When most people talk about the biggest buildings in the world, skyscrapers like the ‘burj khalifa’ come to mind. What most people don’t consider is buildings that take up enormous tracts of land – and aren’t as tall – warehouses. In today’s blog, we will be reviewing some of the manufacturing warehouses with the largest metrics in the world. ‘Footprint’, ‘Cubic Meter Size’ and ‘Usable Volume.’ Here at ACRA Machinery, we have been servicing the manufacturing industry for over 40 years. Our Melbourne industrial machinery repair teams provide new and used machinery parts for manufacturing businesses across Australia – partnering with international businesses such as press brake manufacturer Durmazlar.
Largest Warehouses by Usable Volume:
These buildings have the largest amount of space that can be used for the purpose of machinery manufacturing and repair, etc. Whilst a lot of warehouses sprawl outwards, usable volume means the warehouse might compensate for floor space with height.
1. Boeing Everett Factory
Located in Everett, Washington, USA, the Everett Factory by plane manufacturing company Boeing is the largest warehouse by usable volume in the entire world. Initially built in 1967, the factory has undergone expansions over the decades and now covers an incredible floor space of 398,000m2 and a cubic volume of over 13.3 million m3. The average height of the warehouse is 33.4m to cater for the assembly, machinery repair and transportation of parts for the company’s headliner aircraft such as the 747, 767, 777 and formerly the 787.
Fun Fact: Prior to this warehouse’s construction in 1967, the record for building with the largest volume was held by the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building.
2. Jean-Luc Lagarde Plant
Another aeroplane assembly warehouse, this time located in Toulouse-Blagnac, France. The Jean-Luc Lagarde Plant is employed by Airbus as an assembly station for many of its planes. Due to the sheer size of the plane (73m in length, 80m wingspan), parts are manufactured across other parts of Europe and brought to Toulouse for assembly due to the sheer cubic volume of the warehouse. The floor space of the plant is 122500, but the usable cubic volume is 5.6 million m3, leading to an average usable height of 45m – required to build such large aircraft.
Largest Warehouse by Footprint
Simply the largest land space taken up by surface area for a single building.
1. AvtoVAZ Lada Assembly Building
With a floor space over twice the size of the Boeing Everett Factor, the AvtoVAZ main assembly building in Tolyatti, Russia boasts a footprint of 887,800m2. The building is nearly 2km in length, at 1930m, with a width of 460m and is used for the industrial manufacturing of AvtoVAZ’s car brand ‘Lada.’ The company was originally founded in 1966 and underwent privatisation in the late 1980s- early 1990s. In 2016, the Tolyatti plant manufactured 312000 vehicles.
2. Jaguar Land Rover, Solihull Plant
Another massive car manufacturing plant, this time located in Solihull, England, UK is utilised by the Jaguar Land Rover company. This site has a collection of warehouses, generating a footprint of 526,000m2, the largest warehouse spans 1500m in length. The original warehouse was bought for military manufacturing by the British Government in World War 2 but was contracted to the rover company after the end in 1945. The factory has been updated since its 1930s inception – with an aluminium body production facility installed in 2013. The factory is currently being used to manufacture and assemble range rovers, range rover sports and Jaguar F-PACEs
3. Largest Floor Area
The buildings with the largest floor areas in the world are mostly airports and shopping centres, however, the largest manufacturing warehouse regarding floor space is the TESLA Texas Gigafactory. (See a reoccurring pattern here regarding sheet metal vehicles and large factory sizes.)
4. GigaFactory Texas
The actual size of Tesla Gigafactory’s can be a bit uncertain as sites such as the original Nevada one are constantly expanding. The 5th Gigafactory under construction in Austin, Texas (the new home city of the Tesla company since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020), aims to boast a floor size of ‘8 million square ft’ (743,000m2).
The Texas site, alongside the other gigafactories, are manufacturing centres for Tesla’s electric vehicles. The Nevada site claims to be the ‘building [with the biggest] footprint in the world’ upon completion – with a net-zero emissions target.
ACRA Machinery Factory
Acra machinery warehouse is not one of the largest in the world, however, it boasts a floor space of ~2000m2 in Dandenong, Melbourne. For all your industrial machinery repair and maintenance needs in Melbourne, whether that be press brakes, laser cutters, or sheet metal machinery – we have you covered with both new and used products.
If you need more information on our services and products or advice on how we can help to meet your needs, simply fill out the contact form or call us on 03 9794 6674