Skyscrapers have transformed our view of the world. But now a new generation of super-skyscrapers has taken over our skylines. By 2050 75% of us will be living in overcrowded cities so we’re now building taller and faster than ever before. Rob Bell, World’s Tallest Skyscrapers aka Secrets of the World’s Super Skyscrapers, Channel 5 2018
100 super-skyscrapers over 300 metres tall. And that number is growing daily. ibid.
The biggest: the Burk Khalifa in Dubai. It has nearly 25,000 windows and a mind-boggling 120,000 square metres of glass. ibid.
These incredible feats of engineering are the real hidden secrets within super-skyscrapers. ibid.
They are set to become taller, stronger, smarter and more luxurious than ever before. Rob Bell, World’s Tallest Skyscrapers II aka Secrets of the World’s Super Skyscrapers II
Large parts of the building are for appearance only. ibid.
Britain’s very first super-skyscraper The Shard completed in July 2012. ibid.
The Walkie-Talkie was sold for a record-breaking £1.3 billion in 2017. ibid.
This kind of prefabrication is changing the way the insides of super-skyscrapers are being created. ibid.
A journey to investigate the incredible structures that have stood the test of time and their ground during what was to become a global war. Rob Bell, The Buildings that Fought Hitler I: We Shall Fight on the Beaches, Yesterday 2020
Construction began on an epic project transforming this green and pleasant land into an impregnable island fortress. ibid.
Thousands of seemingly random structures still litter our countryside. In many cases they are just blocks of concrete … But if you know what you’re looking at, behind these remnants of bricks and mortar there’s a much darker story to be told. ibid.
I’m on the south coast to seek out the buildings on and around our beaches. ibid.
Braced for a German onslaught, Britain raced to defend the parts closest to the enemy. They filled the English Channel with a network of mines. ibid.
Essex Mine Control Tower: 360-degree defensive capability with firing slots for seventeen machine guns. ibid.
Over 100 emergency gun batteries were built along Britain’s coastline. ibid.
Many of the south coast’s existing historic bases were pushed back into service. ibid.
These fortified constructions gave the soldiers shelter and protection to stand their ground.
Construction began on an epic project transforming this green and pleasant land into an impregnable island fortress. Rob Bell, The Buildings that Fought Hitler II: We Shall Fight Them in the Streets
I’m in the south of England home to the town and city buildings that stood right in the line of fire. ibid.
A vast network made up of pillboxes, trenches, barbed wire, to prevent the Germans from spreading out and roaring across the country. ibid.
The war rooms became fully operational on 27th August 1939. ibid.
So how did they build them? … Staggering tales of innovation, epic adventure, and danger. Rob Bell, Lighthouses: Building the Impossible s1e1: Eddystone Lighthouse, Channel 5 2021
Britain’s unluckiest lighthouse: three towers smashed by the sea, consumed by fire and defeated by jagged rocks. How did one finally stand up to the when so many had failed? This is a story of audacious engineering and geniuses who achieved the impossible. All in the midst of Britain’s most unforgiving seas. ibid.
In 1698 the light was lit on the world’s first rock lighthouse. ibid.
On 16th October 1759 the light was lit on Smeaton’s tower. ibid.
The success of Smeaton’s tower can be measured by the number of rock lighthouses that sprung up around the British Isles. ibid.
On a deadly reef in one of the most hostile locations on Earth … 11 miles offshore lies one of Britain’s most deadliest reefs, the Bell Rock, a jagged cluster of stubborn sandstone. Rob Bell, Lighthouses: Building the Impossible s1e2: The Bell Rock
At high tide the whole thing can be 16 fee underwater. ibid.
Robert Stevenson was a young and ambitious engineer. ibid.
The industrial revolution meant more ships than ever braving these stormy waters. ibid.
Ireland’s Guardian of the Atlantic. It’s the last of the great rock lighthouses. Built in terrible conditions that engineering struggled to conquer. Rob Bell, Lighthouses: Building the Impossible s1e3: The Fastnet Rock
In the 19th century dozens of lighthouses were built around the coast of the Emerald Isle. ibid.
The iron-and-brick Fastnet Lighthouse was completed in 1854. ibid.
The Rock Lighthouse, one of the most heroic feats of engineering in maritime history. Built to save the lives of thousands at sea. Drowned in epic storms. So how did they build them. And how do they stay standing. Rob Bell, Lighthouses: Building the Impossible s2e1: Wolf Rock, Channel 5 2022
This is Penzance … to warn ships away, strong enough to withstand the battering from the Atlantic, and they built right on top of the rock. ibid.
It would take a gruelling three years just to dig the foundations. ibid.
