India’s Surat Diamond Bourse knocks The Pentagon off the top spot after 80 years
Morphogenesis has completed the world’s largest office building in Gujarat, India, taking a status held by The Pentagon for more than 80 years.
The 660,000sq m Surat Diamond Bourse is 40,000sq m bigger than the US military headquarters and will host the world’s largest community of diamond workers.
More than 90% of the world’s diamonds are cut in Surat, but the trade in the gems has traditionally been located over 250 km away in Mumbai.
The 35.3 acre site aims to gather India’s diamond community under one roof, uniting nearly 70,000 people working in cutting, polishing and trading.
A central axis links nine office towers, each 15 storeys in height and oriented north-south to minimise exposure to the sun while enabling 75% of the workspaces to be naturally lit throughout the day.
The building makes use of locally sourced materials, including Lakha red granite and Gwalior white sandstone for its facades.
Inside will be some 4,700 independent office ranging from 28sq m to more than 10,500sq m, along with a 10,000sq m food zone, a retail plaza and over 8,000sq m of health and conference facilities.
The shape of the building has been designed to aid ventilation, flaring out at both ends to funnel in prevailing winds through the Venturi effect, while staggered atria allow hot air to escape on less windy days.
All community and circulation spaces, covering around 30% of the building, rely on passive cooling for ventilation, while lobbies have been planted with extensive greenery to improve air quality, Morphogenesis said.
The New Delhi-based practice said the building will use half of the energy of a traditionally designed building of the same size.
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