especially during

the mid-season in the summer,
which will enhance the comfort.

But opening up the tower
in this way creates

a big engineering challenge.

The concrete core of
a traditional skyscraper is

the building's backbone that
gives it most of its strength.

So the architects of
the Riviera Tower must find

another way to keep it strong.

[Nicola] And so we thought of
creating the split core

with this gap running
through the middle.

This is how it works...

Engineers use a mold
called jump form

to build two cores

with a gap in between.

They fill the mold with steel
reinforcement and concrete to

cast a single floor.

Once the walls have cured,

hydraulic jacks lift the jump
form to the next level,

where the casting process
is repeated.

Three levels below the jump
form, the team constructs

floor slabs around the core.

A hydraulic safety fence rises
with the tower

to make each
new floor safe.

Workers must repeat this
process over and over again to

build a floor every six days

until both cores reach
50 stories high.

It takes the team six months to

build the lower levels
of the tower.

The workers are now ready to
install the jump form.

It's the responsibility
of Jerome Mulot

to keep this part
of the build on track.

♪♪

Floor by floor,
the cores begin to rise.

The team must work quickly
to stay on schedule,

but they can't afford to
compromise on quality.

[Jerome] The cores are
the backbone of a project.

They are
the key structural element.

The quality of the construction

is paramount, so [indistinct]
is sound and safe.

Riviera Tower is located within
an active earthquake zone.

It must withstand quakes
stronger than any recorded

in the region's history.

To make the tower
strong enough,

workers use much more
steel reinforcement

compared with a standard
50-story building.

There is much more steel than
a similar project built in

a non-seismic area.

The steel rebar is
so densely packed

that the gaps
in between them are small.

The danger is that the liquid
concrete can't get into

every gap and creates
weak points within the cores.

To prevent this, the team uses
a vibrating probe to agitate

the concrete and make sure that
it trickles into

every part of the structure.

It takes the team nine months
to build the first ten floors.

But as the tower rises,

the risks to the safety of
workers on site increase.

Tools and materials dropped
over the side of the tower

could be deadly to people
on the ground.

Prince Chuksuobasi is
responsible for safety on site.

[Prince]
We have roughly about
1,200 workers,

so it presents indeed
a lot of challenges.

Our biggest fear
is objects falling.

The higher we go,
the riskier it gets.

When an object fall from
10 meters to the ground,

the impact cannot be the same
when an object drops

from 50 meters all the way down.

To eliminate the danger from
falling objects,

the team surrounds the upper
levels with a series of nets,

catch fans,
and a mechanized safety fence.

[Prince] The safety fence is
around the area where

the structural works
are being done.

As the building progresses,
the safety fence goes with

the progression of the tower.

[indistinct]

Today, workers are raising

a section of fence
to the next floor.

They use two hydraulic jacks
to make the lift.

Up, up.

Each jack pushes with a force
of more than three tons.

They could damage the structure
or injure a worker

if incorrectly installed.

The worker above
controls the jacks...

while the team below
monitors the progress.

The jack is too short
to lift the fence in one go,

so it must
cover the distance in stages.

Once it is pushed by one
meter, we need to drop the jack

again to push it up by
another meter.

♪♪

[indistinct]

[clanking]

After some fine-tuning,
the fence section is in place.

Now that the area is protected,
the team can move on to

constructing the floor slab
for this level.

They will repeat this cycle

until the cores reach
their full height.

The next challenge is to join
the two cores together.

Engineers in Athens are
racing to build

Greece's tallest building...

in an active earthquake zone.

The spine of the Riviera Tower
is a pair of concrete cores

that will reach 656 feet
in height.

The engineers must now join
the two cores

to make a unified tower.

Architects design buildings in
seismic zones to move when

an earthquake strikes.

This movement dissipates
the huge energy of the quake

and prevents the structure
from collapsing.

In a traditional skyscraper,

the single core moves with
the rest of the building,

but a two-core structure like
the Riviera Tower presents

engineers with
a daunting challenge.

[Alfredo] When you have
a structure that is supported by

two separate cores,
the last thing you want

is them moving separately.

You can have things breaking up
because they were not designed

to move enough, one side
with respect to another.

Pools falling down,
bridges between two towers also

breaking down
and causing damage.

The two cores of
the Riviera Tower must

move together in the same
direction during an earthquake.

To do that,
the tower's engineers build in

an ingenious feature.

First, they expose sets of up
to 48 special connection points

embedded within the walls
of the cores.

Next, workers build a cage of
densely packed steel rebar

between pairs of
connection points.

