All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.2021.S02E10.Radical.and.Resplendent.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[Male narrator] How do you
create a world-class museum

underground in a swamp?

[Lonnie] Every day
the water got deeper

and they couldn't
figure out how to do it.

[Narrator] Can engineers
breathe new life

into a huge tower that
has lain empty for 30 years?

[Sean] You realise
that nothing is straight,

everything is enormous.

[Narrator] And how do you
create an office block

where the floors hang
perilously 100 feet into space?

It was possibly the most
dramatic bit of construction

that I will ever see.

[music]

[Narrator] This is the
age of the extraordinary.

[Hayley] It's like one of
those insect-eating plants,

only enormous and white.

[Narrator] Where
ingenious engineers

have unleashed unchecked
creativity.

Now their secrets are revealed

as we discover the inside
stories of their construction.

This is an incredible feat
of planning and engineering.

[Narrator] To try
and understand...

How did they build that?

During the series,
some of the most thrilling

and ambitious building designs
have been those for new museums.

The Museum of African American
History and Culture

in Washington DC is
one perfect example.

It uses the technology of today

to help us celebrate
and understand our past,

while also planning ahead

for our environmental
needs of the future.

On top of all of that,
it just looks awesome!

[music]

[Narrator] America's
capital city, Washington DC,

is home to some of
the most recognisable

and historic structures
in the world.

But if you take a short walk
down Constitution Avenue,

you'll find an extraordinary
new kid on the block,

albeit one that was a
hundred years in the making.

[Lonnie] Everything about
this was full of pressure.

Building a museum
on the National Mall

within the sight
of the White House,

but also exploring questions
that Americans traditionally

don't want to explore.

[Narrator] A Smithsonian
Institution museum

that tells the American
story through the lens

of African American
history and culture.

I remember my first
time visiting.

It was like none other.

The building itself
really resonates with me.

It's the perfect package
for what's on the inside.

[Narrator] With an
exterior wrapped

in a shimmering bronze lattice,

inspired by a triple-tiered
crown from West Africa,

inside and out,
this building is unique.

A triple inverted pyramid.

If it's complex to say,
it must be complex to build.

[Narrator] 60% of the structure

would have to be built
underground, in a swamp,

100 years after the idea for
a museum was first conceived,

and facing a deadline to finish
from the 44th president himself.

[Lonnie] He said to me,
"Can you get this done

during my tenure?"

'Cause, as he put it, the
brother wants to cut the ribbon.

[Narrator] This is
the National Museum of

African American
History and Culture.

So, how did they build it?

[music]

So the idea of the museum really
began around 1913 to 1915.

That's when you saw celebrations
of the 50th anniversary

of the end of the Civil War.

And they actually
started raising money,

but then World War I broke out.

And then in the late '20s,
the Depression hit.

And really,
it flowed from there.

Every now and then,
it looked like it might happen.

But then there was an
assassination or war.

And so ultimately, it
really wasn't until 2003

when it became real.

[Narrator] It took America's
43rd President, George W. Bush,

to push for the museum.

He invited Lonnie Bunch
to oversee the project.

[Lonnie] I realised that if
I could build this museum,

it would nurture the soul
of all of our ancestors.

And that ultimately became
too powerful to me to turn down.

[Narrator] The challenge
is to come up with a museum

grand enough to sit
on the National Mall,

which will set a new bar for

the public institutions
of the future.

So we had an international
design competition

with sort of 70 teams that
really wanted to do this.

Some of the most famous
teams in the world.

And then what we did is
we narrowed it down to six.

[Narrator] The winning design
comes from Sir David Adjaye,

now a celebrated
architect responsible for

the Sugar Hill Housing
Development in New York

and the Nobel Peace Centre
in Oslo, Norway.

But in 2009,
the Ghanaian-British architect

is still early in his career
and is a relative unknown.

This will be his biggest
project to date by far.

When we won the competition,
I was incredibly euphoric.

I couldn't believe it 'cause I
felt like it was a moment where

the sort of rocket ship
took off.

[Lonnie] I was moved
by his understanding of

how this had to be both
centred in the culture,

but it had to symbolise
more than one culture.

It had to be a welcoming place.

So ultimately,
this soaring design

was really what got
me very excited.

Suddenly it sort of dawned
on me that, oh, my God,

we were gonna have
to make this building

and that people were gonna
look at this building and say,

"What the hell were you doing?"

