China's Tallest Building: Shanghai Tower | China's Mega Projects | Free Documentary

[Music] this project has been in the planning stage for 20 years soon this 632 metre skyscraper will tower over both the jinmao tower and the shanghai world financial center the project is based on the bold concept of a vertical city it will be the first skyscraper of this size to have a double pane glass facade the 24 hanging gardens will present an environmentally friendly and futuristic face to the world shanghai tower the last skyscraper to be built in pudong in shanghai is attracting the attention of the world but the project is facing complex construction conditions and harsh criticism [Music] [Music] lujasway in pudong is the busiest business district in shanghai it's 6 a.m and workers are arriving at the construction site to pour the concrete to the 35th floor and prepare the rebar on the 25th floor this should take 5 days [Music] this will require 12 steel columns totaling nearly 100 tons total of 50 kilometers of rebar and 80 truckloads of concrete and they will be working 180 meters in the air the steel platform which weighs 1 000 tons has to be raised four meters and the world's four largest civilian used tower cranes had to be lifted 20 meters but all this is less than one percent of all work involved in construction of the main building and there are still huge problems to be addressed erecting this building on the unseen site required unprecedented courage and caution [Music] no one knew whether this skyscraper would be accepted by the people of shanghai or attract the top businesses from around the globe [Music] the pressure from expectations for shanghai tower has been building for 20 years [Music] just 170 years ago shanghai was a small town on a salty wasteland in 1842 shanghai was forced open as a commercial port situated at the estuary of the yangtze river and the mid point of china's north-south coastline the city soon became the chinese commercial center for foreign trade it has recently been catching up with the wave of skyscraper construction in the west in september 1929 the construction of sassoon house china's first building of over 10 floors was completed five years later the joint savings society building was built then the tallest building in asia [Music] in just two decades the skyline of the bund became one of the most iconic views in all of east asia in the first half of the 20th century [Music] when china instituted its reform and opening up policy the shanghai people wanted to return the city to its former glory in 1993 the pudong new area was set up in shanghai this ambitious city plans to become an asian financial hub as important as hong kong and tokyo by the year 2020 [Music] the city is leaving the path behind and being reborn as a world-class city with an all-new look at a 420.5 meter skyscraper was completed in 1999. in 2008 the shanghai world financial center was completed at 492 metres people waited for one last skyscraper to complete the skyline [Music] government officials finally decided that that should be the shanghai tower the developers believe the name reflects the future of shanghai but they need a design worthy of the name so they turned to the experts [Music] in 2006 the shanghai tower project committee issued an international beard invitation it was obvious that designing such a skyscraper would be a world-class challenge [Applause] one street to the north of the shanghai tower is the 88-storey jin mao tower its design emulates a traditional chinese tiered pagoda and perfectly blends chinese and western styles to the east is the uniquely designed shanghai world financial center with its strong and simple outline the skywalk observatory on the 100th floor is the world's highest public observation point these two skyscrapers have long been synonymous with finance and trade in a modern and fashionable package at the same time the designers want this building to stand out from the other two and this guy is now the american architectural firm of gensler had never built such a skyscraper before but they were eager for this rare opportunity the lead designers for the project are arthur gensler from the us and xian from china you know this building is about the past and it's a beautiful building this building is about the present and it's a fine building but june really created a building that's special that's about the future yeah i think that the the design concept needed to be understand this through building together as a family the competition was fierce the gensler whose strength was in interior design needed to have a secret weapon to succeed [Music] near the high rise buildings in the lujazwei area is shanghai's largest public green space an area greater than the floor area of jin mao the world financial centre and shanghai tower combined [Music] reserving this space in lujas way where the land is especially valuable was entirely necessary to preserve the quality of life in the city [Music] this green space gave the gensler team the idea of including such a green space in their design plenty of light for the space was ensured by the extensive use of a double pane glass facade never seen before in a skyscraper each section of the glass is 10 stories tall this creates a light and spacious atrium independent of the outside weather it's an adventurous plan [Music] [Music] the architect's design for the facade called for the glass to have a whirlpool pattern to give the building a dynamic appearance we could never have done this building the architects were forced to continue reducing the overall area of the glass facade the original idea of a whirlpool effect was changed into a round inner layer and a triangular outer layer with blunt corners this should reduce the wind resistance as well as be a contrast with the solid outlines of the jinmao tower and shanghai world financial center the estimate for the amount of glass required was only 18 more than what was originally required for a single pane glass exterior the design was finally set but the team was still on edge [Music] there were 19 proposals all from top international design firms the three rounds of proposal reviews lasted