Surat Diamond Bourse
Morphogenesis
Short description
Surat Diamond Bourse consolidates India's 67,000 diamond professionals within the world’s largest single-office building. With a built-up area of 7.1 million sq. ft. occupying a 35.3-acre site, SDB exemplifies high-density office architecture and transcends global sustainability benchmarks. It is a seed building for the Diamond Research and Mercantile (DREAM) City, an upcoming business district, leading to an unprecedented socio-economic development in the region.
The brief called for a single office for one the largest communities of diamond traders, the Saurashtra Patels of Gujarat. However, Surat, where over 92% of the world's diamond pieces are cut and which contributes to roughly 80% of India's annual diamond export, lacked modern, affordable office space. Many small-scale merchants trade in open courts and corridors within the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai, India's only other diamond trading hub. Moreover, thousands of workers spend up to 10 hours commuting 500 km daily in overcrowded trains from Surat to Mumbai and back for business. Many merchants can be seen trading in the open courts and corridors within the BDB.
Independent and consolidated functioning for 4,500 offices ranging from 28 sqm to as large as 7,000 sqm, makes it a city within a city. Its wide-ranging amenities include a sprawling 10,000 sqm food zone, a retail plaza, and over 8,000 sqm of gym, spa, conference areas, banking, customs, and banquet facilities.
One of the primary challenges was facilitating easy and efficient daily navigation for over 67,000 professionals through the high-security premises, making circulation and sustainable development defining parameters of its monumental design. The design draws from the highly efficient fishbone system—with users moving from a central circulation spine into the nine office blocks in a time-efficient manner. The design optimizes travel distances, ensuring that the farthest office module is reachable within 5 minutes. This addresses the challenge of navigating large volumes of people within trading-time constraints, with walkable corridors across 15 floors.
Another constraint was flood mitigation, owing to the location of the site which lies roughly a meter below the highway road. The plinth was raised, and a trench was created around its periphery to harvest rainwater. The construction uses conventional RCC combined with post-tensioned (PT) slabs for the nine towers. Modular structural grids streamline parking layouts and save 25% of the construction area.
Designing the world's largest commercial building required achieving exceptional efficiency in every aspect. Surat Diamond Bourse directly offsets challenges pertaining to energy consumption and use by using low-tech passive strategies and modern technology. Thermal comfort on the premises is achieved first by reducing the temperature of the site.
The central spine, flaring into vertical fins to funnel prevailing winds using the Venturi effect, ensures that 100% of the building's circulation spaces, which make up 30% of the built-up area, are naturally ventilated. Staggered atria interrupt the spine vertically, allowing hot air buildup to escape through the stack effect while incorporating landscaped elements that create green lungs, fostering a pleasant internal microclimate without mechanical cooling. The radiant cooling system, spanning 300 km—approximately 10 times the coastline of Surat (~35 km) and one of the largest in the world—significantly reduces operational maintenance and dependency on mechanical cooling.
The diamond traders have a history of working in a highly collaborative fashion, collectively utilizing the skill sets of different members. The central spine is thus designed as an active social hub, allowing for multiple chance encounters throughout the workday. In addition, the building accommodates designated offices and greenery-filled common areas that double up as informal workstations, drawing from the existing culture of working in open air.
The office towers are oriented north-south with narrow floor plates, blocking the harsh western sun and ensuring 75% of the workspaces receive diffused light throughout the day. This design strategy significantly reduces dependence on artificial lighting and enables the common areas to operate on solar power year-round. Self-shading office blocks are oriented to cut out the harsh western sun and are spaced between 15 acres of landscaping that further keeps the site cool. The building features interconnected courtyards that create a variety of views and support functions like food courts, recreational spaces, and interaction areas. The central spine serves as an interactive hub with breakout spaces, green atriums, and dense vegetation for improved indoor air quality. Passive landscaping strategies help control the local microclimate, reducing radiant heat by over 10°C.
Locally sourced materials were incorporated with a minimal waste-to-landfill approach. Lakha red granite and Gwalior white sandstone used in the construction are procured within a 300 km radius, promoting a minimal waste-to-landfill approach. Stone-working communities from the Deccan Plateau were employed at all stages, from quarrying to dressing and application. Besides the bourse generating employment in the area, manufacturing units were established to support its construction, engaging the local community and providing sustainable livelihoods to thousands of workers.
Built entirely, democratically, by the diamond community for the community as a cooperative, SDB is a testament to shared vision and collective agency. The community worked to ensure that the building catered to the needs of all traders, with large, designated office spaces for the large-scale traders as well as informal courtyard spaces that can be used flexibly by small-scale traders. In addition, the diamond traders and facility managers responsible for the upkeep of the premises formed an integral part of the design team, ensuring that all requirements were factored in.
Focusing on environmental sustainability, its comprehensive sustainable design measures have resulted in a 15% saving in Capex, a 50% saving in Op-ex, and a 50% reduction in energy consumption compared to the highest green rating standards, with a building performance of approximately 45 kWh/sq.m./yr. For its sustainable development efforts, the project has achieved IGBC's GREEN New Building Platinum Rating.