Guinness World Records Five Best Architectural Achievements

The Guinness World Records is the official association in control of recording world records. They have been publishing a book yearly since August of 1954. Ever since then the book releases every October in attempt to keep up with the records. Here are five of the records for the best architectural achievements.

1. The Largest Solar Energy Roof
   

   

   …has an area of 281,045 ft2. It is located on the roof of the exposition hall of the Floriade in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands.. The record was set on April 8th 2002. It has a generating capacity of 2.3 MW, and was designed by Nuon Renewables.

2. The Largest Self-Supporting Igloo
   

   

   …was constructed by twenty-nine of the employees from the Hydro-Quebec LG-3 power station in Quebec, Canada on February 22, 2005. It took eighteen days to complete the igloo which had an internal diameter of twenty four feet two inches and an internal height of twelve and a half feet.

3. The Heaviest Building to be Relocated While Still Fully Intact

   

   …was the Fu Gang Building at West Bank Road Wuzhou, in the Guangxi Province of China. It was successfully located on November 10th, 2004. It had a weight of 33.3 million pounds. With a height of 111 feet it was not easy task. They moved it one hundred fourteen feet horizontally. They successfully moved it in only eleven days.

4. The World’s Largest Offshore Gas Platform

   

   …was The Troll Offshore Gas Platform. It is located just outside of Norway in the North Sea. It is also the heaviest man made mobile object ever to be made. It weighs 656,000 tons, and stands 1210 feet tall. It uses enough steel to create fifteen Eiffel towers, ad enough concrete to make foundations for 215,000 ordinary homes. It was built in 1996 by the Shell Oil Company at the cost of $150 million.

5. The Biggest Swimming Pool in the World Ever Built

   

   …was created by San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo, Chile. It is 3,324 feet long, and has an area of 19.77 acres. It was successfully completed in December of 2006. Why would somebody need this much room?

All of the following are records according to the Guinness World Records. To see these, and many more interesting world records visit the Guinness World Records website.