Over two years ago we told you about the plans to build the world's first billion-dollar home. It is now complete.
Over two years ago we told you about the plans to build the world's first billion-dollar home. It is now complete.
India's richest man, and Forbes's fourth richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has built the world's most expensive house in Mumbai. It is estimated to be worth $1 billion.
The lavish building– named Antilia, after the mythical island– has 27 stories, is 173 meters high and has 37,000 square meters of floor space — more than the Palace of Versailles. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one swimming pool, a ballroom, guestrooms, a variety of lounges and a 50-seater cinema. There are three helicopter pads on the roof and a car park for 160 vehicles on the ground floors. It's obviously quite a job keeping all this running smoothly, so the house, if you can call it that, also boasts a staff of 600. And all this for just Ambani, his wife and their three children to enjoy. - Time
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mr. ambani doesn't fuck around! this familia will never say "we need more room." probably this is the only house the husband can call and say "honey i am coming home" from the bathroom.
What a cascade of lazy reporting... Time refers to a Guardian piece, which refers to a Forbes piece... and all throughout, the only thing we learn about the architect is that it's an American firm. Classic failure of marketing (AIA should write a letter). Can anybody on archinect shed light on who designed and built this thing?
Also, by the way, according to the Guardian it was built for 44M pounds, so it's hardly a billion-dollar building (that's just its valuation).
But let me also add THANK GOD that a rich person is choosing to build at this public scale. Bill Gates and his bashful billionaire brethren set the bar so low in recent years, IMHO.
Here is some more info on the building: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilia_%28building%29
It is designed by Chicago architects, Perkins & Will. The Melbourne-based construction company Leighton Holdings began constructing it[9] but it has been finished by another company. The construction is inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Do you think they like each other.., the family I mean? At least it's vertical, urban.
for Bombay: i hope this project creates some 'design awareness' within the Indian Developer Community & puts contemporary global architecture back in the spot light
Regarding Mr. Showman's comment... I suspect in this instance the P&W may not want to get much press, rather just take the check and move on... A 398,264 sf home isn't exactly good press for a firm that's gone so far to create a 2030 climate challenge estimation tool...
so... a budget of a billion dollars, a tower in an urban setting, a client relationship consisting of one guy -- no committees, no board, no answering to multiple simultaneous conflicting stakeholders -- and THIS is the outcome...? a five minute design concept, stack some program blocks, build the diagram, with some version of the folding-extruded-section schtick?
seriously!? setting aside the absurdity of the project as a whole -- a little more couldn't have been brought to the table? its scale as an intervention in urban fabric alone obligated more thought, even if ambani didn't give a shit.
god forbid this becomes some sort of flagbearer for contemporary architecture.
really, what you got in mind that would do the job better, subtect?
just curious.
not that i disagree about the general unbelievability of the project, but since you feel like flinging monkey poop, might i join in and suggest that anyone who says a building is an "intervention" is not exactly speaking from a creative core. That has got to be the most tired out and non-meaning-filled word that architects and students have ever come up with.
i hereby call for more creative poop-slinging on the forums!
...wonder how it looks at street level
;-)
I wonder how people here are being so acceptable of this monstrosity. I have seen this in person, and has NO relation to its context, either at street level or otherwise. With about half of the Mumbai population living in slums, this buffoon is setting a really bad example for indian architecture and social responsibility.
Speaking of social responsibility, this shit-mountain was built on the site of an orphanage, who were kicked out unwillingly. The matter went to court, and finally they built this, but shame on the client, and shame on Perkins and Will for even accepting a project like this.
agree with subtect and sameolddoctor. terrible design. very sad. how can anyone say this is good? well it may be because I am not American... I still don't understand Americans taste. (feel free to bombard me) btw, this could be a home for an entire manhattan neighborhood :)
hm... use of the word "intervention" as a measure of creativity. interesting. get burned during a crit with it? may be a bit banal and unfashionable, but saying a building is an "urban intervention" is no less meaningful than saying heart surgery is a "medical intervention" -- or do you scoff at that usage too...?
and yes. give me a commission for a billion dollar building, and I'll give you something better -- unless it's a house for a mega-multi-billionaire who's kicking orphans out into the street, in which case I'd offer a medical intervention instead.
F**K CONTEXT
this building could have been just another generic glass tower (like any of those hideous Trump Towers) for half the cost, instead: its a brave attempt that challenges conventional residential tower typology. it shows a client's commitment to try something new thats radically different and bold
Muy interesante el proyecto...pero espero que el dueño se ahogue en su piscina. Le debería dar vergüenza construir eso en una cuidad donde hay tanta pobreza.... "No se come adelante de los pobres"
http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/3252947/Bombay___Pobreza-Infernal.html
@ allSTAR,
While you are F**K'ing millions of Mumbai'ans who live without the basic amenities with your long "organ", maybe you can feel a little of "it" in your own a** hole as well!
@ morality degree zero
listen S**T HEAD, stop being the "moral police". how is this project, f**king millions of others? in this case, the two have nothing to do with one another! learn to live with the fact that Mumbai has always been a city of extremes. it is the Maximum City.
i'm sure Mumbaikars are proud of this project. and why shouldn't they be. why must any / everything that happens in Mumbai be related to the slums and poverty and blah blah blah? sick f**ks like you enjoy poverty-porn by constantly feeding on the negative aspects of society & relating any/everything in this city to its "slums"
read this article for a change (i'm sure you'll hate it because for a change it RIGHTLY portrays the positive aspects of Mumbai's slums)
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/slumdog-entrepreneurs/?scp=1&sq=mumbai%20entrepreneurs&st=Search
Idiots like you isolate and separate everything with one simple f**k, like you stated above. Morons like you compartmentalize these things so it doesn't interfere with your f**ck'd up thinking.
What so nice about growing up in slums and not knowing if there is way out of them, farthead. Apologists like yourself are the scumbags.
"morons" like me will continue to change the world around us... while anti-development, anti-growth, anti-change, anti-anything slumbit*hes like you can sit on the side lines and cry
are you two done yet? go to your rooms and no talking until you both calm down.
Go change your diapers!
And you subtect, shut up!
we're done subtect. you are wise (& sorry about the language!)
I'm looking forward to the day when it's converted into an apartment building or hotel.
He overpaid! I could duplicate it for under 100 mil....way under!
Nice discussion here ... well i also think that the context isn't always
the most impotant thing - BUT keep in mind that not only the site or buildings are part of urban context - also the people who live around here are part of it ... and it's tragic to show that someone is mega rich while others have nothing to eat ... and that's my reason to tell you that this tower is not placed well in this place. By building this tower they piss on the people around it ... and that's poor and sad
I don't think you can call it "brave" to put forth decade-old designs on a project with full creative control. Brave would have been telling the 4th richest man in the world that he should do some philanthropy with his $, not build a tower of Babel. The Gates run one of the largest philanthropies in the world. That's a construction I can get behind.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Other than a few cantilevers I'm seriously missing any plantings (or god-forbid, green ethos) that would be evocative of the supposed inspirations. The notorious hedonism and disrespect for the people who put the ruling Babylonians in power, however. They nailed that one.
You sheep who flock to praise every big-budget project disgust me. You validate the stereotype that many architects are unoriginal drooling blowhards. The rare ones who think for themselves become something. Give it a shot.
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