Surat Diamond Bourse: Gujarat Now Has World’s Largest Office, Bigger than US’ Pentagon – News18

Surat, where around 90% of the world’s diamonds are cut, has added another feather to its cap with the newly-opened Surat Diamond Bourse which has surpassed the Pentagon as the world’s largest office building.

The mammoth industry will now be housed in the Surat Diamond Bourse which can house over 65,000 diamond professionals, including cutters, polishers and traders.

The building features a series of nine rectangular structures which spill out from and are interconnected through a central-spine. It is a 15-storeyed complex spread across more than 35 acres of land.

The architects of Surat Diamond Bourse told news outlet CNN that the building comprises over 7.1 million square feet of floor space. The Pentagon comprises over 6.5 million square feet of floor space.

The work began in 2019 and will be opened in November. Covid-19 slightly delayed the construction of the Surat Diamond Bourse. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the building later this year.

The CNN in its report said that there are 4,700 office spaces – each interconnected – which can also accommodate small workshops for cutting and polishing diamonds.

The cost of the building is ₹3,200 crores ($388 million).

It houses 131 elevators and has dining, retail, wellness and conference facilities for its employees, the CNN report said.

The project was masterminded by Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis. Its CEO, Mahesh Gadhavi, told the CNN that surpassing the Pentagon in terms of size was not their target but it was rather ensuring that the people who travel more than three and a half to four hours, daily, to come from their homes to their offices and back home again can find some respite and think of relocating to Surat.

Gadhavi said that the project’s enormous size was due to its demand and that diamond companies purchased all office space prior to the construction. He told the CNN that the Surat Diamond Bourse will create a “level playing field” for businesses both small and large.

No office will take more than seven minutes to reach from any of the building’s entry gates, the CNN report said citing the architecture firm’s co-founder, Sonali Rastogi, who added that the design is “democratic” in nature.

The central corridor that connects the office spaces is akin to an airport terminal, she further added. Rastogi told CNN that the Surat Diamond Bourse also aimed to replicate a “traditional bazaar” and focused on the fact that informal conversations happen outside of the offices. There are courtyards, complete with seating and water features, where traders and polishers can meet casually to discuss business, work and hold informal conversations.

The diamond hub, according to Gadhavi, will act as an “anchor tenant” if plans to build a “smart” city across almost 700 hectares, dubbed “Dream City”, comes to fruition.

The building also earned a “platinum” rating from the Indian Green Building Council as the makers claim that it consumes as much as 50% less energy than the maximum permitted.

The makers say the flare-shaped central spine funnels prevailing winds through the structure. It also uses “radiant cooling” to circulate cold water under the building’s floors to reduce temperatures indoors.