About this season
MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an educational look of varying depth into the construction, operation, and staffing of various structures or construction projects, but not ordinary construction products. Generally containing interviews with designers and project managers, it presents the problems of construction and the methodology or techniques used to overcome obstacles. In some cases this involved the development of new materials or products that are now in general use within the construction industry. MegaStructures focuses on constructions that are extreme; in the sense that they are the biggest, tallest, longest, or deepest in the world. Alternatively, a project may appear if it had an element of novelty or are a world first. This type of project is known as a Megaproject.
Episodes (29)
1. Ultimate Structures: Super Copter
Aired 17 May 2007 • 60 min
2. Dubai's Dream Palace (Worlds Tallest Hotel)
Aired 9 July 2007 • 60 min
Megastructures heads to the tiny desert kingdom of Dubai to explore the remarkable engineering behind the seven-star Burj Al-Arab Hotel. Five years in the making, this striking building stands like a gigantic white sail off the shore of Dubai. As this programme reveals, a refusal to compromise on the part of the hotel’s young designers ensured that the project pushed the boundaries of design. The Burj Al-Arab was envisaged by Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as a means of diversifying the country’s economy away from oil into tourism. The Sheikh dreamt of a luxury hotel that would put Dubai on the world map, and surprised many by choosing a relatively inexperienced British firm to supply the design.
3. Smart Tunnel
Aired 14 July 2007 • 60 min
4. Queen Mary 2
Aired 16 July 2007 • 60 min
Megastructures will take you on a voyage through the largest ocean liner ever built, from the cutting of the first steel panel to the installation of the iconic red and black funnel of this 800 million dollar giant of the seas.
5. Hawaii Superferry
Aired 26 August 2008 • 60 min
6. South Pole Station
Aired 6 November 2007 • 60 min
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.
8. Episode 8
Aired 20 May 2008 • 60 min
9. Deep Ocean Port (China's Ultimate Port)
Aired 27 May 2008 • 60 min
In 2002 Chinese engineers and workers tackled one of the biggest construction projects on earth. Thirty kilometers out to sea in the middle of the ocean is the location for Yangshan Deep Water Port. With twenty kilometers of quay and fifty berths Yangshan is destined to become the biggest deepwater port ever built. Linked to China by the worlds second-longest ocean bridge Yangshans deep water allows the worlds biggest container ships to come calling. Its massive cranes cutting-edge control system and focused personnel are already shattering records for loading and unloading gigantic container ships and its not even finished being built.
10. Episode 10
Aired 29 May 2008 • 60 min
11. The World's Biggest Cruiseliner
Aired 4 June 2008 • 60 min
Looks at the technological designs and construction of the huge cruiseliner "Freedom of the Seas".
12. Beijing Olympic Stadium
Aired 5 August 2008 • 60 min
13. Episode 13
14. Episode 14
15. Future Trains
Aired 7 February 2012 • 60 min
16. Building the World
Aired 23 July 2007 • 60 min
The engineering, design and construction of a man-made archipelago, built in the shape of a world map, just off the coast off Dubai, the project of ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
17. Episode 17
18. Building Green Beijing
Embarking on a quest to design and build a meeting place for athletes and their families at the Games, the designers of the Olympic Rendezvous must come up with a design that genuinely reflects green ideas and complements the green themed games.
19. Atom Smasher
Aired 31 July 2008 • 60 min
20. Megabridges: China
Lupu Bridge in Shanghai, Runyang Bridge in Jiangsu Province, and Sutong Bridge near Suzhou.
21. Ultimate Structures: Super Sub
22. Sun Engine
23. Super Pipeline
24. Hawaii Superferry
Aired 26 August 2007 • 60 min
25. Extreme Alaska
Building Extreme Alaska is about how nature engineered and built America's most rugged state, rock by rock. The State of Alaska is a vast and powerful natural structure forged over millions of years and boasts some of the world's most extreme environments. Alaska is raw and radical - natural engineering - taken to its limit. The construction zone of mountains, volcanoes, glaciers and earthquakes still keep Alaska humming. Building Extreme Alaska leads you through the working parts of this natural mechanical engineering machine.
26. World Trade Center Bahrain
27. The World's Biggest Shredder
28. Impossible Hotels: Dubai
Looks at the design, engineering and construction of the luxury Burj Al-Arab Hotel, built of the coast of Dubai.
31. Building Green Beijing
Aired 30 November 2011 • 60 min
107. Episode 107
Aired 16 May 2008 • 60 min