The Palace of Parliament ( Romanian : Palatul Parlamentului ) in Bucharest , Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament . According to the World Records Academy, the Palace is the world's largest civilian building with an administrative function, most expensive administrative building and heaviest building. [ 3 ] The Palace was designed by architect Anca Petrescu and nearly completed by the Ceaușescu regime as the seat of political and administrative power. Nicolae Ceaușescu named it the People's House ( Casa Poporului ), [ 4 ] also known in English as the Palace of the People . [ 5 ] Since 1996, the building has housed Romania's Chamber of Deputies , which had previously been housed in the Palace of the Patriarchy ; the Romanian Legislative Council and the Romanian Competition Council. The Romanian Senate joined them there in 2005, having previously been housed in the former Communist Party Central Committee building. The Palace also contains a massive array of miscellaneous conference halls, salons, etc. used for a wide variety of other purposes. There are public tours organized in a number of languages. In 2003-2004 a glass annex was built [ citation needed ] , alongside external elevators. This was done to facilitate access to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) opened in 2004 inside the west wing of the Palace of Parliament, and to the Museum and Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism , also opened in 2004. The cafeteria for use of