This is a
continuation of a series of articles that tackles different engineering
achievement, from world’s tallest building, longest bridge, biggest building,
and the likes. Now let’s talk about the world’s largest building (Largest floor
space).
China is now on a construction
boom, infrastructures are popping up like mushrooms. As its economy grows, they
have more resources to build magnificent buildings. Last July 01, 2013, the New
Century Global Center was officially opened. It is 100 meters high, 500 meters
long, and 400 meters wide with 1, 700, 000 square meters (1.7 sq km) of floor
space. To put on perspective its size, it is as large as 329 football fields,
it could hold 20 Sydney Opera Houses, and it is three times the size of
Pentagon Building. And actually it’s just slightly smaller than Monaco (2 sq
km).
The construction was started on
2010 and was finished on 2013. It’s a 18-story, glass-and-steel frame structure
that sits above a new subway station in Chengdu, a Sichuan province city of
more than 14 million and one of China's fastest-growing megalopolises.
Inside New Century Global Center
are shopping malls, offices, 2 five-star 1000-room hotels, conference rooms, a
university complex, two commercial centers, an IMAX cinema, a
"Mediterranean village", a pirate ship and skating rink. The
centerpiece of the building will be a 5,000 m2 (54,000 sq ft)
artificial beach that can accommodate 6,000 people; a giant 150 by 40 m
(490 by 130 ft) screen will form the horizon and offer sunrises
and sunsets.
I’m pretty sure that in the
distant future, construction of this kind of building will be more often, not
only in China but in other countries too.
