The Billion Dollar Mansion where No One Sleeps

photograph: Jhariani, Wikipedia

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Back in 2010, we wrote about how architects Perkins+Will and interior design firm Hirsch Bender Associates had become extremely shy when it came to talking about their new billion dollar, 550-foot-high mansion, named Antilla, they had just finished in Mumbai for the Ambani family.  168 parking spaces. Three helipads.  400,000 square feet.  A billion dollars.  You can appreciate their dilemma.

photograph: Shashi Bellamkonda, Wikipedia

From a PR standpoint, it was a no-win scenario, but as a challenge - and a commission - how could you pass it up?  Still, the situation couldn't be more delicate.  Or could it?

The Engineering News-Record is reporting that at the billion-dollar-mansion, it's Nessun Dorma, each night, every night. 

According to the principles of Vastu Shastra, a home's eastern side should have enough windows or other openings to let residents receive sufficient morning light. The Ambani home fails on that and other counts, reportedly leading the family to believe that moving in will bring them bad luck and misfortune.

And so, while in sunlight hours you will find Ambani's galore populating Antilla, the "21st-century Taj Mahal", at end of day, as sleep beckons, all the Ambani's slip away.  That's the story.  A family spokesperson demurs.

According to the just-published Forbes list of the world's richest people, Mukesh Ambani is now, at $22 billion, the 19th wealthiest person on the planet.  Just two years ago, in 2010, at $29 million, he was fourth.  He remains the richest man in India, where the per capita annual income is $1219.  In India, the Gini coefficient, where a larger number indicates greater income inequality, was 36.8 in 2004.  In the United States, in 2007, it was 45.0.

It's said that, as recently as the 1970's, the Ambani lived in a two-bedroom apartment.

Ambani about to move on up to his $1 billion Mumbai mansion. Perkins+Will would really rather talk about something else.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is taking his wife and three kids and moving on up to his comfy new house. One that's 27 stories high. Really BIG stories - the thing soars more than 550 feet into the Mumbai skyline. Great views of the city and Arabian sea.  400,000 square feet in all. Did I mention it's the world's first billion dollar residence?

Three helipads, a health club and gym, a 50-foot movie theater, nine elevators, parking for 160 imported cars. A four-story cantilevered garden; a ballroom where crystal chandeliers take up 80% of the ceiling.  A nursery for unicorns. And a staff of 600 to keep it all going. The opening is getting a lot of press, worldwide, but what you don't see much of is the happy architects - in this case Perkins+Will - beaming in the reflection of their bold new baby. The spectacular project seems to be missing in action on Perkins+Will website, although there is a page on the New Mumbai headquarters the firm has designed for Ambani's Reliance Group.

78% of readers responding to a New York Daily News poll claim to "outraged" at this "obscene, offensive display of wealth." 18% say, "Good for him." Larry Ellison wrote in,  "Why didn't I think of this? (Call me, Ralph Johnson.)"

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