Or, "What was this
thing in your mind?"

And I just felt I couldn't fail.

[applause]

[Narrator] Then, just
as the ground is broken,

Secretary Bunch rethinks
the original design brief.

The initial plan had the
history galleries on one level.

But I worried a lot about
how can we tell the full story

in a way that would be engaging.

And then the exhibit designer,
Ralph Applebaum,

said to me it would be better

if we had a tiered
series of galleries

that would allow
us to go deeper.

And that was one
of those moments

where I really wrestled with,
do I just let it go and say,

we have one floor?

But I thought about you only
had one shot to get it right.

So let's do it.

[music]

[Narrator]
The new plan is to fit

the 400,000-square-foot museum

onto a 5-acre patch of land.

Four floors will now be built
below-ground, and five above.

The underground rooms will
go down into the water table,

and will need double-thick
concrete walls to stay dry.

Above ground, Sir David
wants the exhibition halls

to be column free,

so the upper floors
will be supported by just

four corner pillars carrying

the entire load of the building.

At the front, a 175-foot-long,
super-sized porch

will house the museum's
stunning entrance.

Finally, the 230-ton exterior
facade will be modelled on

an upside-down,
triple-layered corona,

inspired by a crown from
West Africa's Yoruba culture.

Instead of digging down 20 feet,

now the builders
need to go down 80 feet

to create the additional
floors underground,

into a swamp.

[Lonnie] First I was
sort of like, okay, fine.

I knew this is a swamp.
We'll figure out how to do it.

But then every day
the water got deeper

and they couldn't
figure out how to do it.

This whole end of the Mall
was actually filled in.

Um, it used to be
where the old Tiber Creek

ran through here.

So if you dig 5 feet down,
you hit the water table.

[Lonnie] And I
remember thinking,

I'm gonna be known as the guy

that built the largest
swimming pool on the Mall.

[Narrator] In order to
hold back the water,

the foundations are
redesigned to act like a dam.

Some of the excavation walls
are as wide as I am tall

and then some.

So really some almost nearly
8-foot-thick walls down there.

[Nehemiah] A big challenge
was stopping water

from getting underneath
the foundations

and pushing the building up.

So crews had to extract water,
almost 100 gallons a minute,

every day during construction
of the foundations.

This water was replaced
by a slurry mixture

of cement and sand
injected into the forms

to then stabilise the site.

[Narrator] But pumping out the
water could seriously undermine

the surrounding historic
buildings and structures.

[Lonnie] We were on
an aquifer of water.

And the bubble from the
pressure from that water

is what kept the
Washington Monument up.

[Zena] So it's all
about making sure

that we monitor that water level

to make sure we were never
drawing too much down,

and if we were, that we were
able to recharge that water

to get that water table back up.

[Narrator] It costs
over a million dollars

just to monitor movement
on the Washington Monument.

But finally, in 2013, the
foundations are safely in place,

and attention can turn to the
underground exhibition halls.

Everything about this
was a logistic challenge.

[Narrator] In fact, even
planning how to get some

of the exhibits
into the building

is proving far from
straightforward.

I had spent time trying
to find a railroad car

that would allow us
either to tell a story

of the Pullman porters
or segregation.

And a dear friend from my years

at the Museum of
American History

had a railroad car out in
Chattanooga, Tennessee.

So I went out there, saw
this segregated railroad car,

and said, "That's powerful,
I want to have it".

And then we realised
that it was too big

to go into the building
if it was enclosed.

[Narrator] It's 2013,
and in Washington DC,

spurred on by President Obama,

work is underway building
the National Museum of

African American
History and Culture.

Secretary Bunch has
found its first exhibit,

a segregated railroad car.

Now he just needs
to get it to site.

We had to get special permission
from Homeland Security 'cause

they were worried
that it was so big,

somebody could blow it up
and destroy a bridge

And we had to get
special permission

which way to come
into Washington.

And then we realised that it was
too big to go into the building

if it was enclosed.

[Narrator] They decide
they're going to have to put it

where the exhibit will live

and then build the rest
of the museum around it.

[Lonnie] We actually put
500-ton cranes on the Mall.

We couldn't put them too
close to the building because

they were too heavy
for the walls.

But they were also placed
on the main gas line of DC.

So the mayor of the District
said, if you blow this city up,

you better get out of town.

