Season 5 (2008)
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Episodes 19
Dam Busters
The Large Hadron Collider is a titan of science. Built on an unsurpassed scale, scientists aim to capture the smallest particles in the universe.
Read MoreSouth Pole Station
Welcome to the South Pole, one of the most isolated places on the planet. For decades, the South Pole has been a haven for astronomy, climatology, and other science fields. Now, nearly 50 years after the first research station was built, a team of mega-builders is daring to construct a 21st century science research facility: the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Read MoreShanghai Super Tower
The design and construction of the Shanghai World Financial Centre which, at 101 floors high, will be China's tallest structure.
Read MoreBeijing Water Cube
Just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, workers are feverishly putting the finishing touches on the National Aquatics Centre – the Beijing Water Cube. A stroke of design genius, this Olympic Megastructure is a steel honeycomb-like frame enclosed entirely by a unique skin, modelled after soap bubbles. Using 90 kilometres worth of steel in 22,000 beams following no conventional straight lines, the Beijing Water Cube must be topped with 100,000 square metres of bubbles. Looking for a truly unique covering, the design team focuses on ETFE – a light-weight plastic invented to protect spaceships from cosmic radiation. Among ETFE’s unique properties, dot patterns on its surface can trap solar energy in the winter and reflect solar energy in the summer, keeping the building cool. The Beijing Water Cube is the largest ETFE construction in the world, and because of its honeycomb-like structure, 3,500 ETFE bubbles must be cut individually, and sized. Factor in that the dimensions have been created in Germany and must be translated into a Chinese database and the Beijing Water Cube becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare. Beijing’s Water Cube represents a true morphing of molecular science, architecture and structural engineering.
Read MoreSinking an Aircraft Carrier
A specialist demolition team attempt to create the largest artificial reef in the world by sinking the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. As they battle through thick steel plating and hazardous waste, the workers are aided by marine architects, divers, engineering units and local authorities.
Read MoreSinking an Aircraft Carrier
Looks at the technological designs and construction of the huge cruiseliner "Freedom of the Seas".
Read MoreIcelandic Super Dam
This episode looks at the Karahnjukar Hydroelectric Project in Iceland - an audacious engineering feat that includes the building of Europe's highest dam, the drilling of 30-mile-long tunnels and the construction of a gigantic underground power plant.
Read MoreBeijing Water Cube
2010 environmental improvement plan in Beijing, China
Read MoreShanghai Super Tower
The renovated California Academy of Sciences - the world's largest green public building - emerges from the landscape of Golden Gate Park. Viewed from the air, the undulating living roof resembles a piece of the park flying as if by magic.
Read MoreBridge Breakdown
A historic bridge is being taken down and recycled, but the demolition team faces challenges while doing it.
Read MoreDeep Earth Drillers
Mega Green Tech is in search of geothermal power.
Read MoreIcelandic Super Dam
A team of experts mobilises to demolish, excavate and recycle a 25,000 ton dam built of concrete and steel. The pressure is on: they have just half the time needed to complete the job. Worse yet, their biggest challenge stands behind the old dam – one million cubic yards of boulders, gravel and sand that the river has stacked against it for nearly a century. To remove this blockade, the team gambles on a radical, dangerous plan that's never been tried before: turning the energy of a perfect storm against the debris. If they are not successful, a generation of endangered salmon returning to spawn may be wiped out.
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Atom Smasher
The Large Hadron Collider is a titan of science. Built on an unsurpassed scale, scientists aim to capture the smallest particles in the universe.
Read MoreSouth Pole Station
We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.
The World's Biggest Cruiseliner
Looks at the technological designs and construction of the huge cruiseliner "Freedom of the Seas".
Read MoreBeijing Olympic Stadium (Building Green Beijing)
2010 environmental improvement plan in Beijing, China
Read MoreImpossible Build
The renovated California Academy of Sciences - the world's largest green public building - emerges from the landscape of Golden Gate Park. Viewed from the air, the undulating living roof resembles a piece of the park flying as if by magic.
Read MoreWorld Trade Center Bahrain
We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.