Then, they cast
a nearly seven-foot deep

concrete beam over the cage.

They repeat this process for
each level of the tower,

all the way to the top.

These coupling beams lock
the two cores together,

and should ensure
that they move

with perfect synchrony.

Stuart Ward is the project
director overseeing

the construction of the tower.

The coupling beams are a very
integral part of the design.

It's like -- basically
like a ladder.

So, if you consider the towers
as the two vertical elements of

the ladder, the rungs of
the coupling beams,

they give it that
extra stability.

An earthquake could strike
Athens at any time.

It is critical that the cores
are joined together from

the earliest stage of the build
to prevent collapse.

Stuart must ensure that
his team keeps pace with

the cores as they rise
even higher.

The target is to be no more
than seven floors behind.

There's a certain relationship
between how high the core can

go before we need
coupling beams in place.

First, the team drills away
the surface of

the concrete cores to expose
the metal connection points.

The coupling beam's huge size
and weight prevents

Stuart's team from making them
on the ground

and using a crane
to lift them into position.

So workers must make each one
in situ from up to

96 super-sized steel bars.

Workers screw the steel bars
into the connection points to

anchor the cage.

♪♪

They cut, bend,
and tie together lengths of

rebar to make the lattice work.

Next, they assemble
a mold around it.

And the team gears up
to pour in

more than 280 cubic feet
of concrete.

It takes 28 days for it to cure
and achieve full strength.

Now, this fresh coupling beam
is ready for inspection.

Stuart checks the surface of
the concrete for a defect

called honeycombing.

This occurs when the concrete
cures with air pockets inside.

We need to make sure that
there's not significant amounts

of honeycombing or for areas
where the concrete wasn't

properly vibrated.

This particular one is
pretty good concrete.

There's no issues with this.
Very happy with this.

Now that the coupling beams are
holding the cores together,

the team can start work on
the terraces that make

this tower so distinctive.

In Athens, a team of engineers
is building an ambitious

new skyscraper on the stunning
Mediterranean coastline.

A key feature of the classic

Athenian apartment
is its terrace.

The Greek lifestyle is always
about being outdoors.

When you look at the sort of
standard apartments in Athens,

those apartments have
great terraces, balconies.

They became another room,

an extension of
your living space.

Antoinette and her team
translate this idea to

Riviera Tower.

They designed the skyscraper to
have a giant terrace with

its own swimming pool
on every second floor

to unlock stunning vistas.

The idea was to
maximize the views.

There are terraces at the front
and the back of the tower,

so some of the apartments are
forward-facing to the sea,

others are facing
to the mountain.

Building the terraces presents

the engineers with
a big challenge.

The structures must have no
load bearing columns to block

the spectacular views.

Each one must be a single giant
slab of concrete that spans

the nearly 27-foot gap between
the skyscraper's two towers.

Structurally,
it's quite complicated

because it sits between
the two towers.

The engineers' solution is to
cast the terrace slabs on

a special metal frame called
table formwork.

It attaches to super strong
metal supports that reach

two stories high.

[Stuart] The terraces are every
second level, which means

it's a double volume space.

So, it means that the height of

the formwork to construct that
is much higher.

The table formwork is
too heavy and bulky for

the construction team
to carry to each floor.

So, one of the two special
cranes on the top of the tower

must lift it to
where it's needed.

These cranes are attached to
the walls of the tower's cores.

Workers raise them up every
time the cores grow in height.

The tower cranes that we have
on the project, they're fairly

complex pieces of equipment.

The tower crane operators are
highly skilled.

Today, crane operator
Ghizlane Horn must lift

the table formwork for
the 38th floor terrace.

Lifting anything from
the ground up to crews

inside the tower
presents a challenge.

Ghizlane has no line of sight
to the floor

that she must deliver
the formwork to.

She must rely on instructions
from her co-workers on floor 36

to complete the task.

Ghizlane lifts
the first section

of table formwork
off the ground,

and up to the team
inside the tower.

It weighs over
two and a half tons

and will damage the concrete
if it collides with the tower.

So Ghizlane's co-workers
use ropes to help guide

the load to the drop point.

♪♪

[speaking foreign language]

Ghizlane drops off
the formwork right on target.

Workers maneuver it
into position.

[speaking foreign language]

It takes Ghizlane
over three hours to deliver

all the parts of the formwork.

[speaking foreign language]

Now, the crew can
build the terrace.

First, workers cut hundreds of
lengths of steel reinforcement.

They lay these on top of
the formwork to create

the skeleton of the giant slab.