We're lifting it up off
the street, towering it over

and then putting it in place

where it was gonna
be permanently.

And that moment told me,
we're gonna pull this off.

[Narrator] The team's
attention now turns to

the challenges of building
the five storeys above ground.

Architect Sir David doesn't
want the exhibition spaces

filled with any huge
supporting columns.

[Zena] What's carrying the
structural heft are four cores

that are composite.
They're steel and concrete.

It was designed with
these four cores coming up

out of this major foundation.

[Narrator]
The four core pillars

will turn conventional
building rules on their head.

[Zena] So if you think about
these four cores that extend up

and then they carry these large
girders that cantilever out,

and then the structure
just hangs gently.

The other thing that
allowed us to do

was have an almost
completely column-free space.

[Narrator] The next challenge
is creating the facade.

Designing it is one thing, but
building it is another entirely.

Bronze cladding
looks incredible,

but it also tends to come
with an incredible bill,

especially on this scale.

[Narrator] For
architect Sir David,

the bronze finish
is non-negotiable.

Bronze seemed like a really
powerful material to then use

for the skin of the building,

to create a weight and a dignity
and a connection to history.

But also, there was
a kind of way in which

the bronze of West Africa

would also connect to
the bronze of the Mall.

[Narrator] Thankfully, they
come up with a solution...

Bronze plating.

The actual physical material
of the exterior of the building

is not solid bronze.
[laughs] Yeah.

What the material is that
you see is a cast aluminium.

It's lighter, you know,
it has the durability of

a lifetime structure

that is necessary for
this type of building.

[Narrator] Not only
does it look beautiful,

it also makes the
building more sustainable,

helping control the
temperature inside.

[Brenda]
The whole museum was designed

as a box within a box
within a box.

The second box is
the glass enclosure,

where most of the circulation
and visitor activities happen.

And then the last box
is the corona,

which helps reduce
the amount of solar heat

that comes into the building.

[Narrator] Even the
vast entrance space,

known as the porch,

contributes to the
building's green credentials.

Without a porch,
anybody waiting outside

to be in the museum
in the Washington sun

would be burned alive.
[laughs]

On top of that, we also have
a fountain right at the front.

And when we get
our summer breezes,

the air travels over the water

and creates a microclimate there

that is about 10 degrees
cooler than what it is outside.

[Narrator] The porch, though,

does more than
keep visitors cool.

[Zena] The reason why the porch
is important is because

it has its roots culturally

in Southern African
American sensibility.

The way African Americans
in the South used the porch

truly as a space that welcomes.

So what we wanted to
do was do, you know,

a really exaggerated expression
of openness and column free,

and a welcome to all space.

[Narrator] Finally,
on September 24, 2016,

over 100 years after the
original idea was conceived,

President Barrack Obama
opens the museum.

You had President Obama,
President Bush,

the chief justice, you
had the great John Lewis.

And it reminded me of
America at its best,

when you saw Republicans
and Democrats sitting together

to celebrate something
they did together.

That, to me,
was the power of that day.

[Brenda] I cried.
It was uplifting.

It was, oh my God,
you know, what we have done.

It was really, really,
really emotional for me.

[Sir David] What drew me was
really this incredible moment

in history to realise
on the nation's capital

this profoundly important
story that was missing

in the construction of America.

[Narrator] It's so popular,

it's the first
Smithsonian museum

that needs a reservation
and timed tickets.

This stunning futuristic
structure not only serves

as a museum and memorial,

but a blueprint for
how future institutions

can preserve and
present collections

of national importance

in a unique, intelligent
and sustainable way.

[music]

Designing an incredible building

isn't only about
the shiny and new.

Taking an old building
and giving it new life

beyond its original purpose
can be every bit as rewarding

and even more challenging.

When this next building
was originally designed

for the '76 Montreal Olympics,

it was so ahead of its time,

it missed its completion
date by 11 years.

And then it lay empty
for a further 30 years!

So, while it's never gonna win
gold for speediest construction,

as an already iconic
design re-imagined,

this project is
way out in front.

[Narrator] In the
era of regeneration,

the days of simply knocking
a building down are over.

Instead, the idea is to
repurpose and re-imagine,

no matter how far the original
has fallen from grace.

There were birds nesting
inside of the tower.

There was rain pouring in.

There was no water,
no electricity, no nothing.

