Original subtitles

[Jay] How do you make a 1.2 million-square-foot

conference center

that's as welcoming to wildlife

as it is to people?

To attempt a green roof on this scale

was a huge undertaking, a huge risk.

[Jay] How do you build a beautiful bridge

that can also rise 160 feet in the air?

You can move the bridge with one hand, huh, you know?

It's, uh...it's crazy.

[Jay] And how do you construct a 668-foot-tall,

cocoon-shaped tower

in an earthquake zone?

You've gotta make sure that

your beautifully designed building

doesn't essentially rip itself apart.

[music]

[Jay] This is the age of the extraordinary.

[Dr. Agbedor] It's totally different

from anything around it.

It's like a visitor from another planet.

[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?

[Jay] To try and understand...

...how did they build that.

Next time you're up in Vancouver,

I recommend you check out the greenest convention center

in Canada.

It has a 6-acre living roof with 400,000 plants

and a lawn which takes six gardeners two weeks to mow.

Since opening back in 2009,

there's been a real buzz around this building.

That'll probably be the quarter of a million honeybees

who call it home.

Vancouver, British Columbia

sits over a series of islands on the edge of the Pacific.

Since the millennium,

the city has been restoring this coastline

and bringing back its biodiversity.

So, how do you build a huge new waterfront convention center

that will have a positive impact on this landscape?

We have to feel responsible for what happens on this site.

It's gonna impact the whole waterfront.

[Jay] The answer is this extraordinary,

eco-friendly structure that straddles the shore

and the ocean.

Constructing anything on water

is way more difficult than building on land.

[Jay] Creating wildlife-friendly areas

below the waterline and above it.

[Corina] Six acres of living landscape.

Just imagine how much weight that's adding to the roof.

[Jay] All wrapped up in a spectacular, asymmetrical,

1.2 million-square-foot building.

There isn't really a precedent in Canada

for a building, a structure of this size.

[Jay] This is Vancouver Convention Centre West.

So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Jay] It's the early 2000s.

LMN Architects have been given the job

of designing a new convention center for Vancouver

over three times the size of its predecessor.

This is one of the biggest projects

we've ever designed.

We have to push the envelope.

[Jay] An 11-acre waterfront site is chosen by the city.

But the plot isn't big enough for what they need.

We were wanting to keep it intimate,

but we needed the square footage as well.

So we needed to build at least 40% of it over water.

[Jay] As if that wasn't challenging enough,

the city also wants the team

to rejuvenate this part of the coast.

Known as Coal Harbour, it's a former industrial site

which has undergone gradual redevelopment.

This site was the last remaining piece

of the downtown waterfront that had not been restored.

[music]

[Jay] The team needs to create an epic new building

for the city

that will leave this part of the shoreline

in a better state than they found it.

First, they'll have to find a way to fit a building

bigger than the plot onto the waterfront site.

This will mean building out into the bay

on a specially designed platform

which is strong enough to support the building.

They'll need to figure out how to squeeze

a massive event space and enough parking

into the striking structure

with its views across the water.

But what will make this building really special

will be the way it helps the local environment.

Under the waterline, they need to design and build

a pioneering habitat

to encourage local wildlife to return.

And the whole center will need to support a green roof

the size of six American football fields.

[music]

[Jay] It's 2003. Design work is underway,

and the first curveball comes

when Vancouver is chosen to host

the 2010 Winter Olympics.

There was a decision that the convention center

should serve the Olympics as the press center.

[Jay] The building will play host to reporters

from over 80 countries.

It's an honor,

but it sets off a seven-year ticking clock.

So that may seem like a long time,

but in building development, that's a pretty short order.

[music]

[Jay] Time is of the essence.

So before they even finish designing the building,

they start constructing a solid base

called a marine deck.

The typical foundation for marine decks

like the one used here

includes driving piles into the seabed

and topping them with pile caps.

These are large concrete blocks that evenly distribute the load,

creating a foundation stable enough for construction.

[Jay] For this building, they will need

a 1000-foot-long deck.

