Original subtitles

Narrator: In amsterdam, this elite team of engineers

Is embarking on an epic endeavor.

All right. That's good. Hey!

They're attempting to build

A remarkable new hotel that floats in thin air.

This is the type of building that can go horribly wrong.

Whoa!

Narrator: When complete,

The hotel will be the largest in the netherlands.

People who saw the design

Simply didn't believe that it was possible.

Narrator: To build this colossus,

The team must battle unstable ground...

...Terrifying heights...

And limited space.

-Whoa, whoa! -Oh.

Narrator: They are pushing to complete this ambitious design

In just 38 months.

-Stop! -Stop!

This incredible hotel 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.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

Amsterdam in the netherlands,

Famous for its historic architecture

And network of canals.

By 2030, more than 31 million tourists

Are expected to visit this iconic city every year,

But the city simply doesn't have enough hotels

To accommodate so many people.

To keep up with demand,

Developers have an ambitious plan

To build the largest hotel in the country

Right in the heart of the city.

They've chosen a plot in the up-and-coming

Zuidas business district,

But it will be a tight squeeze

With only 50,000 square feet to spare.

It will be sandwiched in between two main roads

With an underground subway line running right alongside.

The difficult site poses a huge challenge

For the hotel's lead architect, reinier de graaf.

De graaf: It is a very small, triangular piece of land,

And we couldn't do a normal hotel

Because a normal hotel is a big foot

And the tower with rooms on top of it.

In order to be able to make a project here,

We literally had to turn the traditional idea

Of a hotel on its head.

Narrator: The tiny site forces reinier and his team

To come up with a groundbreaking and unconventional design.

Three enormous triangular sections

Stacked on top of each other make up the body of the hotel,

Maximizing floor space above the crammed plot.

An offset central section draws the eye

To massive 80-foot overhangs

Where the building seem to float in midair.

2,600 sheets of specially insulated glass

Coat the exterior.

The hotel's bold design continues inside

Where designers furnish each of its 650 rooms

According to the compass point they face.

Inside and out,

This unique hotel is a masterpiece of modern design.

Constructing this giant on such a tiny plot won't be easy.

The project pushes boundaries to the point that,

Upon first glance,

Many of the people who saw the design

Simply didn't believe that it was possible.

It is quite a tour de force.

Building this iconic hotel

Involves a series of unique engineering challenges.

First, they dig out a huge 260-foot-diameter hole

Just 1 1/2 feet away from the city's subway line.

They must reinforce the foundations

With steel and concrete,

Then build a superstrong reinforced concrete pillar

To form the building's core.

Around this, they construct the three huge triangular prisms,

Each one offset from the last by 60 degrees.

They reinforce the vast overhangs

With massive concrete columns

That support the core and attach to the main pillar.

To seal the building,

They bolt 2,600 glass sheets onto an external aluminum frame.

They have just 38 months to build what will become

One of amsterdam's most iconic buildings.

Construction begins in autumn of 2016.

Chief foreman niek timmer is responsible

For bring reinier's gravity-defying design to life.

Before niek can tackle the main building,

He must first construct the vast foundations

That will support the massive weight of the hotel.

The sandy ground below amsterdam

Makes this a challenge in its own right.

To create foundations strong enough for the hotel,

Workers remove 2,500 truckloads of this soft, sandy ground.

This is a risky operation.

If the sides of the construction site collapse,

They could damage the nearby highway and subway line.

To prevent this,

Niek and his team devise an ingenious solution.

First, the team excavates the whole site

Two stories below ground level.

They line the sides with corrugated steel sheeting.

To compensate for the soft ground,

The team drives in 575 thick steel pillars, called piles,

Packing them most densely around the building's core.

Each pile must penetrate an astonishing 75 feet deep

Through sandy upper layers

To the more solid ground underneath.

Finally, they install giant steel beams

To reinforce the walls and keep them from collapsing.

These massive steel reinforcements

Will prop up the sides of the foundations

Closest to the subway and highways,

Preventing any dangerous cavings.

But now that the foundations are secure,

Niek's team runs into another problem.

As they build the hotel on top and the foundations settle,

The sheer weight of the hotel

Could damage the nearby subway line.

The subway is in constant use.

If the tunnel fails, it could be disastrous

And bring transportation around the city to a screeching halt.

Narrator: In amsterdam,

Engineers are building the biggest

And most unconventional hotel in the netherlands.

Today, niek and his team must construct a concrete barrier

Between the hotel's foundations and the nearby metro tunnel.