[Narrator] In Montreal, Canada,

that's exactly what
they decided to do...

Take a tower that the city had
seen as a failure for decades

and turn it into a shining swan.

It took four years

and pushed the architects
and engineers to their limits.

One of the challenges
of actually articulating

that vision was the
actual construction site.

It was really like
landing a spaceship

on an aircraft carrier.

[Sean] Once you get
here, you realise

that nothing is straight.
Everything is crooked.

Everything is curved.
Everything is enormous.

[Narrator] But the result of
all the innovative thinking,

ingenuity and collaboration

was the regeneration
of an iconic building

on the verge of demolition.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] The largest
inclined tower in the world,

designed as an avant-garde
masterpiece, was reborn.

This is the Montreal Tower.

So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Narrator] The French-speaking
city of Montreal

in Quebec, Canada

is an island on
the St Lawrence River.

Nicknamed the
City of a Hundred Steeples,

its mix of gothic, art deco
and modernist architecture

has contributed to the
city's ever-changing skyline.

One of the most important
additions was the new centre

built to host the
1976 Olympic games.

Radical French architect
Roger Taillibert

designed a futuristic
sports village

with a stadium, velodrome
and aquatic centre.

At its heart, he planned
to build a tower

575 feet tall and inclined at
an almost impossible 45 degrees.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] The Olympic arena
was built in time

for the 1976 opening ceremony.

Unfortunately, its
futuristic tower wasn't.

In fact, it took another
11 years to build.

By then, the project
had run out of money

and the tower was abandoned,

lying empty for 25 years

until the park authorities

decided something
needed to be done.

[Cedric] In 2012,
the new administration

that was at the Olympic Park
was there and said, okay,

we are at the turning
point right now.

We need to stop waiting
for the government

to say and to do something
about the park and the stadium.

We need to show the people
what are the possibilities

of that equipment.

[Narrator] They decide to turn

the world's tallest
inclined tower

into a state-of-the-art
$200 million office block.

60% of its curved
concrete exterior

will be replaced with
3 miles of flat glass,

forming a curtain wall.

Inside, the building will be
opened up to create 14 floors

of modern,
open-plan office space.

And the rooftop bar
will give visitors

uninterrupted views of the city

to celebrate this
landmark once again.

But to pull this off,
the team has to calculate

how to work with the
existing structure...

No easy task.

What we realised on
this project is that

not one floor would be the same,

not one facade
would be the same,

and that standard
methods of doing the work

would not be possible for us.

[Narrator] Despite the
obvious challenges,

in spring 2015, work
starts on the building.

The main job is going to be
creating the glass curtain wall,

which involves removing
450 enormous concrete panels

that cover over
half the tower...

and then replacing them with
3 miles of reinforced glass.

All of that requires
a very special crane.

[music]

[speaking French]

[Narrator]
The 600-foot-high crane,

nicknamed The Giraffe,

is so tall, it's brought
to the site in pieces.

And the challenge then
is finding a space

to put it together.

Actually, it's a bit
complicated to find

the optimal position.

We realised that we needed to
go through the sports centre,

and that also we were going
to go through the roof.

That was actually
a pivotal moment for us.

I still remember that meeting
when we had to tell them

that we're going to go there.

The reaction wasn't,
of course, too optimistic.

They told us it was impossible.

[Narrator] After some
delicate negotiations,

they agree to close
part of the sports centre,

and a hole is punched
in the roof for the crane

to go through and up
600 feet in the air.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] A 700-ton
mobile crane is brought on site

to lift the huge sections
of tower crane into place...

starting with the base unit,

which is slowly and very
carefully lowered through

the Olympic stadium roof.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] After 10 long days
of precision manoeuvring,

the tower crane
sections are assembled.

Working at such extreme heights
is incredibly time consuming.

The crane operator takes half an
hour just to climb to his cabin.

It's not a job for
the faint hearted.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] It takes nerves
of steel and a steady hand

to manoeuvre the
crane into position

and lift the concrete panels
hundreds of feet below.

[Sean] These panels are all
anchored to the structure.

Some of these are almost
8 metres high

and weigh 5 tons.

[Narrator] Before they can be
removed, every anchor point

has to be cut through with a
specialist diamond wire bandsaw.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] The construction
team on the Montreal Tower

finally finish removing
all 450 concrete panels

from the exterior.