That means driving 900 piles 200 feet down

until they reach the bedrock.

With the Olympics approaching,

maintaining the necessary pace requires military efficiency.

The marine deck was built from the east towards the west

and was in a kind of assembly line-type process,

where pile driving was started in one end,

and then was-- pile caps were started

while the pile driving was moving further west.

[Jay] With the piles in,

the concrete deck takes shape on top.

It's a huge job,

but after two years, 20,000 tons of steel,

and 34,000 cubic yards of concrete,

finally they have a base for a new conference center.

[music]

[Jay] The next challenge is to engineer the structure.

The architects want big, open spaces inside

and huge sloping glass windows on the outside,

and an enormous green roof on top.

Coming up with a structure that's strong enough

to achieve all of this

is extremely complicated to get right.

You don't really see the complexity of it

until you see it in 3D and 3D modeling.

Nothing comes together square.

Everything's got an angle, a two-directional angle, slopes.

[music]

[Jay] The team opts for a steel frame,

which will handle these challenges

better than concrete.

Steel is the perfect material for spanning large areas.

It's strong. It's durable.

It's relatively light compared to concrete

and doesn't need nearly as much maintenance.

[Jay] But in engineering terms,

what is considered light is relative.

Some of the pieces of structural steel

weigh 730 pounds per foot.

[Robert] These trusses would be delivered to the project site

on very large trucks

and then have to be hoisted into place

with very large cranes on the marine deck.

So the marine deck had to include capacity

for these large cranes

to be able to literally build the building on top of it.

[Jay] The next challenge the engineers face

is making sure the building will be strong enough.

Vancouver is a high seismic zone

with large earthquakes that happen

every 300 to 500 years.

And the next big earthquake is expected

in the next hundred years.

[Jay] To ensure the conference center

is prepared for the threat,

the team designs and fits seismic braces.

These huge springs act like shock absorbers on a car

if the building gets hit.

As it sways one way or another,

it's getting a little bit of help out of this spring,

increasing or decreasing in load

as the building sways one way or another.

[Jay] It's a great solution

that will allow the team to finish the huge frame

by June 2007,

two and a half years away from the Olympics.

But before that,

the team has to work out a way of making the building

a safe habitat for an endangered local fish.

One of the really fundamental things that's important

in this region is the salmon migration.

And the baby salmon will swim along the shore.

They want to be in shallow water

so that they can avoid predators.

[Jay] The team has a bold idea.

To help stem the rapid decline in the population,

they want to create shelter for migrating young salmon

and other species in the underwater parts

of the building.

The daunting task of designing it

falls to new project engineer Daniel Leonard.

[Daniel] I had just graduated from university.

And they came to me, uh, on my first week

and said that they had this really challenging aspect

of the project that they wanted me to lead.

[Jay] The problem is there's no blueprint

for a structure like this.

You're basically told, "Please do something

"that's never been done before

"in the shortest amount of time possible,

and do it on time and on budget."

[music]

[Jay] In Vancouver,

the team behind a new waterfront conference center

is racing to finishing it in time

for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

First, though, they need to work out

how to create an environment around it

that will protect the endangered local sockeye salmon.

Their solution is to create a series of

precast concrete benches

that will mimic the natural shoreline,

periodically exposed and covered up by the tide,

with plenty of hiding places for ocean plants and animals.

[Daniel] The benches were built with ridges

and also tidal pools in them

to provide the maximum amount of habitat

for the surface area that was provided.

The materials were chosen

to replicate that shoreline as well.

Exposed aggregate concrete to allow marine growth

to attach to the exposed aggregate.

[Jay] Because these benches will hang off the building

and below the high tide line,

there's no way that they can cast the concrete in place.

All of the leg units and the plank units

were built at a, uh, precast concrete factory

on Vancouver Island, and then they were barged over.

And then a massive 300-ton-capacity crane

was used to pick up the legs

and to swing them in place

and to clip them onto the inside of the foundation.

And all of the legs, all 76 of them,

were installed in four days.

