World's Most Expensive - Billion Dollar Home

World's most expensive and World's first billion dollar residential home has been built by India's business tycoon Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, who is the richest man in the Country and the fourth-richest man in the world.

The newly built 27-story, 174 metres (~570 feet) high skyscraper home, known as Antilia is located on a 4,532 square metres (48,780 sq ft) prime land at Altamount Road in South Mumbai.

The house has a  whopping 4,000,000 sq. feet (370,000 sq. metres) of  interior space and has been designed by architecture firm of Perkins and Will. Interior designing has been done by Hirsch Bedner Associates.

Built like an ultra-luxurious hotel, however it differs from traditional hotel designs as none of its floors are identical. Each floor has different look with different set of decor, furnishings, lighting, windows, doors etc.

The house includes;

• 6 Floors for parking for 165 cars.
• 7 Floors for residential accommodation for 600 domestic help, security and maintenance staff.
• 1 Floor for Ballroom and 50 seat movie theatre. Crystal glass chandeliers occupy almost 80% of ballroom roof space. Dual stairways with silver railings lead from the lobby floor down to the ballroom, whose height is twice that of normal floors. It has a regular stage for live drama/musical shows. An attached kitchen can cater to several hundred. Ambani's art collection is hidden behind two retractable doors which when opened displays the works of art.
• 3 Floors for Health/Fitness. It also includes an Olympic size swimming pool.
• 2 Floors for family guests.
• 4 Floors living space for the family of 5 (6 if his mother also moves in with him).
• 3 Floors of Terraced/Hanging Gardens.
• 9 lifts - 2 for parking areas,  3 for guest quarters, 2 for the residential area and 2 for service.
• The lobby connects to ballroom, several lounges, reception areas and powder rooms.
• The top floor is a lounge-cum-relaxing room with a  height twice that of normal floor. It is provided with full height glass windows and gives a panoramic view of the Arabian sea.
• The roof has helipad and Air Traffic Control room.
• Major portion of the outside walls especially the garage floors have been provided vertical green garden. Reportedly once complete it will be the biggest vertical garden in the World.

The family is yet to move into their newly built home. It is reported that house warming will be sometimes towards end October or early November 2010.

Image from Flickr is by Curbed SF

Image copied from Wikepedia is by Jhariani

Some more images including those of its interior: Forbes Slideshow

View location in Google Earth / Google Maps

Source of info and more info: Wikipedia / forbes.com / dailymail.co.uk