Strip the City S02E01-E06 (2014)

Strip The City 2 uses stunning CGI animation to strip eight major cities naked of their steel, buildings, roads, rivers and bedrock – layer by layer – to explore the secret technology and infrastructure that keeps them running.

What keeps New York’s super tall skyscrapers standing during deadly superstorms? How can Tokyo survive sitting on some of the most seismically active rock on the planet? How did the ancient Inca’s build a city high in the Andes without modern technology?

This series explores these and other mysteries, by peeling back the glass off buildings, rolling back the tarmac on roads and sucking whole harbors dry, to expose the hidden infrastructure beneath eight major cities: New York, Chicago, Venice, Tokyo, New Orleans, Paris, Machu Picchu and LA.

As we explore what lies beneath each metropolis we come face to face with the people who are instrumental in keeping these cities alive and well – the engineers building and looking after the city’s infrastructure.

We explore how engineers in Paris are expanding its huge underground Metro network and how workers in Los Angeles are building earthquake proof skyscrapers and bridges. We reveal how buildings in Chicago can weather searing heat and how New Orleans is now protecting itself from the world’s deadliest hurricanes.

Stunning CGI animation peels back the layers, revealing alien landscapes of Paris’s underground caverns, Tokyo’s live volcano, LA’s fractured fault lines, and Peru’s ancient waterways - geological wonders that play a surprising role shaping the cities and lives of the people above.

This series reveals a world never seen before – a fascinating geological universe normally hidden our cities…a landscape of unprecedented wonder, turbulence and scale.

More info

Season 2 , Episode 01- “New York”
The infrastructure of New York is examined in the Season 2 premiere.

Season 2 , Episode 02 - “Chicago”
Chicago is a city of intense temperatures. This sprawling metropolis sits on a flat landscape carved out by ancient glaciers. But these plains also create deadly heat waves. As summer temperatures rocket to an unbearable 110 degrees, the buildings come close to meltdown.

Season 2 , Episode 03 - “Venice”
Sitting in a lagoon on the edge of the Adriatic Sea, Venice is made up of 118 islands, connected by over 400 bridges. More than 16 million visitors are drawn to this Italian destination each year – but the city is under siege. With rising sea level it is gradually sinking and parts of the city flood 250 times every year. How did Venice come to thrive in such an inhospitable place – and how will it survive today? This film looks beneath the city’s skin to discover the engineering wonders that allowed the city to grow. Stunning CGI animation peels bricks and stone from its historic buildings and drains its waterways. The city’s leading engineers and geologists reveal the secrets that keep Saint Mark’s bell tower from toppling. We join a team of divers on the first underwater inspection of the 400 year old Rialto Bridge and explore how Venice’s new flood barriers are being built.

Season 2 , Episode 04 - “Tokyo”
Tokyo Megaquake City – Tokyo is under attack from the Earth’s most devastating forces with the threat of tsunamis from the East, mega-quakes emanating from miles below and an active volcano – Mount Fuji – to the West. How does the city’s buildings and infrastructure survive the onslaught of a destructive mega-quake? This documentary looks beneath the city’s skin to discover the engineering wonders and geological forces that make it possible. Stunning CGI animation peels back the glass off its skyscrapers and rolls up its roads to reveal the city?s secret of survival. Tokyo’s engineers and geologists reveal the ingenious technology that keeps the skyscrapers standing, power this futuristic metropolis and prepare its residents for some of the deadliest quakes on the planet.

Season 2 , Episode 05 - “New Orleans”
New Orleans is standing on the edge of disaster. Built along the banks of the mighty Mississippi this vibrant city of culture and jazz is completely surrounded by water. Loosing land fast to the Gulf of Mexico, sitting on unstable silty mud, it is also directly in the firing line of hurricanes every year. How do the city’s buildings and infrastructure survive the onslaught of these deadly forces? This film takes apart a hurricane, looks beneath the city’s great superdome to see how it can survive 1000 mph winds, we reveal how its skyscrapers stop themselves sinking and how there is now a plan to build the biggest network of pump stations in the world, which will prevent the city flooding, however big the hurricane.

Season 2 , Episode 06 - “Paris”
The film strips away Paris’s most famous icons to reveal their secret inner workings and the ingenious technology that allowed engineers to build the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Sacre Couer. We peel back the boulevards to reveal the threat that lies just 60 feet below ground. We descend into the city’s caverns to meet the engineers and geologists working to prop up the streets above and join the team constructing a brand new metro line in the city’s already crowded underground world.