Gizmodo
Mukesh Ambani, head of Mumbai-based petrochemical giant Reliance Industries, is ranked as the fifth richest man in the world with a net worth of $46 billion. Unlike billionaires like Warren Buffet who reside in modest accommodations, Ambani is going balls-out with his new home. In fact, the home he calls "Antilla" will be the world's most expensive residence when the four-year building project is completed this January. When all is said and done, the 22-story Mumbai Tower it is based on will reach 550 feet into the sky with an absurd 400,000 square feet of interior space at a total cost of $2 billion. So what accommodations does that kind of coin buy you?
First off, no two floors are alike. Ambani specified that each story of his home should be made using different plans and materials, with styles and architectural elements tying it all together. Furthermore, the odd shape of the structure is the result of a discipline called Vaastu, which is an Indian tradition that is similar to the principles of Feng Shui. As for some of the more technological elements, the lobby grants access to the home via nine elevators, and the elaborate crystal laden ballroom features a mount of LCD monitors, a huge sound system and a retractable showcase for artworks. There will also be an ice sauna where family and guests can escape the heat in a room filled with man-made snow. If that was not enough, there will also be a bad-ass home theater that is outlined in the gallery above.
Kind of makes Bill Gates' $125 million home look like some sort of slum. [Yahoo Finance via Geekologie]
Comments
Meanwhile, there are people starving to death in the streets of Mumbai.
I don't suppose this $2 billion "home" happens to include a homeless shelter, does it? Thought not.
What's nice about it is that it doesn't loose that "homey" feel to it.
I wonder if this guy has a yacht named tits. Maybe two smaller boats named nipple 1 and nipple 2.
I don't get rich people.
just because you can......
@Guy-Fawkes: Not to be a dick, but no one has an obligation to help anyone out. He has all that money and can spend it how he'd like. I imagine you're not a billionaire so you don't really have the same perspective.
Where are the prostitutes quarters he no doubt has?
Pfft. Where is the indoor sky diving? The multi-level go kart track with jumps over the crocodile pit? The full-scale replica of the Thunderdome complete with on-call Master Blaster. Hell, I bet there is not even a trifling trapdoor / shark tank in the whole place. FAIL.
What sort of protection or security does this guy have installed? If I were poor in Mumbai and I saw this eyesore going up I would probably throw a rock at it. Imagine what other people are going to do to this thing who have some sort of personal vegence against this guy or what he represents. Being that rich comes at a price tag and I can't believe he's friends with everyone. Whether it's deserved or not I imagine someone going to try to vandalize this thing somehow.
i heard its in a shitty neighborhood so im sure the locals will be pissed.. but really.. he's probably donated tons of money already. its not his job to pay for every poor person in the country. he's lucky, he's rich, and his home is 1/30th his accumulated wealth.
how many americans here have homes that are >50% of their wealth? its all relative, and in this case its a ridiculous house, but hes earned it and cna do as he pleases. it would be nice if he created some more jobs with that money, but he's not obligated to.
"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."
No, the 11th floor is made entirely of poor children's dreams.
@Ryan.Reed: I think that is the point. It's a comment on the moral and ethical decisions of this billionaire. But maybe he does give back to the community. I mean, ultimately, his money came from regular people buying his oil/gas/whatetver. Certainly no one has any obligation to help other people, but not helping society given that you have so much money and have the ability to make a huge social difference makes one unethical if you ask me.
It looks like a lego-rendition on the exterior...Lego Tower.
Faslane
I do agree, on the people starving, but most rich people donate millions a year to charities, let's just hope he's doing the same. I personally would want my name on a 3rd world country than this monstrosity.
My 2ยข Still cool house...I mean Mansion/Tower or whatever the hell it is!!!! Ahhh forget it!
@irfan: Actually, building that rediculous house is a way of using his money to create jobs.
Meh, i'd rather have Tony Stark's mansion...
Trickle down economics people! Now all the poor youth in the area can be trained to be servants in his house! I mean, how else would you get man-made snow, except to pay dozens of children to crush ice for you amiright?
::retches::
Jenga!
You guys don't know India. The poor people there, even the ones who are mind-blowingly impoverished, accept their lot - it's a cultural thing. They're not going to be tossing rocks at this place.
FWIW, I can't imagine spending more than $20m on a home.
@GarciaConcern: Thanks! I was trying to figure out what that reminded me of.
@Gann: Not disagreeing, just saying that he could create the same jobs, and probably more of them, by having hospitals, apartments and other such buildings that benefit his fellow countrymen. Personally, I agree that he can do whatever he wants with the money he earned, but that doesn't make it morally right for him, or anyone for that matter, to build something for themselves that is to say the least 'ultra overkill'. That being said, I doubt he built this with the thought of providing jobs for the people around him. Of course, I don't go out and buy a hamburger just so the pimple face kid at the cash register can make some money. I guess it's just a fine line between doing what you have the right to do, and what is the right thing to do.