This will protect the underground train line

From the vast weight of the hotel above.

They must expose a concrete ledge

That sits a few feet from the top of the metro tunnel.

This will form the base of their barrier,

Which is called a buffer plate.

It takes them an hour to unearth the ledge.

The team now excavates around the rest of the subway tunnel,

Ready to pour the concrete barrier.

Supervising the pour is marcel.

Marcel: It's an important day

Because this is the last part of the foundation,

And the concrete plate we are making is to ensure

That the grounds won't push the metro line.

It takes a crew of four workers to pour the concrete.

They get rid of any air bubbles with a vibrating nozzle

And smooth it over for a perfect finish.

It will take almost a month for the concrete barrier

To dry to full strength,

But it should prevent any movement

Between the hotel and the subway.

Now that the barrier is in place,

Niek and his team can start building up,

Knowing the subway and hotel

Are safely separated from each other.

The main features of the hotel

Are the triangular sections that float in midair.

These were inspired by an historic 1960s billboard nearby,

But supersizing them for the hotel isn't straightforward.

De graaf: In essence, it's three triangular volumes

Seemingly hovering on top of each other

Only suspended by the core,

But once you look at them in detail,

How they have precisely been constructed,

You see that there is a number of very, very clever tricks.

Narrator: These clever tricks are called cantilevers.

They are anchored to the building at one end

Firmly enough to support the entire overhang.

The hotel will feature an ambitious nine overhangs,

Each an astonishing 82 feet long.

So reinier will have to push the innovation of his design

To its limit.

This is how he plans to do it.

The tip of each triangular section reaches out

A massive 82 feet without any obvious support.

To hold up the colossal weight of the building above,

On each floor, engineers built supporting concrete walls

Outwards from the central core

That connect to giant concrete columns.

They also secure 17-inch-thick steel beams to each wall

That support a superstrong steel frame

Hidden in the walls and floor.

This transfers the weight of the overhangs to the columns

And the building's core,

Keeping the huge triangular sections

Floating effortlessly in midair.

De graff: The cantilevers, which seem enormous,

It's quite a spectacular experience.

Narrator: To build these unconventional cantilevers,

Niek and his team must work with millimeter precision.

Incredibly, they position the triangular corner points

Of each floor 1 1/2 feet higher than they should be

So the floors slope down towards the central core.

Then as they install the windows and walls on top,

The extra weight should push the corners of the structure

Down to the correct position,

Making them level with the rest of the floor.

Over the next 44 weeks,

Niek's team painstakingly constructs

The three cantilevers,

Making sure the triangular corner points

Sit 1 1/2 feet higher than the rest of the floor.

It's only once the glass team

Starts installing the heavy windows

That they can confirm whether or not the triangular sections

Will settle to the correct position.

Man: Heads up!

Narrator: Architect reinier de graaf is onsite

To inspect progress.

Initially, the floors went up,

And then the weight sort of settled.

Yeah, we must made this one, like, 50 centimeters higher

In the beginning than it is now,

And the end of it, it's a good result.

The whole thing looks amazing,

And there's a lot of work still to be done,

But from the outside,

You now have the idea what the building is.

Narrator: Niek may have impressed reinier,

But the hardest part of the build is yet to come.

♪

It's springtime in amsterdam.

The construction of this extraordinary hotel is on track,

But with doors opening to guests in just ten months,

Niek's team has to keep a strict schedule,

And it's not just the cantilevers

That he has to worry about.

The ground floor of the hotel

Will be made up of a spectacular two-story lobby.

A huge expanse of curved glass will surround this area.

Today, workers are installing four crucial steel beams

That will help support the 50 tons of glass.

Niek and his team have chiseled out holes

Where the four steel beams will sit.

Each beam is custom-built to exact measurements,

So it's crucial they all slot in perfectly.

Workers use a crane to move the first beam into place,

Then secure it at the top.

But at the bottom, something isn't right.

♪

Narrator: In the dutch capital of amsterdam,

Engineers are building the country's biggest hotel.

They're installing the huge steel beams

That will support the featured glass wall at the hotel's base,

But a key beam doesn't fit in the hole the team has made.

They try to make the hole bigger,

But it's still going to be tight.

They widen the hole as much as they can,

But there's still not enough room.

They take the radical decision

To cut the steel support as well.

Finally, they manage to swing the beam into place.

If the other three beams don't fit either,

It will mean a costly delay.

It takes another two hours

For the team to position the next two beams.

The final beam will be the hardest to fit.

