Istana Nurul Iman

The Istana Nurul Iman palace is the official residence of the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The palace is located on a leafy, riverside sprawl of hills on the banks of the Brunei River directly south of Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, no more than a few miles outside the city center. It is the largest residential palace in the world and the world's largest residence of any type. It was designed by the National Artist of the Philippines for Architecture, Leandro V. Locsin and built by the Filipino firm, Ayala International.

pecifications

Although the palace is hidden from public view through artful landscaping, satellite views provided by programs such as Google Earth, have increased the public knowledge of the palace's layout. Such images have relayed the existence of two large buildings in the center of the palace and five smaller buildings either adjacent to or nearby the palace center.

Istana Nurul Iman contains 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, and a floor area of 2,152,782 square feet (200,000 m²). Ref|Bartholomew Amenities include 5 swimming pools, and an air conditioned stable for the Sultan's 200 polo ponies, a 110-car garage, a banquet hall that can be expanded to accommodate up to 4,000 guests, and a mosque accommodating 1,500 people. Ref|Bartholomew The palace was built in 1984 at a cost of around $1.4 billion USD and has 564 chandeliers, 51,000 light bulbs, 44 stairwells, and 18 elevators. Ref|Bartholomew It is also a home to a car collection that includes custom-made Ferraris and Bentleys as well as 165 Rolls-Royces. Its golden domes, designed by Filipino architect Leandro V. Locsin, and vaulted roofs echo Islamic and Malay architectural influences.

Functions

The palace is used for all State functions. It is both the seat of Brunei's government and the location of the prime minister's office. In addition to Audience and State Rooms, there is a Throne Chamber used for various occasions such as the proclamation of the Crown Prince and the annual Birthday Investiture.

Accessibility

The palace is not open to the public except on the annual Islamic celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri (the festival at the end of the Muslim fasting month) when the palace receives about 110,000 visitors over a three-day period where they receive compliments such as food for visiting as well as green packets containing money for young children. The palace is also open to Muslims during the Ramadhan period for 10 days for the Bertedarus prayer gathering.

World's Largest Palace

Istana Nurul Iman is indisputedly the world's largest residential and administrative palace currently in use for state functions, and at convert|2152782|sqft|m2, Istana Nurul Iman certainly has more building floorspace than any other palace in the world.

However, it is primarily a residence while in many European palaces, most of the actual space in the palace is used for administrative and state purposes as is the case with Buckingham Palace. Thus, at convert|828818|sqft|m2|0, Buckingham Palace bears the title of the world's largest "working" royal palace.

Still, Buckingham Palace is not even the largest palace in Europe. At convert|1453122|sqft|m2, the Royal Palace of Madrid, in Spain, is larger. However, the king of Spain resides elsewhere and it is used only for ceremonial purposes and heads of state visits thus it loses the title "largest working palace" to Buckingham Palace. In addition, some claim that Stockholm Palace, the 608 room official, but unoccupied, headquarters of the Swedish monarchy, is "the largest royal palace in the world that is still in use for its original purpose." Such a claim obviously ignores that the larger Istana Nurul Iman was built for the purpose that it currently serves today, as a royal palace.

Further complicating the title to "world's largest palace" is The Forbidden City which is the world's largest palace complex, but it is neither occupied as a residence nor is it one continuous building. In fact, it contains 800 different buildings. The total square footage of the complex is just less than convert|7750000|sqft|m2, but with the vast open courtyards of the complex, the totaled square footage of the Forbidden City's collective buildings is smaller than that of Istana Nurul Iman.

And none of the above addresses "castles." Windsor Castle lays claim to the title "world's largest inhabited castle" while the Prague Castle castle lays claim to the outright title of "world's largest castle." Windsor Castle has a floor area of just over 484,000 square feet while the Prague Castle is much like the Forbidden City in that it is merely a complex containing many separate buildings, some of which are palaces.

Comparisons

Istana Nurul Iman: convert|2152782|sqft|m2

The Royal Palace of Madrid: convert|1453122|sqft|m2 Ref|Madrid

Buckingham Palace: convert|828818|sqft|m2|0 Ref|Buckingham

The Palace of Versailles: convert|551218|sqft|m2|0 Ref|Versailles

Windsor Castle: convert|484374|sqft|m2|0 Ref|Windsor

Rashtrapati Bhavan,India: convert|200000|sqft|m2|-4

Aaron Spelling's house: convert|56500|sqft|m2|abbr=on

The White House: convert|55000|sqft|m2|-2

Notes

* The area of Windsor Castle is calculated based on a report of the area destroyed in 1992 fire as being 9,000 meters squared which was reported to be about one fifth of the total area of the castle.
* The interior of Istana Nurul Iman was designed by Khuan Chew, Design Principal of KCA International, whose other works include the Burj-Al-Arab, Dubai.

References

# Bartholomew, James. "The Richest Man in the World", Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (February 22, 1990). ISBN-10: 0140108904, ISBN-13: 978-0140108903
# "Id".
# "Id".
# Royal Palace of Madrid statistics verified by official website, See also [http://www.cyberspain.com/passion/palacio.htm Palacio Real (Cyberspain)]
# See reference on official British monarchy website [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page5495.asp]
# See reference on official website [http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/331_A_Few_Figures.php]
# Calculated based on report of area destroyed in 1992 fire as being 9,000 meters squared which was reported to be about one fifth of the total area of the castle. See reference on official website [http://www.royal.gov.uk/OutPut/Page574.asp]
*"Guinness World Records"
*Royal Brunei Airlines

External links

* [http://www.gov.bn Government of Brunei]