[Jay] Scientists will carefully monitor

the impact of the structure on the sockeye salmon population.

For now, though,

with the Olympic deadline fast approaching,

the team turns its attention to the roof.

[music]

[Jay] The ambition is to transform all 6 acres of it

into the largest green roof in Canada.

Vancouver is actually one of the leaders

in green roof development.

Uh, it has a long history.

Some of the earliest green roofs

are just in this neighborhood here.

[Jay] Green roofs look beautiful,

cool buildings, attract wildlife.

But creating one this large is unprecedented.

[Reece] To attempt a green roof on this scale

was a huge, huge undertaking and huge risk.

[Jay] The first problem is making sure

the roof isn't too heavy.

[Corina] Six acres of living landscape.

Just imagine how much weight that's adding to the roof.

[Jay] The engineers calculate that the structure

can take up to 6 inches of compacted soil.

More than that,

and there's a risk it could collapse.

Work starts by adding an even layer of gravel

topped with soil.

[Reece] We had truckloads of gravel,

truckloads of soil.

That was all craned up.

And then we had conveyor belts set up

to distribute the soil.

[Jay] To add to the challenge,

some sections of the roof slope steeply.

So the team needs to add special stabilization mats

with pockets to stop everything from sliding downhill.

Then they are ready for the mammoth planting job.

Six acres, 400,000 plants, and 40,000 bulbs

involved in planting this space.

[Jay] All of the plants are native to the area

in order to make sure they thrive on the exposed roof.

And all of them must go in the exact right spot.

[Hannah] There was this kind of grid

that had the corresponding colored tags.

So let's say, you know, the native strawberries

were gonna be in the pot with the blue tag

and the asters are gonna be in the pot with the yellow tag.

[Jay] With the Olympics less than a year away,

800 people are needed for the final push

to finish the building's crowning glory--

the steeply sloping roof.

At times it was tough when we were working up here.

The biggest challenge creating this space

was the safety element.

It was very cumbersome and, uh, uncomfortable

to be attached to a lifeline.

But it was absolutely necessary to work along the perimeter,

which is about 50 feet from the leading edge.

[Jay] It takes months of backbreaking work

to complete the job.

[Hannah] You are continually bending over to plant.

You had to move at a decent pace.

It was tough, but it was fun.

[music]

[Jay] In 2010,

Vancouver Conference Centre West

is revealed to the world's press.

The opening day of the 2010 Olympics

was such an exciting day.

We were lucky to welcome people from all over the world.

[Jay] The 1.2 million-square-foot center

has the largest ballroom in Canada,

and the main hall can hold 15,000 people.

But it's not just human visitors it appeals to.

[Daniel] The habitat structure has

a lot of marine life growing on it.

And that marine life actually grew much faster

than anybody anticipated within months of construction.

And it's continued on over the past 14 years.

[Jay] The roof has also flourished

and is attracting pollinators.

And, irrigated by recycled wastewater,

it's helped to make the center

one of North America's greenest buildings.

[Craig] The building is currently related as

a EE Platinum.

And that is the highest standard of sustainability rating

you can get as a building like this.

[Mark] It's an emotional experience,

to see a building that is occupied by fish

and by bees and by birds and by plants

and by humans.

Working on the Vancouver Convention Centre,

it was a reminder of how deeply interconnected

everything in our world is.

[music]

When the beautiful French city of Bordeaux

needed a new bridge across the river Garonne,

they didn't want some regular, boring bridge,

something that just carried vehicles

from one side of the river to the other.

Where's the fun in that?

No, they wanted something different.

So different, in fact,

that when elevated to allow tall ships to pass below,

it doesn't look much like a bridge at all.

It looks more like a work of art,

which it most definitely is.

[Jay] This is the magnificent

Jacques Chaban Delmas Bridge.

[music]

[Dr. Mabry] Watching it open,

you feel like you're in, like, one of the Transformers movies.

[Jay] A mechanical marvel

that can lift eight lanes of roadway

160 feet.

It's like it was alive, no? This bridge.

