VIDEO: Inside the record-breaking world's largest office building
The Surat Diamond Bourse is an office hub for over 65,000 diamond experts.
Up until August 2023, the largest office building in the world was the Pentagon, located in the United States.
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But it lost its title after Guinness World Records officially crowned the 659,611 square metres (7,100,000 square feet) Surat Diamond Bourse the new record-holder on the 8th of August 2023 after it had completed construction.
This might come as a surprise as most people don't think of India as being big on diamonds. As it turns out, Surat, which is 280km north of Mumbai, is where 90% of the world's diamonds are cut.
And now the city of Gujurat has provided a mammoth building to house its incredible industry.
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The Surat Diamond Bourse is not your average office building.
The newly-opened Surat Diamond Bourse is billed as a “one-stop destination” for over 65,000 diamond professionals, including cutters, polishers, and traders. Featuring a succession of nine rectangular structures spilling out from — and interconnected via — a central “spine,” the sprawling 15-story complex has been built across more than 35 acres of land.
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The 15-story building is home to cutters, traders, polishers, and all kinds of other diamond professionals.
A big building had to have a big budget and it cost 32-billion-rupee (R7-billion) to build.
Some of its features include 4,700 office spaces, 131 elevators, conference centres, dining areas, wellness areas, and even a few parks.
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You can see a full tour here:
The building was the work of an Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis:
Morphogenesis said its layout creates a “level playing field” for businesses both small and large. With offices connected by a long central corridor — a configuration reminiscent of an airport terminal — occupants have similarly convenient access to amenities and facilities, according to the architecture firm’s co-founder, Sonali Rastogi, who described the design as “democratic.”
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According to the firm, no matter where your office is located, it will take you only seven minutes to reach it from any of the entry gates.
And how did they determine who gets what office? A lottery system was used to keep it fair.
They also made a serious effort to try and make this building environmentally friendly and a green building:
SDB is setting standards in Commercial sector, with the development and maintenance of ecological standards, hence accoladed with an IGBC ranking of PLATINUM RATED BUILDING. The structure design is focused on energy efficiency and sensitive to the industry's dependence upon sunlight, mainly for assorting and grading of diamonds, thus letting ample daylight in all office spaces. As proposed, all 9 buildings will be connected with 24 ft. wide spine corridor.
Will SA one day have a building to rival the SDB?
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Main image courtesy of Surat Diamond Bourse