nearly a year narrowing the field to two the ginseng proposal and a proposal from the british foster and partners who designed russia tower beijing airport terminal 3 and hong kong international airport they drew their inspiration from the smooth lines made by a chinese writing brush the crystal clear appearance of the building was very eye-catching [Music] green proposal passed the final review everyone now knows what shanghai tower will look like and can't wait to see the model transformed into the actual the project broke ground on november the 29th in 2008. new and tougher challenges lay ahead [Music] [Applause] any architect dreaming of building a skyscraper in shanghai has to deal with the especially soft soil shanghai is located on an alluvial plain at the mouth of the yangtze river the city sits on a deep layer of water-soaked soil as soft as cottage cheese geo-technical expert gu guo wong demonstrates the danger using a block of tofu and the heavy model woman [Music] this problem can be resolved with supporting piles under the foundation the resistance to downward movement of the piles is enough to withstand the weight of the structure in addition the building rests on sections of reinforced concrete to spread the weight this ensures that the top part of the building is as stable as a rock building shanghai's tallest skyscraper on such soft soil could spell endless nightmares for goo guo wong and gong jiang [Music] the first concern is choosing foundation piles capable of supporting this huge building which weighs over eight hundred thousand tons that's the same as seventy eiffel towers when the concrete foundation is semi-hard high-pressure cement is injected into it which pushes the soil out of the shell thus filling all the gaps between the shell and the soil this greatly increases piles load capacity this was three times the improvement the experts had expected this means that about a thousand foundation piles can support the weight of the main building and ensure its safety but there was more trouble to come in june 2009 a construction accident in shanghai alarmed the geotechnical experts foreign to absolutely ensure the safety of the building the engineers decided that 1 20th of the building should be underground this would mean digging down to a depth of 30 meters but there was a problem if we dig the soil out of this area it would only leave about 20 meters between the whole and the underground portions of both jinmau tower and the shanghai world financial center this would pose too much of a risk the best way would be to first dig the hole for the main building then the holes for the other buildings would be dug out when the surrounding areas had been reinforced but the pit for the main building alone would still be 121 metres across an area equal to 1.6 regulation soccer fields and 33 meters deep just five days remaining before chinese new year 2010 the hole for the foundation of the main building is finished there was no chinese new year vacation for the engineers and construction crew after the thousands of workers eat their new year's dinner together they begin preparing the formwork for the massive foundation of the main building the foundation has an area equivalent to 1.6 soccer fields and is 6 meters thick it was essential that all the concrete be poured within about 60 hours or so [Music] the greatest threat comes from the heat generated as the cement cures when cement is mixed with water it rapidly releases a large amount of heat the heat in the poured concrete can cause the temperature inside the concrete to reach 60 degrees celsius this can cause the concrete to expand and crack the engineers must carefully control the amount of water reduction agent in the concrete but this puts a strain on transportation [Music] this task had to be all done at one time there would be no way to redo it in the event of failure which could endanger the safety of the entire project on march the 26th 2010 over 500 construction workers and 18 pumps began pouring concrete bought by 80 of all of the mixer trucks in the city it took 63 hours to pour all the concrete for the unprecedentedly massive foundation the workers could now stop worrying about the foundation and begin work on the rest of the building [Music] [Applause] [Music] in september 2010 two years after work began the construction reaches the surface level there were high hopes that shanghai tower would come to represent the spirit of shanghai but there was still the question of how tall the building would eventually be there are already many famous skyscrapers in the world including the empire state building at 381 metres the petronas towers in kuala lumpur at 452 meters the taipei 101 at 508 meters and the burj khalifa in dubai at 828 meters yes [Music] it was finally decided that the ultimate height of shanghai tower would be 632 meters [Music] but the higher the building the greater is the danger for the construction workers during the final stage the crew would be working over 600 meters in the air just looking down from such a height can make you dizzy let alone working at such high [Music] the core cylinder of reinforced concrete that supports the entire building was built first enough space is reserved in the center for the elevators the core cylinder must be built at a speed of one floor every five days but bad weather often hampers construction [Music] the still platform on the top of shanghai tower is the secret that makes it possible to continue construction regardless of outside conditions [Music] workers can directly go to the top of the still platform via an elevator the platform features a guardrail nearly two meters high around the edge for worker safety even fear of heights is no longer a problem [Music] hundreds of tons of steel were transported to the top of the steel platform at night within easy reach of the workers the platform also eliminates the risk of falling objects injuring the workers below the problem is how to raise the steel platform weighing 1 000 tons to the next level when the current floor is finished engineers find their inspiration from rock climbing the steel platform can use the finished concrete walls to climb