On a deadly rock far out at sea. An enigmatic designer risks his life. To bring hope to one of Britain’s most extreme locations. This is a story of the uncanny, the unpredictable and the inspirational. Here at The Smalls lighthouse. Rob Bell, Lighthouses, Building the Impossible s2e2: Smalls Lighthouse
The middle of the Irish sea in the winter of 1801. Around 20 miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire is one of the remotest lighthouses in the world … Today that very same spot is watched over by a wonder of Victorian engineering. ibid.
The Rock Lighthouse: one of the most heroic feats of engineering in maritime history. Built to save the lives of thousands at sea drowned in epic storms. Rob Bell, Lighthouses: Building the Impossible s2e3: The Longstone
This is Northumberland, the north-east coast of England where lonely beaches look out on a constellation of rocky islands. ibid.
The proportions of these structures are just immense … This is the story of Britain’s North Sea oil rigs … A monumental piece of heavy engineering. Rob Bell, Building the Impossible s3e1: Oil Rig
Back in 1965 Britain’s first offshore rig called the Sea Gem was making its way out into the North Sea on its maiden voyage. ibid,
The almighty bang was the sound of two of the Sea Gem’s legs snapping. The 5,500 ton rig began to lurch into the freezing cold sea … It took half an hour for the entire rig to disappear beneath the waves. ibid.
These days as many as 11,000 people can be working out in the North Sea. ibid.
6th July 1988 about 120 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, the world’s deadliest offshore oil field disaster: Piper Alpha was the first production platform for the Piper Field … The Piper Alpha disaster claimed the lives of 167 men. ibid.
Spectacular bridges, breathtaking buildings, extraordinary structures: our man-made world is awe-inspiring. But in an instant it can crumble before our eyes … To investigate why sometimes our bridges and buildings fail with disastrous consequences. I’m visiting the scenes of some of the world’s worst disasters. Rob Bell, When Buildings Collapse: World’s Worst Engineering Disasters: Miami Bridge, Channel 5 2019
These deadly mistakes cost lives and teach engineers how to save them. ibid.
This is the US41, an 8-lane highway that takes you from downtown Miami to the Everglades national park … 15th March 2018: a bridge collapsing and then crushing the line of vehicles waiting in the light below. ibid.
But just five days later that project was literally in ruins. ibid.
Florida International University’s bridge. The collapse resulted in the deaths of six people. ibid.
Kansas: The city’s Hyatt Regency Hotel skywalks 1978: In 1981 1,500 people were attending a social event … The death toll rose: 114 people died that night and a further 216 people were injured. ibid.
A fatal design change turned the skywalks into death traps … So who changed the design and why? ibid.
2018 Jakarta: Another internal suspended walkway … The walkways fell when hanger rods broke away from the ceiling … 77 people were injured. ibid.
Residents have moved out of a south London estate … One type of building in Britain that’s become notorious for its design defects … More tower blocks were built in the same way as Ronan Point. ibid.
The Grenfell fire became Britain’s worst tower block tragedy killing 72 people and injuring at least 70 more. ibid.
The Concrete Club: The Club was the key … There’s eight companies that participate in The Club. Each of those companies was connected to a Mob boss … Everything is fixed … A kickback of 2% … Every construction job in Manhattan over two million in value would pay the Mob. Fear City: New York vs the Mafia s1e3: Judgment Day, Netflix 2020
In the north of England we used to build in solid brick and stone. Today we clad in glass in steel: this is Liverpool I. The city fathers had delivered unto the people of Liverpool the biggest city-centre shopping development outside London. In fact since the end of the Second World War these 42 acres will only ever be shops, temples rising to the sky to celebrate the new gods: the big brands. But once upon a time when the North built, the world looked on and applauded. The city fathers then had different ideas of how architecture could contribute to the shape of their cities and improve the lives of their citizens. By lining the streets, not with temples to the gods of commerce, but buildings that expressed the grandeur and the nobility of a great civilisation. Those who gave Liverpool its architectural treasures would inspire other city fathers rights across the north of England. The civic buildings they created would transform the industrial towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and revolutionise urban landscapes for decades to come. Jonathan Foyle, People’s Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture I: Neo-Classical, BBC 2020
Victorian architecture in the north of England: 200 years ago these cities were themselves novel but a new breed of mercantile princes and governors came to build a raft of civic buildings. ibid.
In 1795 the writer James Wallace published A General and Descriptive History of the Ancient & Present State of the Town of Liverpool: he wrote of the Blue Coat: ‘There are in this school 79 orphan children, 143 fatherless children and 158 whose parents are in indigent circumstances’. ibid.