Engineering From Above

Name: Engineering From Above
Released: 2026

2026SeriesSuzan Yum

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Aerial views turn familiar structures into new questions

Engineering From Above explores built landmarks through aerial observation, technology and explanatory graphics. The HISTORY series asks who made a structure, how it works and why it occupies a particular place. Seeing the whole site from the sky allows the surrounding landscape to become part of the engineering story.

Fortresses compares a defensive wall around a Colombian city, offshore structures protecting the English coast during the Second World War and an underground refuge in Turkey. For the Gods turns to temples, a Barcelona cathedral and a cliffside shrine, considering buildings whose purposes extend beyond their immediate structural demands.

Great spans, environmental designs and points of failure

Other chapters visit the Pantheon and Panama Canal, a bridge across a French gorge, an outdoor elevator in China and a tunnel beneath the Alps. Engineering Nature brings in Singapore's Supertree Grove and the domes of southern England. The comparisons move between ancient construction and contemporary attempts to reshape how people occupy a landscape.

Engineering Disasters changes the viewpoint from achievement to vulnerability, including a Brazilian dam, the Genoa bridge collapse and earthquake damage to a castle in Gaziantep. The same aerial scale that reveals ambition can also make the consequences of failure visible across a whole site.

Episodes

S01 · E01

Fortresses

Revealed from above; an ancient defensive wall surrounding a historic Colombian city; eerie metal towers looming over the seas of the English Channel.

S01 · E02

For the Gods

Revealed from above; an ancient temple engineered to survive the ravages of time; an iconic cathedral rising from the heart of Barcelona; and a remote, cliffside shrine that seemingly defies the laws of gravity.

S01 · E03

Superstars

Revealed from above; The Pantheon - one of ancient Rome's most enduring and enigmatic feats of engineering; in Panama – a continent crossing canal that almost never was.

S01 · E04

Record Breakers

Revealed from above; a massive bridge spanning a gigantic gorge in France; a record breaking outdoor elevator in China; and the world's longest tunnel carving its way deep beneath the Alps.

S01 · E05

Engineering Nature

Presents an aerial tour of an engineering and mimicry marvel in London, Singapore's iconic Supertree Grove, and strange bubble-like domes in southern England.

S01 · E06

Engineering Disasters

Rural Brazil sees the devastating destruction of a dam; a bridge collapses catastrophically in Genoa, Italy; a once mighty ancient castle is reduced to ruins in Gaziantep, Turkey.

S01 · E07

Engineering for the Extreme

A look at some of the most impressive feats of extreme engineering, including an ancient town built in the Peruvian Andes, a thriving urban centre in Iran's scorching desert, and a city engineered to flourish in the frozen climes of Siberia.

S01 · E08

Bizarre Engineering

Examines bizarre engineering achievements, including ball-like habitats in the Netherlands, an eccentric Colombian fortress built to last, and a strange train designed to conquer the towering Swiss Alps.

Episode descriptions: TVmaze · CC BY-SA 4.0

Film details

Format: Documentary series
Release year: 2026
Premiere date: 2026-08-13
Director: Suzan Yum
Production companies: Blue Ant Studios, Blue Ant Media, Canada Media Fund (CMF)
Country of production: Canada
Language: English
Narrator: Andrew McPherson
Episode runtime: 62 min

Catalogue information: TVmaze · CC BY-SA 4.0