[Jay] Built over one of southwest France's

busiest rivers.

It was totally crazy, no?

[Jay] It required gravity-defying engineering.

The bridge lifting span by itself

weighs around 5 million pounds.

[Jay] It now stands as Europe's tallest vertical lift bridge.

So, how did they build it?

[Jay] It's 2008,

and the beautiful, historic city of Bordeaux

in southwest France is changing.

Historically, development was concentrated

on the left bank of the river Garonne.

But now, new neighborhoods are springing up across the water.

As Bordeaux grows,

traffic is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

The city is one of the most congested in France,

and its transport infrastructure,

especially its bridges,

are at a breaking point.

[speaking French]

[Jay] The city needs a new bridge.

But the ideal spot to build one

is over a part of the river used by cruise ships

to access the city's historic port.

The requirements were to design a bridge

that could allow tall ships to pass

and carry pedestrians and cars and a tram in the future.

[Jay] They can't just build a high bridge

because it needs to connect to the existing roads

on the riverbank.

So, they settle on what's known as

a vertical lifting bridge.

A vertical lifting bridge is when

the whole central span lifts straight up into the air.

The problem is that it usually takes

a whole lot of clunky mechanical gear

in order to make it possible.

So they're like the ugly ducklings

of the bridge world.

[Jay] While a vertical lifting bridge

might be what the city needs,

an ugly duckling is the last thing it wants.

[Cecilia] The town of Bordeaux,

it is a 18th century historical town

with a harmony and a skyline.

Super beautiful.

And the bridge will be the middle,

so the project must be in harmony.

[Jay] The specialist bridge architects

take inspiration from the steeples

of Bordeaux's many ancient churches.

[Cecilia] It was the adrenaline moment

to find the design of the pylons.

It was so...exciting. [laughs]

[music]

[Jay] The design combines beauty and practicality.

But building it won't be easy.

Working on the busy river,

they'll need to create foundations in the water

and find a way to protect it from being hit

by passing ships

before constructing four elegant,

250-foot-tall pylons.

The massive road deck will have to be brought in in sections

and carefully positioned.

Then, they'll need a lifting system

that's small enough to be hidden inside the towers,

but powerful enough to lift

the huge 2750-ton central section,

which will carry eight lanes of traffic,

as well as pedestrians and cyclists.

It will be a mammoth test for the whole team.

[speaking French]

I was a little bit, uh, afraid, too.

Uh...[laughs]

It was stretch for me.

[Jay] It's October 2009.

Construction begins,

and immediately the team is faced with

its first challenge--

creating underwater concrete foundations

that will be strong enough to hold up

four 250-foot-tall concrete pylons.

Building the foundations of a bridge over deep water

is always challenging.

[Jay] Because the river's busy here,

it's even more complicated.

Rather than create the foundations on site,

they plan to prefabricate six concrete foundation boxes

in a dry dock up the river.

Then they'll float them into position

and secure them to piles sunk into the riverbed.

The two largest boxes will become the bridge foundations.

The four smaller ones are there to protect the structure

from potential ship impacts.

In 2010, 3 miles from the bridge site,

the team starts to work on the boxes.

Each will be made using between 3000 to 6000 tons of concrete

reinforced with steel.

And they're working against the clock.

[speaking French]

[Jay] After five months,

the first foundation boxes are ready.

The dry dock is flooded,

and then they set out along the Garonne.

It's a tense moment for the team.

[speaking French]

[Jay] To keep the boxes steady,

each needs two tugs pulling it.

Navigating the carefully planned route,

avoiding sandbanks and the most dangerous currents,

takes four days and nights,

with the team working in shifts.

[music]

[Jay] Now the box can be carefully slotted into place

and flooded with water to sink it to the waterbed.

Then, the water is replaced with concrete

to make it permanent.

[speaking French]

[Jay] Over the next few weeks,

the rest of the boxes follow,

and the team begins work on the four reinforced concrete pylons.

[music]

[Jay] Next, though, is possibly the team's greatest challenge--

creating the road that will run between them.