upward like rock climbers do chun gung chief waste operator for the platform is now organizing the hoisting operation the two hands and two feet of the platform are secured in the load carrying holes with cables [Music] um both the inner and outer frames have to be lifted twice each time the platform is moved to the next story it takes six hours to raise the steel platform to the 35th floor and it's already nighttime [Music] now over 100 workers are at work on the platform first task is to set up the 50 kilometer long rebar workers first bind the pieces of rebar together with steel wire and weld them [Music] the work must be done in two days now the form works for the concrete are complete they are waiting for the concrete that will come through this pipeline to the manifold on top of the steel platform 600 meters in the air because they have to pump all the concrete in one go normal concrete won't work that high pressure pump pumping the concrete is extremely noisy the vibration becomes even stronger wherever the pipe is turned normal concrete could easily block the pipeline because of the sharp needle-like stones in the concrete engineers had to change the shape of those stones to resolve the problem [Music] this kind of concrete is called self-compacting concrete it doesn't even need vibration to easily pass through the pipeline ensuring that the concrete will have no trouble reaching the 35th floor the new building is growing at the rate of one story every five days in a factory 40 kilometers away workers are busy putting together the nine segment central cylinder structure of shanghai tower it will be supported by eight giant columns and four corner columns the building's double pane glass facade is directly hung on the steel structure giving the building a soft and graceful appearance the entire steel structure is being manufactured by two factories working together putting the huge steel segments in place is no easy task engineers have to make sure that after such giant objects are transported to the construction site they can fit together perfectly so they have to do a trial assembly first but this is only one section of the truss its steel structure is already of over 3000 tons in weight that would make the costs too high the building information modeling or bim system greatly helps reduce costs by handling all the information on design construction equipment and materials this enables the different teams to coordinate their efforts finally all this information is used to produce a 3d model it not only shows how the outside of the building will look but also shows details like walls and windows and even the placement of pipelines and wiring traditional blueprints could never show so much detail any crazy idea that an architect might dream up can be tested and revised through the bim system they no longer have to worry about having to make major changes at the construction site once all the data for the still structural components is in the bim system the system can simulate the complete trial assembly process the steel structural components are soon ready to go to the construction site but their transportation is making 64 year old mr pan lose sleep the huge components have to be transported across downtown shanghai at night so the transportation crew has to work at night today's work gets off to a bad start because of the limited space in which the trucks have to maneuver the truck was having trouble getting into the proper position it takes an hour for mr pan to get the truck into a position where the crane could reach the huge steel part and this was only the first trip of the night [Music] the four m12 atd heavy duty tower cranes each weighing 500 tons easily lift the huge parts this model crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 100 tons and is the largest of its kind in china is one of the experienced crane operators [Music] so has the greatest view from the highest point at the construction site but with it comes the terror of being alone and isolated high in the air during the 12-hour shifts of the tower crane operators they can only communicate with others via the intercom [Music] working at such heights is risky an average of 82 people a year die in tower crane accidents in the u.s alone when the four tower cranes are working together the risk is greatly increased if a tower crane should bump into one of the others consequences could be disastrous but there are a number of safety measures in place to prevent this change but today the operation isn't going well a rainstorm has temporarily suspended crane operations not all the work is hindered by the rain the work of installing the steel beams continues on the steel platform but the rain makes ground command especially important the steel beam is now in place and the weather has cleared up mr way can finally take a break [Music] [Applause] [Music] but what he likes to do most is take pictures from his high perch [Music] his work schedule is normally very tight so such opportunities are there work on the core cylinder and the outer steel structure proceed simultaneously to keep the project on schedule the steel platform which is raised one floor every five days is getting close to the tower crane so the crane must also be raised some more it's hard to believe that the rise of the tower crane relies on just two suspension cables the mast which is 60 meters long and weighs 500 tons can swiftly climb them the way that a gymnast performs on the parallel bars every tower crane will have to be raised 27 times during the project but the engineers are more concerned about bringing the cranes back down after they reach the top of the building over 600 meters in the air it's the same elevator that workers use every day the key is breaking down the tower cranes into several parts in the end only a crane arm without exceeding 600 kilograms was left which can be safely taken to the ground by the elevator [Music] the last skyscraper to be built in the lou jazz way district of pudong shanghai is rising out of the ground the new shanghai tower jin mao tower and the shanghai world financial center will be the three most stunning landmarks in shanghai the