World's Most Expensive Home

[prescient63]

$1 Billion+ Home... why not?

While visiting New York in 2005, Nita Ambani was in the spa at the Mandarin Oriental New York, overlooking Central Park. The contemporary Asian interiors struck her just so, and prompted her to inquire about the designer.

Nita Ambani was no ordinary tourist. She is married to Mukesh Ambani, head of Mumbai-based petrochemical giant Reliance Industries, and the fifth richest man in the world. (Lakshmi Mittal, ranked fourth, is an Indian citizen, but a resident of the U.K.)

Forbes estimated Ambani's net worth at $43 billion in March. Reliance Industries was founded by Mukesh's father, Dhirubhai Ambani, in 1966, and is India's most valuable firm by market capitalization. The couple, who have three children, currently live in a 22-story Mumbai tower that the family has spent years remodeling to meet its needs.

Like many families with the means to do so, the Ambanis wanted to build a custom home. They consulted with architecture firms Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental, based in Dallas and Los Angeles, respectively. Plans were then drawn up for what will be the world's largest and most expensive home: a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai with a cost nearing $2 billion, says Thomas Johnson, director of marketing at Hirsch Bedner Associates. The architects and designers are creating as they go, altering floor plans, design elements and concepts as the building is constructed.

The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the market is the $70 million triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in the air. When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet of interior space.

The home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings: A hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor, and uses the same materials throughout the building (such as door handles, floors, lamps and window treatments).

The Ambani home, called Antilla, differs in that no two floors are alike in either plans or materials used. At the request of Nita Ambani, say the designers, if a metal, wood or crystal is part of the ninth-floor design, it shouldn't be used on the eleventh floor, for example. The idea is to blend styles and architectural elements so spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition.

Antilla's shape is based on Vaastu, an Indian tradition much like Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through the building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects.

Pricey Pad

Atop six stories of parking lots, Antilla's living quarters begin at a lobby with nine elevators, as well as several storage rooms and lounges. Down dual stairways with silver-covered railings is a large ballroom with 80% of its ceiling covered in crystal chandeliers. It features a retractable showcase for pieces of art, a mount of LCD monitors and embedded speakers, as well as stages for entertainment. The hall opens to an indoor/outdoor bar, green rooms, powder rooms and allows access to a nearby "entourage room" for security guards and assistants to relax.

Ambani plans to occasionally use the residence for corporate entertainment, and the family wants the look and feel of the home's interior to be distinctly Indian; 85% of the materials and labor will come from outside the U.S., most of it from India.

Where possible, the designers say, whether it's for the silver railings, crystal chandeliers, woven area rugs or steel support beams, the Ambanis are using Indian companies, contractors, craftsmen and materials firms. Elements of Indian culture juxtapose newer designs. For example, the sinks in a lounge extending off the entertainment level, which features a movie theater and wine room, are shaped like ginkgo leaves (native to India) with the stem extending to the faucet to guide the water into the basin.

On the health level, local plants decorate the outdoor patio near the swimming pool and yoga studio. The floor also features an ice room where residents and guests can escape the Mumbai heat to a small, cooled chamber dusted by man-made snow flurries.

For more temperate days, the family will enjoy a four-story open garden. In profile, the rebar-enforced beams form a "W" shape that supports the upper two-thirds of the building while creating an open-air atrium of gardens, flowers and lawns. Gardens, whether hanging hydroponic plants, or fixed trees, are a critical part of the building's exterior adornment but also serve a purpose: The plants act as an energy-saving device by absorbing sunlight, thus deflecting it from the living spaces and making it easier to keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter. An internal core space on the garden level contains entertaining rooms and balconies that clear the tree line and offer views of downtown Mumbai.

The top floors of entertaining space, where Ambani plans to host business guests (or just relax) offer panoramic views of the Arabian Sea.
Copyrighted, Forbes.com. All rights reserved.