The crossing will be made of smaller fixed sections

on each side acting as ramps

and a massive middle section 380 feet long

that will rise and lower.

So 120 meters long, 30 meters wide,

uh, 2500 tons of steel,

and, uh, and in one piece, so it was crazy.

[Jay] What makes things even trickier

is that the only company that can make these massive slabs

is based in Venice, Italy.

These sections are so big

that they can't be brought by road.

They have to be floated to site.

[Jay] Only, this journey is a 3000-mile trip

across the Mediterranean Sea

and into the Atlantic Ocean,

and it's not easy sailing.

[speaking French]

[Jay] But, after three tense weeks at sea,

the decks finally arrive on site,

ready to be fitted.

That's if the team can find an opening

in the river's hectic schedule.

The Garonne is a very busy river.

It was not permissible to block the channel

for long periods of time.

[music]

[Jay] The team needs to lift this 2500-ton slab into position

as quickly as possible.

It's too heavy for a crane,

so, once again, they turn to the river for help.

On a high tide, the barge will float the spans

above their final position.

Winches will take them through 90 degrees

to line up with the fixing points.

Then, wait for the tide to fall and lock them back in place.

But the tides have to be just right.

[music]

[Jay] In Bordeaux,

the team building a vertical lifting bridge

over the river Garonne

is relying on the tides to help them position

the enormous central span.

It's a clear morning in the summer of 2012.

The tides are set to be perfect.

And the city is watching.

A lot of people in Bordeaux was here to see this moment.

[Jay] The high tide helps to float

the 380-foot-long central span into position.

It must be inched into place with pinpoint accuracy.

As the tide falls again,

the central piece locks onto the pylons perfectly.

It was a fantastic moment.

[music]

[Jay] Now the team faces its final challenge--

making sure this huge central span

can be lifted effortlessly into the air.

The lifting span by itself weighs about 5 million pounds.

In order to raise that,

that's an incredible amount of energy.

[Jay] As if that wasn't tough enough,

the lifting system needs to fit into

the bridge's elegant, narrow pylons.

The secret to this phenomenal deadlift

is counterweights.

[Dr. Mabry] Counterweights are an engineer's ace card.

By balancing the weight of what you're lifting

with something almost as heavy moving in opposition to it,

you can minimize the lifting force needed.

[Jay] The team calculates that in each tower,

they need a 660-ton counterweight,

supported by four massive pulley wheels

with super-reinforced cables.

We were able to create a very, very long, thin counterweight,

which is, uh, not typical in a vertical lift bridge.

[Jay] If they've got the balancing act right,

they'll only need four modest engines

to lift the enormous bridge.

Those motors are actually only 150 horsepower

due to the balance that we were able to achieve,

which greatly reduces the power consumption.

[Jay] Good for the city's energy bill

and good for the planet.

You can move the bridge with one hand, huh.

You know, it's, uh, it's crazy.

[Jay] March 17, 2013,

and the bridge is finally finished.

After 10 years of planning, design, and construction,

it's time for the people of Bordeaux

to test their new bridge.

[speaking French]

[music]

The bridge opened flawlessly.

The French military sailboat came through the bridge,

a beautiful image.

[Thomas] The first time I see it go up,

I remember that, uh, there was no noise, nothing.

It's beautiful, yeah.

[Jay] The bridge, combined with a new tram system,

has helped ease traffic

in what was one of France's most congested cities.

And it continues to perform staggering feats of strength

with faultless elegance.

We cannot build anything better than this...

than this...than this bridge here.

[Paul] We did something great together.

Wow, we did it.

[music]

[music]

Think you know what a school looks like?

Well, visit Tokyo and think again

because this stunning tower houses

not one, but three separate schools

and 10,000 students within its super-strong cocoon design,

as well as a retractable helipad.

Helicopters on the run to school?

Wow.

Oh, and if you're wondering

just how strong super strong is,

in 2011, the tower was caught in a magnitude 9.1 earthquake.

Structural damage?

