On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB), which is considered right now to be the world’s largest and modern centre for international diamond and jewellery business. He praised the building, saying that all architecture and engineering students from all over the country should come and study this structure to understand how buildings are constructed in modern form.
In a conversation with The New Indian Express, we learnt more about the design and architecture of Surat Diamond Bourse through its designer Sonali Rastogi and Manit Rastogi of design and architecture firm Morphogenesis.
Excerpts:
How did you get the contract to design this structure?
The project began in 2017 with a global design competition. The design brief called for the provision of a single-function office for the world’s single largest community of diamond traders, the Saurashtra Patels of the state of Gujarat. We won the design competition and have now completed the project.
What inspires your designs?
Our work draws from our copyrighted design philosophy, SOUL, that encapsulates the key parameters we believe every structure should fulfill – Sustainability, Optimisation, Uniqueness, and Livability. These principles enable us to take on projects of varying scales and typologies and still develop contextual solutions every time. They also guide us toward exploring innovative environmental, social, and economic sustainability solutions.
What distinguishes the world's largest office building?
Surat Diamond Bourse consolidates India's 70,000-strong diamond community within the world’s largest single-office building. The project exemplifies high-density office architecture and transcends global sustainability benchmarks.
The building brings together India’s vast diamond community under one roof, with independent and consolidated functioning for 4,717 offices ranging from 28 sq.mt to over 10,500 sq.mt. Its wide-ranging amenities include a sprawling 10,000 sq.mt food zone, a retail plaza, and over 8,000 sq.mt. of health and wellness, conference areas and banquet facilities.
Built entirely by the diamond community for the community as a cooperative, the building is a testament to shared vision and collective agency. With a focus on sustainability, SDB consumes 50% less energy than the highest green benchmarks and features one of the world’s largest radiant cooling systems.
How will the diamond business be represented by this structure?
SDB is a seed building for the Diamond Research and Mercantile (DREAM) City, an upcoming business district, triggering unprecedented socio-economic development in the region. Surat, known for processing over 92% of the world's diamond pieces and contributing to approximately 80% of India's annual diamond exports, faced a shortage of modern and affordable office spaces. Thousands of workers endured daily commutes of 500 kilometres, spending up to 10 hours travelling between Surat and Mumbai to engage in their trade away from their homes.
The community of diamond traders commissioned the building, adopting a democratic and cooperative approach to its construction. The collaborative effort ensured that the structure met the diverse needs of all traders, featuring spacious designated offices for large-scale traders and flexible, informal courtyard spaces for smaller traders. The design of the building reflects and supports the community's lifestyle, fostering chance interactions, recreational activities, and open trading, reminiscent of a traditional bazaar.
Built entirely by the diamond community for the community as a cooperative, the bourse provides a centralized platform uniting all activities of cutting, polishing, and trading under one roof.
Any special design directions from Prime Minister Modi, the government, or industrialists?
The diamond community in Surat itself came together to form a cooperative to create this self-sustained office space for their members. The brief required us to address a very pertinent need – an office space for these traders in their own city, so they would not need to travel to Mumbai daily for work.
The challenge was accommodating the efficient and secure movement of over 65,000 people within the office. Hence, the project mandate necessitated the design of offices spanning various sizes within a constrained budget, ranging from a minimum of approximately 300 sq. ft. to a maximum of around 70,000 sq. ft.
We took upon the challenge of designing the offices democratically—the building caters to the needs of all traders, and features informal break-out areas that all traders can use flexibly. The involvement of diamond traders and facility managers, who oversee the upkeep of the premises, was integral to the design team. This ensured that all necessary requirements were considered, making the project a true testament to the shared vision and collective agency of the diamond trading community.
From a design standpoint, how does this building differ from others worldwide?
At over 7.1 million square feet, Surat Diamond Bourse is larger than the Pentagon, making it the single largest office building in the world.
The building’s design draws inspiration from Surat’s socio-cultural context and the highly efficient fishbone system of delivery, where people move from a central circulation spine into each of the nine office blocks in a time-efficient manner. The urban spine varies in depth from 8m to 24 m, housing all public activities. It is a place for out-of-office trading, chance interactions and fostering the informal nature of business.
To manage a large influx of people due to time constraints for trading, the building is designed with corridors across all floors, similar to an airport terminal unifying it horizontally and vertically. Functional proximities were determined by optimizing travel distances from the entrance to the farthest office module under four minutes from the entry point. The flow of people has been designed to minimise security such that once checked at the perimeter, traders can traverse the building multiple times a day. The structure rests on urban-scale columns that double up as seating areas.
The project is designed for maximum efficiency: Efficient parking layouts are achieved through the use of modular structural grids, resulting in a 25% reduction in the required construction area. The design of the two basements strategically eliminates the necessity for pile foundations typical to the area, consequently reducing overall costs.
With a focus on sustainability, SDB consumes 50% less energy than the highest green benchmarks and features one of the world’s largest radiant cooling systems. A combination of thermal mass and porosity in relevant areas results in low external heat gains and lower cooling loads. Hybrid climate systems integrate passive strategies for natural ventilation with energy-efficient mechanical cooling.
The central spine flares into vertical fins to funnel low-intensity winds using the Venturi effect, while staggered atria allow for the escape of hot air through the stack effect, thereby maintaining a pleasant microclimate. The building features one of the largest installations of radiant cooling, where the interiors are cooled by an energy-efficient system that uses chilled water on the floors and ceilings.
We incorporated locally sourced materials with a minimal waste-to-landfill approach. Lakha red granite and Gwalior white sandstone used in the construction have been procured from within a 300 km radius. Stone-working communities from the Deccan Plateau were employed at all stages, from quarrying to dressing and application.