The newly-opened Surat Diamond Bourse in Gujarat, India, is a massive office complex made up of nine rectangular buildings interconnected through a central “spine”.

For 80 years, the Pentagon held the title of the world’s largest building, but it was recently dethroned by the Surat Diamond Bourse, a massive diamond-cutting and trading hub, that exceeds the Pentagon’s area of 66,73,624 sqft by almost 55,000 sqft. The sprawling 15-story complex covers more than 35 acres of land on the outskirts of Surat, in India’s Gujarat state and features over 4,700 office spaces and workshops, as well as 131 large elevators that make traveling between the nine buildings of the Surat Diamond Bourse a breeze. Interestingly, surpassing the Pentagon was never the plan; instead, Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis just struggled to meet the huge demand for space.

“We decided to create something that is iconic, that borrows … from its context and the community we are working (with),” Morphogenesis co-founder  Sonali Rastogi said, adding that its plan for the building was “based on environmental and sustainable design more than a particular architectural language.”

The Surat Diamond Bourse is set to become the world’s largest and most advanced hub for the international diamond and jewelry trade. 90% of the world’s diamonds are cut in Surat, so gathering artisans and traders under the same roof was the main goal. Morphogenesis went for a design vaguely reminiscent of an airport terminal – nine rectangular buildings connected by a long central corridor.

 

The new world’s largest office building cost 32 billion rupees ($388 million), which is a pretty penny for sure, but definitely worth it to bring Surat’s bustling diamond business under one roof. Despite its massive size, navigating between its 15-story towers is said to be a breeze, with the average person taking just six minutes to reach the top of any of the nine rectangular towers via the 131 elevators controlled by a smart system.

The massive complex can accommodate over 65,000 people as well as 4,500 cars and 10,000 two-wheel vehicles, which is more than some modern small towns.