Ambani House

Antilia is the name of a twenty-seven floor personal home in South Mumbai belonging to businessman Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire Chairman of Reliance Industries.There will be 600 full-time staff to maintain the residence, which was reported in the Indian Media to be the most expensive home in the world. It has been described as the "Taj Mahal of 21st century India"The home will house Ambani, wife Nita, their three children and Ambani's mother.

Name and Location

Antilia is named after the mythical island in the Atlantic, Antillia.
The Antilia building is situated on a 4,532 square metres (48,780 sq ft) plot at Altamont Road, Cumballa Hill, South Mumbai, where land prices are upward of US$10,000 per square metre.
In August 2008, was the 10th most expensive street in the world at US$25,000/sq m (US$2,336 per sq foot)

 Specifications

The structure was designed by U.S. architects using principles of Vaastu Shastra to maximize "positive energy". No two floor plans are alike, and the materials used in each level vary widely.
The home will include:

• 400,000 square feet (37,000 m²) of living space.
• parking space for 168 cars.
• a one-floor vehicle maintenance facility.
• nine elevators in the lobby.
• three helipads and an air traffic control facility.
• health spa, yoga studio, small theatre with a seating capacity for 50 on the eighth floor,there is a swimming pool, three floors of hanging gardens, and a ballroom.
• an ice room infused with man-made snow flurries.

Construction

Antilia was designed by Chicago based architects, Perkins & Will. The Melbourne-based construction company Leighton Holdings began constructing it. The home was also designed to survive an 8-richter scale earthquake.

 Controversies

Various construction controversies have been connected to the home.
In 2002, Mukesh purchased the property.In 2007 the government said the structure is illegal because the land's owner, the Waqf Board, had no right to sell it. Mukesh then obtained a No Objection Certificate from the Waqf Board for Rs 1.6 million (U$36,100) and began construction. In June 2011, the Union government asked the Maharashtra government to consider referring the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In regards to the three helipads, the Indian Navy said it will not allow the construction of helipads on Mumbai buildings, while the Environment Ministry said the helipads violate local noise laws.

Cost and valuation

Indian media frequently reported that Antilia is the world's most expensive home costing between 1 and 2 billion US$.
Thomas Johnson, director of marketing at architecture firm Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates that was consulted with by Reliance during building floor plan design, was cited by Forbes Magazine as estimating the cost of the residence at nearly $2 billion.
In June 2008, a Reliance spokesman told the New York Times that it will cost $50–$70 million to build.
Upon completion in 2010, media reports again speculated that, due to increasing land prices in the area, the tower may now be worth as much as US$1 billion.

Public reception

Antilia as seen from Haji Ali, Mumbai

Antilia, Mumbai

“	It's a stupendous show of wealth, it's kind of positioning business tycoons as the new maharajah of India.	”
	— Hamish McDonald, author of Ambani & Sons: A History of the Business

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has described Antilia as an example of rich Indians' lack of empathy for the poor. Tata also said: "The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and [asking] can he make a difference. If he is not, then it's sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have."
Some Indians are proud of the "ostentatious house," while others see it as "shameful in a nation where many children go hungry." Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, opined that "such wealth can be inconceivable" not only in Mumbai, "home to some of Asia's worst slums," but also in a nation with 42 percent of the world's underweight children younger than five.Recently Ratan Tata said that "It's sad Mukesh Ambani lives in such opulence".