World's biggest and largest buildings
|
|
Boeing claims that its Boeing Everett plant at Everett, Washington is the largest building in the world by volume at 13.3 million m³ (472 million ft³), having grown from the original 5.64 million m³ (200 million ft³). The building is used to assemble the company's 747, 767 and 777 aircraft. [1] (http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/tours/gw.html)
The Aerium of the Cargolifter AG was built as a hangar for a never constructed giant airship and has a volume of 5.2 million m³, is 107 m tall, 360 m long and 210 m wide. It's the world largest hall without pillars and is now used as a resort called Tropical Islands.[2] (http://www.my-tropical-islands.com/dome.htm)
The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, is 160 meters (525 ft) tall, 218 meters (716 ft) long and 158 meters (518 ft) wide, thus enclosing 3,664,883 m³ (129,428,000 ft³). See [3] (http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/vab.html).
The The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, with a total of 2,550,000 m³ or 90 052 400.1 cubic feet. It takes third place in the world total office space (useable floor space) provided.
The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, holds the title of the largest office building in the world at 610,000 m² (6.6 million ft²) in floor area and 2 million m³ (77,015,000 ft³) by volume.
The Merchandise Mart in Chicago claims to be the largest commercial building in the world at 390,000 m² (4.2 million ft²).
The Aalsmeer Flower Auction with its 990,000 m² of floor space is probably the largest building in Europe, and it is the largest commercial building in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is located in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands. More than 20 million flowers are sold in the building every day reputedly.
The incomplete Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea is also one of the world's largest buildings with 360,000 m² of gross floor area.
The largest pyramid, and largest individual structure by volume of material is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Mexico, with an estimated volume of 3.3 million m³ (4.3 million yd³).
The world's largest Christian church was for centuries St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro finished in 1989 has now taken the number one spot. The largest cathedral (and largest Protestant church) is either the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York or Liverpool Anglican Cathedral in England (this title is disputed).
The Todaiji temple in Nara, Japan holds the claim for largest wooden building in the world, though this is disputed. The current building is 30% smaller than the former (otherwise identical) temple which was destroyed in a fire.