They pour over 700 cubic feet
of concrete

over the skeleton.

28 days later, the concrete
is fully cured.

They move the formwork
up a level

to start work on
the next terrace.

They repeat this cycle
all the way up the tower,

building a new terrace
every two weeks.

Now, engineers must find a way
to protect residents

and control the powerful winds
coming off the coast.

Engineers in Athens
are nearing

completion of
Greece's tallest building.

Constructing a 50-story tower
on this stretch of coastline

presents engineers with
a big challenge.

Strong winds threaten to make
it uncomfortable for residents

when they use
their balconies and terraces.

♪♪

Engineer Kostis Lysikatos
and his team must find a way to

dramatically slow down
the wind speed

through the open parts
of the structure.

It is a luxury residential
tower, so the occupants,

they're expecting
the best product they could
get in the market.

You don't want people to feel
that they're gonna be thrown

from the wind.

But on the other hand,
you would like to ensure that

you have a continuous breeze
coming to the terraces for

the occupants to be comfortable
sitting during the hot periods.

Kostis designs different
shapes of facade and tests them

in computer simulations to
unlock which one maximizes

comfort for
the tower's residents.

So we can see the velocity of
the wind and as it goes through

here through the spines,
we can see that the wind is

reducing the velocity

to be more comfortable
for the occupants.

This is how the engineers will
apply the solution.

The team seals up the building
with 1,000 sliding glass doors

and then installs 2,000 glass
balustrade panels to shield

the outdoor living spaces
from the wind.

Workers then fix
29,000 aluminum composite

cladding panels to the walls
of the tower.

Finally, they embed
38,000 plants across the tower

to form an additional
wind barrier.

Together, these features
channel wind

up through the center
of the tower

and should limit
wind speeds on

the terraces and balconies.

Dmitris Chalimos supervises
the construction of

this vital part of
Riviera Tower.

[Dmitris] The facade in
this project is key.

The wind is a key factor

for the design of
the sliding door system,

as it can make the doors
deflect more than it's allowed

to a point that they can
even break.

The window panes in
Riviera Tower are made from

extra-thick glass to
prevent them from shattering.

Each door panel weighs
more than 330 pounds.

They are too heavy and bulky
to install by hand.

So, the team uses a special
glazing robot to put them in.

The robot's four suction pads
attach securely to the pane.

The robot then lifts the glass

and carries it
to the door frame.

An operator remotely controls
the robot to install the pane

with millimeter precision.

[Dmitris] It would have been
very, very difficult to handle

those panels just by hand.

The first panel is in place.

The team then installs the rest

of the door panels
for the room.

[Dmitris] We're talking about
like very, very heavy doors.

They glide pretty smoothly.

With the sliding doors
progressing well,

the team begins installing

the glass balustrades
onto the balconies

and fitting cladding panels to
the exterior walls.

Workers must now install plants
onto the sides of the building

to create an additional wind
barrier around the terraces.

The architects of Riviera Tower

designed four walls covered in
lush foliage

that reach the full height
of the building.

Attaching plant life to
concrete creates

a big challenge for
the tower's engineers.

Plants need a constant supply
of water to survive.

A permanent irrigation system
could allow water to seep

through the concrete
and corrode

the steel reinforcement inside.

To solve the issue,
the tower's designers use

a special green wall system.

[Alexandra speaking]

Alexandra Tsigkouni
oversees the team

installing the green wall.

Their task is huge.

Each wall is 656 feet high.

They will be the tallest green
walls of their kind ever built.

The team's first task is to
cover the wall in a layer of

water repellent membrane.

This waterproofing should
protect the rebar

inside the concrete
from corrosion.

Workers fix brackets
over the top

to hold the membrane down.

Next, they hang special
planting baskets made from

fireproof glass fiber.

[Alexandra] This is
the planting basket.

It's already filling with soil,
waiting to be placed upon

the green wall.

The plants are going to be
placed in these locations with

a very, very careful hole
in the middle of it.

The team lifts each
44-pound basket onto brackets

and fixes them tightly to
the basket below.

It will take workers six months
to install the 4,500 baskets

needed to cover all four walls.

Once all the baskets are
in place, they'll plant

the green wall to finish
the facade.

The completed Riviera Tower

will be the tallest building
in Greece

and the centerpiece of
a brand-new green city.

It stands as a testament to
the ingenuity of the workers

who built it.

[Antoinette] I think this is
a transformation for the city.

It's transformation for all
the people of Athens as well,

and I think it's actually
a defining project in Greece.