Now they have to
prepare the tower

for the glass curtain walls
that will replace them.

[Pierre] [speaking French]

[Narrator] As work begins
on fitting the glass panels,

they're stress-tested
to make sure

they're strong enough
to deal with the extremes

of Montreal's weather.

In a typical office tower,

the curtain walls are vertical.

In this case,
they were on an angle,

which means they're
almost like a roof.

And when it rains and snows,
they don't react the same way

as when there are
typical office tower.

So in order to be able to
have a quality curtain wall,

different tests were done...

Wind tests and rain tests...
To make sure

that there was no infiltration.

[Narrator] The tests confirm
that the glass panels

are watertight and
wind resistant,

so installation continues.

But at the observatory on top,

engineers face a new challenge.

[Sean] The problem was
with the south facade,

because that's the facade where
you have the 45-degree angle.

So the cranes don't have access,

you have all the cables
that hold the roof.

And since you're working
on the 45-degree angle,

well, the only way to get there
is with the workers on ropes.

[Narrator] It's 2012,
and in Montreal, Canada,

a team of specialist
steeplejacks is brought in

to work from fixed lines
at extreme heights.

They begin installing
the glass panels one by one.

But it's not easy.

[speaking French]

[music]

[Narrator] Two and a half years
after work began,

four decades since the tower
was first scheduled to open,

the facade is transformed

with over 3 miles of
reinforced glass curtain wall.

A thoroughly modern
reinterpretation,

it's now fit for
the 21st century.

When you transform
and re-clad a building,

it's like giving
new clothes to a person.

And in a way,
you give a new identity.

[Narrator] After
decades of neglect,

overcoming adversity
and controversy,

Montreal's Olympic Tower
re-opens in 2018.

Now home to hundreds
of office workers,

it combines creative workspaces

with some of the
best views in town.

[speaking French]

[Narrator] Completely
reimagined and repurposed,

the tower stands
proud once again,

reaffirming its place
on the Montreal skyline

for now and for
generations to come.

[music]

We head 3700 miles
northeast now to Norway,

a country I've learned
loves nothing better

than impossible challenges
of design and engineering.

Now, this next building was not
so much a construction project

as a super-sized game
of precision Jenga

played with five 460-feet-long,

3-storey-high building blocks

that project LCD
art installations

from their massive 100-foot
cantilevered overhangs.

What?

Look, Norway gets cold.

And this is one building
that is totally ice cool.

[Narrator] The
idyllic Oslofjord,

with its dense forest
and mirrored surface water,

reaches through Norway
up to the shoreline of Oslo,

the country's capital,

one of the happiest
places on earth.

It's also one of
the most exciting,

especially when it
comes to striking buildings.

So when Norway's
energy giant, Equinor,

was looking to build
a new HQ there,

it was always going
to be something special.

But what designers came
up with was extraordinary.

The result is mind blowing.

[Narrator] A building that
could withstand temperatures

of up to 95 degrees in summer
and minus 13 in the winter.

It takes a lot of
precision engineering

to make it look this casual,
but work so well.

[Narrator] It had a roof
where no two pieces of glass

were the same.

We weren't sure
that we could manage to build

the glasses that the
architects had drawn.

[Narrator] Five gravity-defying,

horizontally stacked skyscrapers
that hang into space.

This giant stack
of boxes and slopes

seems to teeter dangerously
over the street.

[Narrator] This is the
Equinor Building in Oslo.

So, how did they build it?

It's Norway, 2009, and Equinor,

one of the country's
largest energy producers,

launches a competition to come
up with an extraordinary design

for an eco-friendly HQ.

Forty practices enter, including
local architects A-Lab,

responsible for Oslo's iconic
Barcode District skyline

In an industry
badly hit 10 months earlier

by the 2008 financial crash,

there's a lot riding
on their pitch.

It was a huge project for us

and an important competition
to win.

[Narrator] The winning
design is to be built

on the site of
the old Oslo Airport

on the Fornebu Peninsula.

Opened in 1939, in
the Second World War

it was taken as a
strategic Luftwaffe base.

Post war, it became Oslo's
primary international airport

before finding itself too
small for modern airliners.

In 1998, it was closed down.

This is the last fjord
site as it was then,

an open site with a great aspect

towards the Oslo fjord.

[Narrator] It's an incredible
location on the water's edge,

and the architects have come up
with a stunning design

that must overcome
many challenges.

