Sify.com
Mumbai, May 3: The 27-storey skyscraper being built in Mumbai by Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India, could be the world's largest and costliest home with a price-tag nearing $2 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
"When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 4,00,000 square feet of interior space," Forbes said in a report on its website.
Earlier in March, Mukesh Ambani was ranked as the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $43 billion by the Forbes magazine in its annual list of world's wealthiest billionaires. While Lakshmi Mittal, who is an Indian citizen was ranked higher at fourth, he is a British resident. Among resident Indians, Mukesh was ranked at top.
"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," Forbes said in its report titled, "Inside the world's first billion-dollar home."
Mukesh Ambani heads India's most valuable firm Reliance Industries, an oil and petrochemicals giant.
"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," the report said.
"Plans were then drawn up for what will be the world's largest and most expensive home: a 27-storey skyscraper in downtown Mumbai with a cost nearing $2 billion."
According to Forbes, Mukesh, along with his wife Nita Ambani and three children, currently live in a 22-storey Mumbai tower.
The report further noted that the cost for the Ambani residence, called Antilla whose shape is based on vaastu, would be more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings.
While a hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor, and uses the same materials throughout the building, the Ambanis' home has no two alike in either plans or materials used, it said.
"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," it said.
"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 per cent of its ceiling covered in crystal chandeliers."
The report said that Ambanis plan to use the residence occasionally for corporate entertainment also and they want its interiors to have a "distinctly Indian" look and feel.
"The top floors of entertaining space, where Ambani plans to host business guests (or just relax) offer panoramic views of the Arabian Sea... For more temperate days, the family will enjoy a four-story open garden," it noted.