Ice Hotel (MegaStructures - National Geographic

The Icehotel in Jukkasjorvi, Sweden (85 miles or 136 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle) is created each winter, melts each May, and is rebuilt when snow falls again. Constructed of 30,000 tons of snow and 1,200 tons of crystal ice, the shimmering hotel features more than 85 rooms, an ice theater, an ice bar, and, of course, an ice wedding chapel. The deluxe rooms are decorated with ice sculptures (no two alike) and guests sleep in thermal sleeping bags atop reindeer skins on beds made from snow and ice.

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Dubai's Dream Palace (MegaStructures - National Geographic)

With its oil reserves dwindling, Dubai switches its sights to tourism, building the Burj al Arab, a 60-storey hotel in the shape of a sail. Set in the tiny desert kingdom of Dubai, Dubai's Dream Palace allow us 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, almost to the impossible. The Burj Al-Arab was the brainchild of Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The Sheikh dreamt of a luxury hotel that would put Dubai on the world map, and surprised many by choosing a relatively unknown British firm to supply the design.

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Autobahn (MegaStructures - National Geographic)

It was started as a racing track, but due to Hitler’s World War II propaganda efforts, the track grew into a sophisticated high-speed road system, linking to almost all the major cities in Germany. The Autobahn boasts of having super thick road beds, 4% or less grades, wide lanes, and build on layers of technology. It allows vehicles to travel at speeds exceeding 160km/h for roughly two thirds of its roads.

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Future Trains (MegaStructures - National Geographic)

This documentary tells the engineering behind Maglev trains, a system that suspends, guides and propels trains, using magnetic levitation from a very large number of magnets for lift and propulsion. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems. The power needed for levitation is usually not a particularly large percentage of the overall consumption; most of the power used is needed to overcome air drag, as with any other high speed train.

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Car of the Future (NOVA - PBS)

Tom Magliozzi has a problem. The wacky cohost of NPR's Car Talk needs to replace his beloved 1952 MG roadster. But in today's car market, where should he turn? Is new technology about to transform the way we drive? Tom and his brother Ray hit the road in this program for a lighthearted but shrewd take on America's four-wheeled future. John Lithgow narrates as Tom and Ray mix their trademark slapstick with serious nuts-and-bolts analysis of what it will take to make our autos more energy-efficient. With a quarter of all the oil ever consumed guzzled up in the last decade and oil supplies being drawn down faster every day, the brothers' screwball automotive odyssey doubles as a serious environmental wake-up call.

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