The ground is unstable,

so they will need to dig
deep and strong foundations

to support the building.

The central hub will be
placed in a huge atrium

that will be built around
four giant concrete cores

and wrapped in a curving
propeller-shaped glass roof.

But planning restrictions
limit how high they can go,

so they will build out sideways,

stacking five horizontal
office blocks at angles,

with the top three positioned so
they hang perilously into space.

The result, a 9-storey building

that resembles a
starfish from above,

which allows them to minimise
how much ground space

the offices cover

and maximise the space for
an impressive park beneath.

Stacking the blocks will
also make the most of

the spectacular location
on the edge of Oslofjord.

Everyone gets this
beautiful view.

Whether it's diagonally
or straight out of

the ends of the building,

you utilise these views
in every single direction.

[Narrator] It does everything
the client's looking for

and more. And in 2010,

A-Lab's design
wins the competition.

This is a mind-blowing feat of
both engineering and planning.

[Narrator] Early in 2011,
work starts to clear the site.

The catch, though, is that
the client needs the new HQ

built and operational
in just 20 months.

[music]

[Narrator] It's 2011,
and in Oslo, Norway,

the teams are starting
work on a new HQ

that has to be finished
in 20 months.

From the beginning of
the project,

no one really realised
the incredible requirements

that it put everyone under.

This is the largest
project we have ever built

and it was the shortest
construction time. [laughs]

[Narrator] That's not
the project's only challenge.

They need to create over 200,000
square feet of floor space.

But planning restrictions mean
they're only allowed

to build to 120 feet.

A tower was out of the
question, quite simply.

[Narrator] To solve the problem,

they turn to an engineering
principle called a cantilever.

The actual physical building

and construction of
the cantilevers

was therefore one of the
most important elements of it.

[Narrator] This allows huge
sections of the building

to be supported at just one end.

[Corina] In a normal building,

weight is distributed evenly
across the foundations.

But this building is
like an unbalanced seesaw

pushing down on one side
and pulling up on the other.

These opposing forces are
going to put the foundations

under a serious amount of
strain.

[Narrator] If the foundations
aren't strong enough

to counteract the
combined forces,

the huge office
blocks will fall.

The team has to make
sure that doesn't happen.

The excavation work
was significant

and went a long way
down into the bedrock.

The preparation involved also
stabilising parts of the rock,

which is quite a weak
Oslo slate, as it's called.

[Narrator]
In order to strengthen

the looser slate sections,

they will have to drive
piles deep into the bedrock

before reinforcing them.

Despite the tight schedule, this
is one job that can't be rushed.

The winters in Oslo can
see temperatures dropping

to minus 10 degrees,

and if there's one thing
uncured concrete doesn't like,

it's the cold.

[Peter] We started
here in January,

and that was a very
cold winter that first year.

So that we had to mount
the quite big areas

without actually
pouring concrete.

[Narrator] By spring,
they're ready to take on

their next challenge...

Counteracting the extreme forces
from the cantilevered design.

This is achieved by creating an
enormous skeleton from steel,

which will carry the forces from
the huge blocks, or lamells,

into the centre,

where they will be channelled
down the four giant cores

to the foundations.

Steel construction on this scale

is not something the
team has done before.

[Peter] This is the
first time ever build

construction like this.

And, uh, so we learn
a lot about steel constructions

that are more complicated
than this, uh,

this building than
other normal buildings.

[Narrator] With
time of the essence,

they know they have to find
ways of speeding up the build.

The contractor immediately
saw that prefabrication

was the only way to create such
a building so fast on site.

[Narrator] They decide
a whopping 1600 elements

can be made off site.

But that involves
precision planning

to keep things on schedule.

What was incredible
about coming to site

was having to deal
with different stages

in the construction
process simultaneously.

The fit-out of the lower
lamells was happening

while the steel truss
for the top lamell

was being hoist into position.

[Narrator] The steel elements
arrive from factories

like a pre-made
monster Erector set.

Once on site, each piece
needs very precise welding

to create the huge framework.

To stay on schedule,

they brave temperatures
frequently below freezing.

But welding also
doesn't like the cold

as it can leave it weakened.

It's yet another
headache for the team.

We build the big
tents on site there

to try to get the
climate because, uh...

there was huge welding job.

And that has to be accurate,

and we have to control every
part of the welding process.