Zero.

[music]

[Jay] Introducing Mode Gakuyen,

or the Cocoon, as it's affectionately known.

This building really just looks beautiful.

[Jay] One of the tallest colleges in the world,

it's as clever as it is stunning.

This building has a retractable roof

that helicopters can also land on.

Did you have that at your university?

'Cause I didn't.

[Jay] With a design that was breathtakingly ambitious...

[speaking Japanese]

[Masato] When I first saw the design,

I thought it was a good challenge.

[Jay] ...it would take every ounce of ingenuity and effort

to finish it.

Making a structure as complex as this

is exhausting.

[Jay] Yet the final result

would transform the Tokyo skyline

with a skyscraper unlike any other,

loved by those who use it.

This building is a very iconic place

and I really love to study here.

[Jay] So, how did they build it?

[music]

[Jay] At the end of the 20th century,

Japan was languishing in a recession.

But by the mid 2000s,

there are signs of a burgeoning recovery.

Investment is up,

and people are beginning to feel positive about the future.

So, the Japan Educational Foundation

decides now is the perfect time to expand.

[speaking Japanese]

[Jay] In one of the world's most densely populated countries,

finding space to build is tough.

The plot they found is less than an acre,

and on it, they've gotta fit three new colleges.

The lands were not as big as we would like to be.

[Dr. Agbedor] Space for development in Japan

is premium.

If you wanna build anything here,

you have to be an incredible problem solver.

[Jay] The man tasked with finding the solution

is architect Paul Tange.

Of course there is a functional requirement.

But they wanted to see something

that they have never seen before.

We finally came up with the idea of cocoon.

[Jay] The inspiration for the cocoon design

comes from the students that will study here.

We nourish them, cherish them,

give them everything we have, knowledge,

and eventually they will come to beautiful butterfly

and then fly off to the world.

[Jay] Constructing a building that looks like a cocoon

will demand ingenious design and creative engineering.

First, it's gonna be a very big building

in a earthquake zone,

so its foundations need to be super strong.

Then, they will have to work out how to squeeze 10,000 students

into one building on a site that isn't big enough.

Next, they'll wanna construct a curtain wall

from huge glass panels,

somehow using them to create the natural look of a cocoon.

Finally, they'll have to work out how to land

an emergency helicopter on a building with a curved top.

The design Tange and the team come up with is incredible,

but there's a huge problem.

[Dr. Agbedor] They've got a beautiful design,

something that makes a skyscraper

look like a work of art.

But they can't build it.

Japanese building regulations

won't allow them to build something

the size that they need.

[Jay] In Japan, there are tight restrictions

on how large you can build skyscrapers

to stop them from blocking sunlight and air flow.

But fitting in 10,000 students

means they need to exceed the restrictions

in a big way.

It's almost more than 30%,

which is quite a lot to achieve.

[Jay] After lengthy discussions,

the architects manage to persuade the government

that this area of Tokyo needs more young, talented people,

and they get the go-ahead.

In May 2006, construction begins,

and with it comes the first major challenge.

Much of Tokyo is built on clay, silt, and sand,

which is too soft to support an enormous building

like the cocoon.

We knew that the soil under the foundation

was not strong enough

to support the weight of the tall building.

[Jay] The first thing they have to do

is dig down to find solid ground.

We used piling,

so that piles were reached deeper soil,

which is stronger.

Then the stronger soil can support

the weight of the building

so that the building doesn't sink.

[Jay] Once they have created the 36 piles,

they lay a huge slab across the top

to bond them all together.

The concrete slab, it transfers

the weight of the building

to the soil directly.

[Jay] In July 2006,

they finally have a solid foundation

to build the 668-foot-tall building.

Now they can start on the tower.

With the small plot size, it will start narrow,

allowing light down to the street,

and then bulge in the middle to allow for more floor space.

But the curving shape makes it complicated to build,

especially in a country that's known for huge earthquakes.

Curved structures are at great risk

of twisting during an earthquake.

That's called torsional forces.