Workers slowly maneuver the one-ton beam into position.

Thankfully, the base lines up with the hole.

The team struggles to haul this hefty one-ton beam

Into place by hand.

They must position it perfectly,

Or the glass won't form a watertight seal with the frame.

After some brute force,

A thumbs-up from the top

Means they can secure the bottom.

With the beams in place at the base of the building,

Niek turns his attention to the next big challenge.

He needs to install the 140,000 square feet of glass

That will cover the triangular sections above.

Today is a critical day.

The team is gearing up to install the windows

On the third and highest

Triangular section of the building.

Window specialist jack supervises today's installation

On the 21st floor.

His first job is to lift the windows

To a temporary storage space high inside the building.

Once inside the building, the fitters stack the windows

As close to where they will install them as possible.

They have to move fast.

Installing a whole floor's worth of windows

In just eight days

And staying on schedule is a massive challenge.

This is how they'll do it.

The team must fit 2,600 panes of glass in just 44 weeks.

To speed up the process,

A crane and specialized robot work in tandem.

First, the crane delivers the huge panes of glass

To each floor.

From here, workers use a robot equipped with a suction arm

To move each 660-pound pane into position outside the building.

Here, workers reattach the crane

And use it to guide the window into its aluminum frame.

Using the crane and robot in tandem,

The team should be able to fit an entire floor of 110 windows

In just 8 days.

On the 21st floor,

Jack and his team begin their 8-day countdown.

They work quickly, using the robot to move each window

Out beyond the building

And turning it 90 degrees so it's upright.

♪

♪

The team secures each frame to the crane,

Which then swings it into position.

[ indistinct radio chatter ]

♪

♪

Workers above and below guide the window in

And secure it into place.

I'm on!

It will take seven more days of breakneck work

To install the 110 windows around each floor.

The last window is the hardest to install.

They grease the rubber seals so the panel slides

Into position more easily.

The factory that manufactures these windows

Cuts each pane with millimeter precision,

But this panel just won't squeeze into place.

If jack and his team can't get this last panel in,

They'll have to adjust all 109 windows on this floor

To make room for it --

A huge task.

Narrator: Today in amsterdam,

Engineers are building the tallest

And most unconventional hotel in the netherlands.

The window-installation team

Is fitting the last piece of glass on the 21st floor.

But it's a very tight squeeze.

The window finally slots into place.

Stop!

Workers use bolts to attach it from above.

While the window teams race up the building,

21 floors below,

Foreman niek is getting ready for a special delivery.

Over a year ago, he built the main structure

Of what will become the hotel's extravagant lobby.

Today, niek needs to install two escalators

Into specific gaps left for them between the floor and the roof.

Each escalator is 42 feet long,

Weighs 6 1/2 tons and is worth $80,000.

Moving them into position will be no simple task.

Two forklift trucks, one at each end,

Must work in tandem to haul the escalators into position.

It's a difficult and highly skilled job.

To add to the pressure,

The team must thread the massive escalators

In between the steel beams

That will support the ground-floor windows.

If workers damage either the escalator or the window frames,

It could push construction back by months.

Whoa, whoa!

Oh.

Inch by inch, the team hauls the escalator

Into position inside the building.

Next, the fitters must carefully hoist it up.

The big question --

Will the base of the escalator slot into the space?

Only now will niek find out

If the measurements he made a year ago are correct.

Alright, it's good.

Whoa, hey!

Narrator: One down, but the second escalator

Will be even more difficult.

The team carefully squeezes the second escalator into place.

After an hour of painstaking work,

It's in position.

Perfect.

It fits flawlessly.

The escalators will remain in their wrapping

To keep them pristine for opening day.

30 months after building began,

Main construction work is nearly complete.

Niek's team must now race to complete

One of the hotel's most striking features --

The two-story curved-glass lobby windows.

Today, the last 12 panes

That will finish off the lobby's exterior arrive from germany.

A specialized glass-fitting team run the installation.

They have just one day to install all 12 panes.

Each pane of glass weighs a colossal 1,300 pounds

And costs around $2,700.

The team uses a special suction crane

To carefully maneuver each pane into place.

A mistake would be disastrous.

Man: Hold on.

Narrator: Today, in the dutch capital of amsterdam,

Workers are building the country's biggest hotel.

Foreman niek is installing the massive curved-glass panels

That make up the base of the unconventional building.

Man: Hold on.

-Not it? -Nah, hold on.

Narrator: The glass panels must align with the steel beams...