[AladainAF]

Thats awesome. Some good tax revenue for NYC right there.

edit: fucking fail, cad is right, i misread it.

Still thats badass. I'd like to see that shit when its done.

[Cad]

Originally Posted by AladainAF

Thats awesome. Some good tax revenue for NYC right there.

Oh NYC can tax Mumbai now? Good to know.

L2read

[Gauss]

Originally Posted by Cad

Oh NYC can tax Mumbai now? Good to know.

L2read

In his defense, the article was somewhat ambiguous and poorly-written. Why quote such things as the below if it's being built in Mumbai?

and the family wants the look and feel of the home's interior to be distinctly Indian; 85% of the materials and labor will come from outside the U.S., most of it from India.

For the first half of the article, it wasn't apparent to me that they were even talking about one house in Mumbai.

[Havelock]

That's awesome. As I understand it, the current most valuable home in the world is only worth around $120,000,000, so this thing is incomparable to any existing real estate. Well played, Ambani family.

[Eomer]

I just don't get this. I mean yeah, it's not like they're hurting for cash, but I just really don't understand the need for such conspicuous consumption. I could build or buy a house or condo that's way bigger and nicer than what I've got now, but I just don't see the point (as the pictures of all my bare assed walls would indicate).

It just seems like such a waste when the majority of that place will never be used more than a handful of times.

[JeydaX]

Originally Posted by Eomer

I just don't get this. I mean yeah, it's not like they're hurting for cash, but I just really don't understand the need for such conspicuous consumption. I could build or buy a house or condo that's way bigger and nicer than what I've got now, but I just don't see the point (as the pictures of all my bare assed walls would indicate).

It just seems like such a waste when the majority of that place will never be used more than a handful of times.

You'd probably do some stupid shit too if you had unlimited resources.

[spronk]

in Asian countries its still common for families to live very, very close to each other - a guy at work is related to one of the rich tycoons and said they have a "spread" where over 30 families all live together, in seperate bungalows or whatever but basically the same compound, and all are related.

We don't have the worlds tallest building, the worlds largest mall, and now don't have the worlds most expensive house anymore either At least were #1 in fatties

[Blide]

In these people's defense, they are in India. India has excessively high population densities, so you're dealing with a ton of people, traffic , and wild animals roaming the streets, none of which are really conducive for wanting to leave your house if you didn't have to. To add to this, it is actually in Mumbai, the second largest city in the world, most of which is essentially in third world conditions.

[AladainAF]

Originally Posted by Eomer

I just don't get this. I mean yeah, it's not like they're hurting for cash, but I just really don't understand the need for such conspicuous consumption. I could build or buy a house or condo that's way bigger and nicer than what I've got now, but I just don't see the point (as the pictures of all my bare assed walls would indicate).

It just seems like such a waste when the majority of that place will never be used more than a handful of times.

Because they can. Why not?

[Kaio]

I'd much rather buy an existing tower with a helipad or build a helipad on it. Then i'd go about making a giant fucking 800 million dollar (or whatevers left over) castle/mansion outside the city and travel to the city via chopper.

Benefits include having horizontal space, fresh air, and all that stuff related to having land (garden maybe for the wife) not inside a crowded/dirty city.

To each his own i guess.

[Indiana]

I'd be content with a regular size mansion. Just don't need the rediculous ammount of space. I would however gladly spend a billion dollars on a moat around it to keep the rif raf out. Maybe flood it with toxins and genetically engineered sharks with lazors.

[James]

Originally Posted by Cad

Oh NYC can tax Mumbai now? Good to know.

L2read

And you can count on me. Taxing you in the parking lot.

[Zarcath]

figures its the wife that started this. If it was the husband, or a single man, they'd probably just buy a house and fill each room full of hot chicks.

[Kolle]

i wouldn't want to live in a tower...

if i was gonna blow that kind of money i'd rather have my own property outside of the city and a house with out multiple levels