realization of this project is a dream that was born 20 years ago but there are also many people who are critical of skyscrapers the negative side of skyscrapers has gradually become more obvious over the past two decades including high construction costs high energy consumption and separation from nature skyscrapers can be full of life during the day but usually become deathly still at night people have become more aware of these drawbacks so the builders of shanghai tower looked for ways to address them [Music] green technology to build a classic and eco-friendly architecture rainwater collected on the roof will be stored in a reservoir and after processing it will be used for flushing toilets mopping floors etc this will save enough water in a year to fill 250 olympic-sized swimming pools they also plan to have three groups of five wind powered generators on top of the building this should be able to generate enough electricity to light the entire building the 19 green technologies adopted in the project should reduce the energy consumption of the building by 25 percent let's take all the research the most outstanding eco-friendly feature is the double pane glass facade concerns about global warming and the greenhouse effect have led to criticism of large glass facades because of the heat loss involved but the use of double pane glass reduces the heat loss the dead space between the two panes works like the space in a thermos bottle to insulate the building so that the building is warm in winter and cool in the summer this reduces energy consumption for the heating and air conditioning by about 50 percent compared to a single pane facade but such a facade had never been tried before in a building over 350 metres tall two chinese facade manufacturers ranked number one and number five in the world worked together on the project it was a huge challenge even for such experienced companies they tried and rejected one plan after another it took three years of trial and error to work out a preliminary plan for making the facade [Music] meanwhile on the site work on the core cylinder on the 35th floor is complete but the schedule is still tight in order to complete the project by 2015 as scheduled the engineers must work on the internal structure and the facade simultaneously the vassar designers must complete revision and testing of their design within the next three months [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is no reinforced concrete in this huge space a steel support beam goes across the space from the inner layer of glass to support the suspended ring beam the entire outer layer glass is supported by the ring beam the plates were produced by experienced workers using the most advanced production equipment and tested to ensure that they can withstand the most severe conditions first concern is fire safety the fire in the skyscraper in shenyang in 2011 shocked the entire country the glass facade quickly cracked allowing the flames to spread and causing huge loss because shanghai tower will be 632 meters tall the fire department would have a hard time dealing with a fire high in the building so engineers must eliminate as many fire risks as possible in a laboratory 1 000 kilometers away the glass plates are exposed to high temperature testing ordinary tempered glass fails at less than two minutes and the heat tempered glass falls out in half an hour when the aluminium frame begins to melt but this sample in the middle is still intact after one hour at one thousand degrees centigrade this gives plenty of time for people to evacuate the glass plates for the inner part of the facade will go through a variety of tests as seen here to ensure the safety of the building [Applause] meanwhile back at the factory mo yong lai is about to perform a test on the exterior glass plates he forcefully strikes the edge with a hammer until it gradually begins to crack but no glass falls out of here a good seal is the crucial factor for the outside glass wall it must withstand all types of weather to protect the interior of shanghai tower in this test moyong lai and his team have built a large sealed glass box which will subject conditions simulating high winds and thunderstorms the spray of water is equivalent to a rain depth of 250 centimeters per hour and the strong wind from the propeller is aimed directly at the v-shaped notch the most fragile part of the box passes the tests it will mean the whole design is a success after three days of testing everything looks good but then mo yong lai notices that the water seems to be accumulating towards the designers inform the architects of the problem and propose enlarging and increasing the angle of the gutters for better drainage this is hardly the first problem encountered in the project but each has been resolved as it emerged foreign shanghai tower has been under construction since 2006. it's taken five years of the sweat and tears of nearly 2 000 people to bring this project to this point the people participating in the project have experienced exhaustion difficulties confusion and dilemmas the project is as challenging as a marathon for everyone [Music] [Applause] but the great realization of everyone's dream is within sight shanghai tower is scheduled for completion in 2015 when people from all over will come to this self-contained world for work shopping relaxation or entertainment the 24 hanging gardens will give visitors a taste of freedom and fun high in the sky the fastest elevators in the world will whisk passengers to the top floor at a speed of 18 meters per second from the observation deck on the top floor completion of the project will create a brand new skyline in shanghai [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 220,127

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), engineering, engineering documentary, construction, construction documentary, china mega project, mega project, china construction, tallest building, chinas tallest building, heighest building, biggest building, Shanghai Tower, shanghai center, skyscraper, highest skyscraper

Id: 5RSs8fodpoA

Length: 48min 55sec (2935 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021