- Greenbuild 2024
Greenbuild International Conference & Expo is the world’s leading green design and construction event today. Ecogradia’s report on the 2024 edition comes directly from its expo and conference halls in Philadelphia, USA.
Surat Diamond Bourse in India’s Gujarat state hosts the most sizeable community of diamond workers on the planet. The vast office building designed by Morphogenesis boasts a strong agenda for reducing energy consumption.
At around 660,000 m2 in size, Surat Diamond Bourse surpasses the Pentagon as the world’s largest office building (beating a record held by the American complex since 1943). It consists of nine office towers attached to a defining central spine.
A combination of passive strategies (such as natural ventilation, daylighting, and self-shading) and technology allows the building to consume 50% less energy than industry “green” benchmarks.
The overarching objective of this project was twofold: position India as the global leader in the international market for diamond and gems; and enhance amenity for Surat’s diamond-trading community.
Over 90% of the world’s diamonds are cut in Surat. Despite this, for years, traders found themselves having to travel to metropolitan centres such as Mumbai for business transactions.
Surat Diamond Bourse consolidates all facets of the diamond business: cutting, polishing, processing, and trading. Around 67,000 people use the building, which sits on a 35.5-acre site. It contains around 4,500 offices of various sizes within a total built-up area of 660,451.9 m2.
The central axis is aligned with the prevalent wind direction and connects the north-south-oriented, 15-storey office towers at every floor level. The spine also contains break-out spaces and green atria. Landscaped areas lay between the towers.
The building’s facilities are numerous and include safe deposit vaults, a customs clearance house, a convention centre, exhibition centres, training centres, entertainment areas, and restaurants. The Diamond Club occupies the site’s northwest corner as a rounded monolithic form.
Balancing the massive scale of the project with goals for quick access, easy navigation, and comfortable break-out zones (recalling the human-oriented exchange spaces of traditional bazaars) was a design challenge.
“Mobility was actually our biggest problem,” explains Manit Rastogi, Founding Partner of Morphogenesis, in Ecogradia’s first season. “How does a person know where they are in a project of that size? … And that has to fit [with] the fact that we wanted this project completed with an EPI [energy performance index] of 50 kWh per m2 per year,” he says.
Achieving a better-than-anticipated performance of around 45 kWh per m2 per year, Surat Diamond Bourse has earned the Indian Green Building Council’s Platinum rating.
The central spine and the fishbone composition of the plan is a key contributor to the low-energy outcome and circulation efficiency, which allows any worker to enter the site and reach their office in less than seven minutes.
The community spaces and circulation areas are naturally ventilated, which contributes to passive cooling.
Tall fin walls flare out at both ends of the spine to funnel prevailing winds and make use of the Venturi effect. On non-windy days, the staggered atria allow the escape of hot air through the stack effect.
The north-south orientation of the self-shading office towers, along with their narrow floor plates, allow for a reduced reliance on artificial lighting. More than 75% of internal spaces are daylit and glare free. The common areas run on solar power. A dry aquifer stores harvested rainwater.
Surat Diamond Bourse also features one of the largest installations of radiant cooling, with some 300 km of pipes circulating chilled water throughout the building. 40% of the built-up volume is cooled by this energy-efficient system.
Locally sourced and manufactured materials were favoured, including Gwalior white sandstone on the tower exteriors and Lakha red granite on the central spine. These were sourced within a 300 km radius and handled by stone-working communities from the Deccan Plateau.
Manufacturing units were set up locally to support construction. As described by Sonali Rastogi, Founding Partner of Morphogenesis, on Ecogradia, “It’s actually an incredible example of … how decentralised manufacturing can happen.”
Surat Diamond Bourse reinforces the idea that economic development and environmental consciousness can go hand in hand with strategic decisions taken on the drawing board.
Inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2023, the project was awarded at the World Architecture Festival 2023 under the Completed Buildings — Office category.
To learn more about Morphogenesis, listen to Season 1, Episode 4 of Ecogradia where Manit and Sonali share their perspectives on sustainable architecture.
A Green-certified project is third-party assessed, wherein it is certified to the highest level. It offers evidence of performance, across several distinct categories, that is validated by performance modelling and/or post-occupancy measurements.
Under the Köppen climate classification, these are ‘A’ climate types. Tropical climates have warm, moist conditions year-round, with high precipitation and narrow diurnal temperature swings. These climates occur typically between 15 °N to 15 °S latitude. Here, the available net solar radiation is large and relatively constant from month to month resulting in both high temperatures (generally in excess of 18 °C [64 °F]) and a virtual absence of thermal seasons. In many locations, annual rhythm is provided by the occurrence of wet and dry seasons.
Environmental classification
Indian Green Building Council Platinum rating
Efficiency of Chillers
0.87 kW/TR
Cooling efficiency of radiant cooling system
7,000 sq ft/TR
Total onsite production with renewables
900 MWh/year
Capacity of solar installation
600 kWp
Wall to window ratio
30% windows
Natural ventilation reliance
40% of spaces naturally ventilated
Space savings
Efficient services and parking plan saves 25% of construction area
Client
Surat Diamond Bourse
Architect
Morphogenesis
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer
AECOM, Mumbai
Civil & Structural Engineer
JW Consultants LLP
Landscape Architect
IPDM Services
Quantity Surveyor
Gleeds Hooloomann Consulting India Pvt. Ltd
Project Manager
Masters PMC
Principal Builder
PSP Projects Ltd
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#15–04, SGX Centre I
Singapore 068804
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