The Largest Structure In History
More square feet than you can shake a stick at
When judging buildings in history, people like to focus on the height, whereas structures like the Empire State Building and the Burj Khalifa are praised for their groundbreaking achievements. People also like to focus on longevity which highlights buildings like the Great Pyramids and the Roman Colosseum, which have stood for thousands of years.
What people don't tend to focus on is overall size. Square footage. This is interesting given the fact that square footage is a metric that people are a) intimately familiar with and b) tend to prize in their own lives. But when you ask people what the largest building in the world is by total square footage, you are likely to get a blank stare. Even more interesting is the fact that the world’s largest building in terms of square footage is also likely the largest structure ever built by humans.
The building in question is the New Century Global Center which is located in Chengdu, China. This monstrous complex features 18.3 million square feet of space, which is by far the largest building on Earth. It dwarfs other mammoth structures like airport terminals and sprawling casino complexes. That amount of square feet is enough to swallow 9,150 average American homes or a whole subdivision.