Go.

...And also sit perfectly upright.

[ speaking dutch ]

Workers use metal connectors

To lock each pane of glass into place.

Over the next four hours,

Niek and his team install another ten panes of glass.

They lay each one with the same millimeter precision.

The last piece of glass is the most massive.

They need to squeeze it through a tiny gap

Between the hotel and the scaffolding

To fit it into place.

To add to the pressure,

The weather takes a turn for the worst.

If the wind gets too strong,

The pane of glass could act like a sail

And crash into the scaffolding or the hotel itself.

[ speaking dutch ]

With a final push,

The elite team battles the elements

To wrestle the huge piece of glass into place.

With the exterior complete,

Niek's team can focus on the elaborate interiors.

19-year-old veerle is the youngest worker on-site.

Hi, it's veerle.

Narrator: It's veerle's job to inspect the interiors

In every single one of the hotel's 650 rooms.

Workers are already racing to complete the rooms

In the hotel's lower floors.

Carpenters, plumbers, tilers, and electricians

Have just eight days to finish each floor,

Turning a concrete shell into 36 lavish hotel rooms.

Before workers can move up to the next level,

Veerle needs to sign off on the floor.

Each time she spots something not to spec,

She relays instructions to the relevant teams

To make a fix.

As the team races to finish the interior,

Spring turns to summer.

The hotel has a glass skin coating the 650 bedrooms.

This amount of glass creates another challenge for the team.

They must heat the building through the brutal dutch winters

And keep it cool during summer.

To overcome this,

Engineers devise an ingenious solution

That harnesses the area's unique underground geology.

It rests on the shoulders of ardjan to install

The hotel's innovative temperature-control system.

It's called thermal energy storage.

This is how it works.

First, engineers drill two boreholes

Deep into the groundwater below.

They can now pump water up out of these wells and back in.

In the summer, they pump cold water

Up from one of the wells and use it to cool the hotel.

In the process, this water warms up,

And they pump it back down into the other well.

This creates a reservoir of hot water which is so well-insulated

That it stays warm until winter.

Now engineers reverse the flow,

Pumping the warm water back up to the surface

To heat the hotel.

Today, ardjan and his teammate, henry,

Are drilling the 580-foot-deep borehole

That will contain the warm water.

Even with their big drill, betta, this is no easy job.

As betta drills, she sucks up the earth

And spits it back out into large containers.

The drill then pumps water back into the hole.

It's vital they get the speed and pressure just right.

If the sides of this massive borehole cave in,

The results would be disastrous.

♪

Narrator: Today, in the dutch capital of amsterdam,

Workers building the country's biggest hotel

Have reached a crucial stage.

They're drilling the boreholes

That will house an ingenious thermal-energy system

To regulate temperatures in the hotel.

To prevent the hole from caving in,

They must line the first 100 feet with iron casings.

[ chain rattles ]

Showtime.

This is a precarious operation.

If the team inserts the casings at the wrong angle,

They could puncture the side of the hole.

In the end, it's a success for the team.

After just 48 hours, ardjan and his teammate, henry,

Reach their target nearly 580 feet below the surface

And complete the temperature-control system.

♪

There are now just six months

Until the floating hotel is due to open to guests.

Inside, the interiors team races up the building.

♪

Designer fernando ispizua

Is in charge of making sure the hotel's extravagant bedrooms

Look as striking as the design outside.

Ispizua: As the building itself is really beautiful,

So that's the reason why the whole interior design

Is quite crazy.

Narrator: The hotel's cantilevers

Are a unique layout for fernando to work with.

Each of the triangular corner points

Face a different point on the compass,

And the rooms are themed to match.

The bold design continues in the communal areas.

Fernando commissions local artist barre verkerke

To cover the walls of the main reception and bar.

The design is, like, thinking out of the box.

Hotels, they go for safety.

Then here what you see

Is this colorful explosion of art everywhere.

Narrator: It's late summer.

In just 20 weeks, the hotel doors will open to guests.

Work on the bedrooms and communal areas

Is almost complete.

For niek and his team,

Completing this 650-room hotel has been a monumental challenge.

Over the last 38 months,

They have removed 2,500 trucks of soil,

Poured 70,000 tons of concrete,

Installed 11.5 million pounds of steel,

Hung 2,600 windows,

And positioned 650 beds.

The end result is a masterpiece of modern design,

A bold new icon

In the heart of historic amsterdam.

Timmer: Everybody talks about it.

You can see it from miles away.

I'm more than proud of it.