For US$1BILLION, I'd want something a little better looking than this…

Did an architect actually design this collection of boxes??

Worlds most expensive ‘house’…

Kind of rather nicely illustrates everything that’s wrong with our capitalist world though…

27 stories for 4 people… 600 staff required to manage it, £98k monthly electricity bill… **** me, what a joke… where’s my RPG?

I don’t remember Jenga being that big.

It looks like the local travellers built it, about to keel over

I think he took his inspiration from this…..

It looks like a shanty town mansion. Money can’t buy taste.

Bruneep, I quite like that! Kind of the sort of thing I’d like to build for myself one day (with a little more style and panache hopefully).

I quite like that!

Surely the ideal place to store your equally unusual bike collection…?

Intriguing how (from this angle) the very top section looks like a simple log cabin with a porch – be a long way to fall if yer rocking chair went out of control.

Great view though.

Looks like this

That is truly hideous.

Spare bits left over from the embarrassment that is the scottish parliament?

27 stories for 4 people… 600 staff required to manage it, £98k monthly electricity bill…

Whilst not half a mile away, there are probbly people living on the streets, having to beg to survive…

His lack of a conscience even outdoes his lack of taste….

Spare bits left over from the embarrassment that is the scottish parliament?

Oh come on, fair’s fair; it’s not that badly designed….

That’s a mess. Looks like a blind kid gone mental in a box of grey lego.

Whilst not half a mile away

Not even half a mile away Elfin, it overlooks the bloody slums:

The skyscraper in Mumbai (Bombay), which overlooks sprawling slums, is said to have a cinema, swimming pools and a helicopter pad, and is named “Antilia” after a mythical Atlantic island.

Still, I bet it’s argued by some that he’s providing employment etc, good guy obviously…

for that kind of money I’d want something like this

ready made trails in the back garden too

Looks like an under-occupied office block in Cumbernauld.

He probably owns one of those as well John…

Oh dear. A friend of mine went to Cumbernauld once.

He still can’t talk about it… 🙁

Rubbish.

If I had a billion to spunk on a house with 600 staff I’d be sure to watch the James Bond box set first.

and a film set:

Harewood House, Harewood, North Leeds. The Earl of Harewood lives there. Cousin to HM The Queen.
House built on the proceeds of slavery in the 17th-18th centuries, before the American War of Independance
Home to possibly the biggest colony of Red Kites in Yorkshire, and some nice MTB trails too

Such idiocy.

If I had that kind of cash, I’d build a simple cabin in the woods (albeit with tinternet, library and bike workshop) and I’d spend the $1 billion on the retrobike classifieds section.

27 stories for 4 people… 600 staff required to manage it, £98k monthly electricity bill…

“Whilst not half a mile away, there are probbly people living on the streets, having to beg to survive…

His lack of a conscience even outdoes his lack of taste….”

Well he is employing 600 people to look after his house, plus another unspecified number in the power station which provides his monthly electricity needs…….what more do you want him to do ?

And anyway, how many jobs do you provide people Elfinman ?

Seven hundred and twenty four just to do my laundry.

So shut up.

“what more do you want him to do ?”

I want him not to be so selfish and extravagant and perhaps give £500,000,000 to charity or something, cos nobody on earth needs a £1billion house. especially a billion pound house designed by a blind kid with a box of grey lego.

If I had a billion $ to loose on a house I too would base it on The stripey square liqourice allsorts, resting on toothpicks, sprayed battleship grey.

……perhaps give £500,000,000 to charity or something,

Well everyone knows that charity begins at home……….it’s just that in this case, it happens to be Mukesh Ambani’s $1bllion home.

And, he’s given a blind kid with only a box of grey Lego a job.

I reckon this geezer’s sound.

Yeah well you would, bloody Coast of Norway.

For $1bn I’d live here:

It’s claimed to be worth $1 billion but it’s estimated to have cost a mere £44millon to build…bargain! 😉

i love the architecture threads for outing the conservatism of the stw’ers. if it’s not neo classicism then it’s obviously not right.

a singletracker contemplates……………….

as for the rights or wrongs of building the thing, i can’t say that it’s anymore innapropriate than the country house pictured above or any other of the grandiose stately homes in this country, built on the back of slavery, imperial dominance or feudal landlordship.

built on the back of slavery, imperial dominance or feudal landlordship.

Are you saying India is two or three centuries behind us ?

RACIST !

i love the architecture threads for outing the conservatism of the stw’ers. if it’s not neo classicism then it’s obviously not right.

It’s got nowt to do with architectural ‘conservatism’. That building is singularly horrible. Truly nasty. It has no redeeming features whatsoever.

That it looks down over some of the poorest people on Earth is a separate crime.

India would like to present itself as thriving and prosperous, but the reality is, that much of the population exist in incredible poverty, and have little or no access to clean water, basic healthcare and adequate housing. I think it’s abhorent enough that here in Britain, some flaunt their wealth while others struggle to get by, but in India, that disparity is on a level probbly not seen anywhere else on Earth.

Personally, I find it incredible that one person could chose to ignore abject poveryty all around them, and build such a vulgar and ostentatious folly, but maybe I underestimate the greed and selfishness of some others…

Interesting point re stately homes;

as for the rights or wrongs of building the thing, i can’t say that it’s anymore innapropriate than the country house pictured above or any other of the grandiose stately homes in this country, built on the back of slavery, imperial dominance or feudal landlordship.

I agree.

Thing is, here in the West, the very wealthy tend to hide away in more modest dwellings these days, as it’s considered ‘vulgar’ to flaunt yer wealth in such a way. In India, it’s positively encouraged. The Hindu Caste system which prevails serves to divide people even more. And when people like Mukesh Ambani are allowed to exploit a cheap labour market with little regulation or obligations, then stuff like this will continue and we’ll see a lot more temples of Mamon…

Ms De said the 174m (570ft) building was the “Taj Mahal of the 21st Century”.

She described “what has got to be the biggest, glitziest ballroom in India – the Palace of Versailles is a poor cousin”…..
She said the house was built to the personal taste of Mr Ambani, and that people should not “grudge him his indulgencies”.

“He generates a great amount of employment for those very poor and contributes to the economy,”
politics of envy galore on here

it is very ugly from the outside and 5 people live there