[Narrator] Now they
need to carefully put

each of the hundreds
of pieces in place.

This project too calls
for a huge crane.

It takes 54 trucks
under police escort

to bring the crane in
pieces, totalling 1250 tons.

Once there, they need a
vast 2000-square-feet area

to build a large enough
base to put it on.

The crane could actually
lift... I think it was 60 tons

on 120 metres from the centre
of where it was standing.

And without that crane,
we couldn't be able to assemble

this building in that
short construction time.

[Narrator] Time
may be running out,

but the main structure is at
last beginning to take shape.

[Charlie] The biggest day for us

was lifting the last piece of
the truss onto the top lamell.

Strangely, the last piece
was the one furthest away

from the production area, on
the other side of the building.

So the crane had to
lift up 100 metres

and over 100 metres.

It was possibly the most
dramatic bit of construction

that I will ever see.

[Narrator] It's a precision
job for the crane operator,

dropping that final piece
in exactly the right place.

The next challenge is creating
the roof that will wrap around

the central atrium.

To maximise a sense of openness,

the architects want to use the
fewest columns to hold it up.

So they come up with a
very special glass structure.

So it's a bit like
a soap bubble,

if you can imagine
creating that soap bubble

and then twisting it.

The soap bubble description
refers to the super clever way

a thin layer of soapy water
will stretch to cover an area

and then contract to the minimum
size it can without bursting

[Narrator] The pioneering
architect Frei Otto

was the first person to
experiment with this idea

in the 1960s.

Given a set of fixed points,
he noted soap film will spread

to offer the smallest
achievable surface area,

which he most famously used
for Munich's Olympic Park.

This technique means
the roof will weigh

the least possible amount

and reduce the additional
load on the supports.

Perhaps more
importantly, though,

it also allows them to create
something really unique...

but untested.

It was a risk because this
hadn't been done before

in Northern Europe.

[Narrator] The twisting
structure means that

no two pieces of glass or
steel frame are the same.

So constructing it is like

piecing a huge jigsaw puzzle
together at great height.

None of the glasses
are actually curved,

but all the nodes on the steel

and all the glasses
have a different shape.

[Narrator] The roof also needs
to be designed and engineered

to cope with snow.

Oslo gets a lot of it.

And that will create
a huge amount of weight

pushing down on the glass.

The engineers have to
run computer models

to perfect the design

and ensure the roof will
be able to stand up to

the worst of Norway's winters.

The result is both
beautiful and strong.

[Charlie] The total snow load
in the corners of the glass roof

is the equivalent of
an articulated truck

being parked on that roof.

[Narrator] The ingenuity
does not stop there.

For decades, Norway has led the
charge towards renewable energy,

with most now provided
from the rivers

that cascade into its fjords.

And Oslofjord on
the building's doorstep

provides them with a completely
different green energy solution.

So a major part of the energy
efficiency of the building

was also the use of the fjord

to both cool the
building in the summer

and to help warm the
building in the winter.

[Narrator] The average
temperature of the water

is 48 degrees,

so piping the water
into the building

will help bring the ambient
temperature either down or up

to a comfortable level.

Completing the work
goes down to the wire.

And the engineers know that
missing the finish date

would incur huge
financial penalties.

A final push leaves them within
a whisper of the agreed date

in October 2012.

We were supposed to hand
it over on a Friday,

and it was very close.

But, uh, we agreed that
we could have the weekend.

So we handed it over on Monday
and everybody was happy.

[laughs]

[Narrator] Just 20
months after work started,

this incredible cantilevered
office building,

wrapped in thousands
of unique glass panels

and situated on the banks
of the glorious Oslofjord,

was ready to take its place

amongst the other iconic
Oslo architecture.

[Peter] Oh, I remember
that last weekend.

One of the construction guys

actually stood in the staircase
with a trumpet, playing.

Yeah, everybody was happy,
and it was euphoric to be able

to hand it over, that
construction in time.

[Charlie] It was only
when we stood back

and looked at the final product

that the feeling of
accomplishment as a team,

together with the contractor
and all the other consultants,

really sank in.
It took some time.

[Narrator] Constructed
under huge time pressure,

this incredible
award-winning project

has created an office
environment unlike any other.

It's a building that
gives everyone inside

an awe-inspiring view
of the fjord.

And everone outside
is blown away

by its staggering,
eye-catching looks.