So you've gotta make sure

that your beautifully designed building

doesn't essentially rip itself apart.

[music]

[Jay] In Tokyo, the team building

a curving, cocoon-shaped skyscraper

needs to make it strong enough to withstand earthquakes.

They decide to wrap the tower in a strong steel exoskeleton

made from triangles.

Known as a diagrid, this will resist any tremors.

Triangular frame is much stronger than

rectangular frame,

because triangle is very difficult to deflect

compared to the rectangle.

Covering the building with triangular, or diagrid, frame

was advantageous against the lateral force.

[Corina] It's like a web of triangles all joined together.

And as they push up against each other,

they support one another.

[Jay] The steel diagrid frame

is then tied into a central concrete and steel core

to make the building even stronger.

The inner frame is mainly against the gravity laws

and the external frame

is mainly against the lateral forces.

[Jay] In February 2008,

they now have a building that is strong enough.

The next challenge is creating the curtain wall

from approximately 3600 glass panels.

Because the panels are big, an entire story high,

it will be difficult to transport the complete panels

through the congested, narrow streets of Tokyo.

It was decided to assemble on site

rather than transporting the completed panel

from the factory.

[Jay] With such a small plot

already jam packed with construction activity,

the problem now is where to put them together.

Ingeniously, they turn to the empty elevator shaft area.

The next challenge is working out

how to make the manmade glass exterior of the building

look like a natural cocoon.

Nature does complex things seemingly easily.

And when humans try to replicate it,

then they realize just how difficult

it actually is.

[Jay] Their clever solution is to decorate the curtain wall

with an organic pattern.

The irregular patterns within each curtain wall

creates this amazing optical illusion

that you're looking at a woven cocoon.

[Jay] First, they add strips of aluminum

mirroring the diagrid steels behind.

From outside, it looks like the same

as the cross-bracing pattern.

[Jay] Then, they add dotted lines to the glass,

which will come together to form a randomized pattern

resembling woven threads crisscrossing the building.

[Paul] We have to do it with a computer to make sure

as much as repetitive patterns,

but create the better, uh, irregular looks to it.

So that was a, a challenging part.

[music]

[Jay] It's also challenging getting them up the building.

[Paul] If there's a windy day,

it's difficult to bring up the pieces.

It's very dangerous, for that matter.

[Jay] The panels might shatter,

raining glass on people below.

Again, the elevator shaft comes to the rescue.

They realize they can use it to crane the panels to the top,

protected from the wind.

Each shaft is wind free, which is quite safer place.

[Jay] Now they can just lower them

a short distance into place.

[music]

[Jay] Creating the curtain wall

with its cocoon pattern.

[music]

[Jay] In March 2008,

there is one final hurdle to overcome.

Every tall building in Japan

has to have a platform for helicopters

in case of a fire.

The architect wanted a cocoon shape.

They didn't like to have a flat surface on top.

So, it is a new challenge.

[Jay] One for which the team has a great solution.

If they can't build it on the roof of the building,

then they will build it inside the top.

We designed a retractable roof.

Back of the exoskeleton,

there is a platform already installed.

Hovering space is supported by

three pairs of cross-braces.

The roof is opened and closed manually

by hand control in emergency.

[Jay] Creating a retracting platform

that feels more James Bond than Tokyo college.

After two years of creative construction

and problem-solving engineering,

in October 2008,

the spectacular Cocoon Tower throws open its doors

to students attending Japan's first vertical university.

[music]

The design of the cocoon is very beautiful.

[Man] I personally like the view.

Especially in the evening.

I can see the evening skyline.

[Woman] I like this Cocoon Tower's looks 'cause

this tower is, like, looks fashionable

and so iconic.

[Jay] It's as much art as it is architecture,

adding something truly unique to the built-up Tokyo skyline--

an extraordinary cocoon shape

that is worthy of all the challenges the team faced.

[Dr. Mabry] Projects that are this elaborate,

this complicated,

are rare.

That's what makes them exciting.

[music]

[music]

♪ MTV ♪