@Ryan.Reed: Just MHO, but obligation begins when you know better. If you know there are people suffering and you have the ability to help, you have to. But since people don't, this is why the world is the way it is.
Excuse my South Park type preaching.
@GarciaConcern: LOL!
Lets see someone try to cram that mansions worth of s*&t into my tiny apartment!!
I don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe its his only house. The other billionaires probably many houses spread around the world that equal this guy's one house. And Indians aren't like the westeners, they actually like living with multiple generations in a single house. He probably just has a big family.
My we have a lot of Marxist re-distribution of wealth socialist thinkers here at Giz.
Anybody think that maybe the guy already pays taxes at the 45% rate and has subsidized his homeland enough already?
outside looks like ghetto architecture!
Apparently this guy thinks you can take it with you. Not the legacy I would choose to leave as the fifth richest person in the history of humanity, but then again, that could be part of the reason I'm not on the list.
Also, I'm no psychologist, but building this thing as a tower in the middle of a huge city (rather than out in the countryside hidden from the riffraff) is pretty clearly related to the penis.
"Hun, what floor is the pool on."
"Which one?"
"The one with the bubbles and red lasers."
"You mean the one that all 100 of your wives hate?"
"Yeah, I need a break. All that nagging."
"It's on the 15th floor, down the hall, to the left, down the solid gold trapdoor, and through the red door marked 'prostitutes only'."
Ok now look here being rich is no excuse for being a greedy bastard. there is no way in HELL anyone would ever need a home that size.....EVER!!!!!
Damn! How can anyone call this "homey"? It looks like a hotel.
@Guy-Fawkes: Helping the poor has little to do with money. I mean sure you can donate, feed, heal or clothe them for a month or so, but then what? Buy them homes? Pay for the upkeep? For how long? How do you expect them to live their lives?
Helping the poor is not just about money; it takes a good leader.
Last time Giz posted this it was meant to have 60 floors.
[gizmodo.com]
Someone that rich may have an entire city as extended family, and not all relatives are rich. So by having something like this built, he could be providing "social housing" in a way us westerners don't usually do...
@Ryan.Reed:
Agreed, this is absurd and though I hope if I were that rich I would be the kind of guy who spreads it around to make the world a little better. But the people who make comments like that about not helping his fellow man I'm sure are guilty of owning numerous unnecessary gadgets. With the money you spend on an iPod you could get medicine for an entire village in Africa. You could probably feed a family of 4 with just the food you throw away every year. The scale of this guys wastefulness makes it easier to judge, but almost every American is just as guilty if not more in their own means.
Also, that place is ugly as shit. Looks like something Trump would like.
We don't know what this guy does for charity, and its kind of a stretch to just assume he hoards all of his money. I'd bet that in addition to the hundreds that are building his taste free skyscraper, there are over a million people in his country that get weekly paychecks from companies he owns.
2 BILLION DOLLARS!!!! WTF!! Is the building made out of unicorn testicles and moon rocks?
What kind of insane shit is that? The freakin Petronas Towers only cost $1.6 Billion, The Burj Dubai is less that $1 billion. This guy is getting ripped off with only a 550ft "house"
I hope he gets reincarnated as an ass pimple on a homless person's left butt cheek.
What a waste... I'm not rich enough to understand why someone would spend so much money in a house.
Unless, of course, this guy is planning on living there with his 1000 girls harem...
Putting aside all moral reasons and what hes doing with his money. Does anybody else think that this building looks like crap?
Oh the huge mansionty!
@scoobydoo: "Last time Giz posted this it was meant to have 60 floors."
It would seem Ambani has decided to economize with only 22 floors. A common sense move by Mumbai standards.
@discomonkey: HA!
We should encourage these billionaires spending ridiculous amounts of money, thats a great way for them to give the money back. The 2 billion dollars goes to the designers, architects, contractors, craftsmen, laborers and govt taxes.
Hey its better they spend their vast sums of money on ridiculous purchases than hoarding it which freezes the economy.
@lilkeith7: Yeah, it looks like a gigantic game of Jenga.
Biggest house...smallest dick!
His looks scary.. it looked like its gonna fall any second now..
Yay Xanadu, yay!
What a tacky POS.
finally, the indians have something they can brag about outside of the taj.
reliance industries have pretty much defined the Indian economy for decades now.. Mukhesh Ambani and his bro Anil Ambani are amongst the most powerful people in India.. i dnt think its a huge issue if he likes to live it up.. they've done a whole lot for India, generated millions of jobs and give back quite a bit to the society...