apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

barfzone. this makes me appreciate my little box as well.

Yes, it is beautiful and if it were sitting in the middle of Dubai or Shanghai or even NYC no one could bat an eye (though they should). But it's not.

This building is sitting hard along side one of the largest slums in the world. The government doesn't like that word so it calls the settlements hutments (which does give the residents some "ownership" rights they otherwise would not have -- not that having rights to a 50 sq ft room for a family of five is all that it is cracked up to be) but this is where the poorest Mumbiers live, including many of the 600 plus staff that help the Amani's run their home (if you can call this affronting edifice a home).

No matter that it is green, living green in smog and people choked Mumbai makes it hardly worthwhile to have a terrace, much less as many as are shown in this rendering.

If you thought the age of the Robber Barons was bad in terms of the discrepancy between the rich and poor, it was as absolutely nothing compared to the lives of the super-wealthy in India compared to most everyone else.

I don't know if this belongs on "Apartment" Therapy

Ridiculous! I wonder exactly how green a house like that actually is, a living wall, great but how much concrete went into it and how much energy is used cooling a home that size, how many bottles of cleaning chemicals are used to clean it?

I wonder what he's compensating for?

those indians sure seem to be on a different page from the rest of the world.

There appears to be a core family of 5, plus I am sure extended family but a staff of 600! It is all obscene in my opinion.

how sad :(

I am not sure how I feel about this because even though a staff of 600 is excessive, he is providing jobs for 600 people that desperately need them. If the Ambani family donates generously to charity, I don't see why they can't enjoy some of their wealth for themselves.

Either way, it's still very impractical because a "house" of this size would require a lot of money each year in upkeep and that money is better spent on investments and developments. But maybe rich people don't need to be practical...

barfzone is right.

Obscene. Though, it's not really a house as much as it is a corporate showpiece, if I remember the article correctly.

I'll be in Mumbai in September. Wonder if I can get a tour?

I can't help but wonder why these people chose to make their "home" green. Surely they have no guilt or they wouldn't build the monstrosity itself. Do they honestly believe they are contributing something positive to the world?

simply obnoxious.

Wow, just think of what 2 billion dollars could of done for the people of Mumbai instead of this ghastly modern day Taj Mahal wana be.

I'm sorry, but this is just ridiculous. I'd much rather live in my little townhome than that HUGE home. Too impersonal and un-intimate. I'll pass! : )
Mina
www.bohemianvintageonline.com

well that happens when you have a LOT of money and don't know what to do with it... at least is giving 600 people a job and home...

this is ridiculous! it's not a green building because it took so much material and energy to build. also it will take just as much to maintain it. this is totally nouveau rich! they could have donated money to help the poor people that surround this hideous excuse of a home.

money falls into the wrong hands.

I saw this a few days back on a web site. It really disgusts me. What a waste, no matter what "eco" planning they did to cool down the building. Apparently, they don't believe they need to do any "good" karma from the fortunate position they are in to have made real differences in their own backyard.

why??

Good for him. I'm happy for him and the Mrs.
I would rather just buy a nice FLW house but not everyone has the same taste so...

Not for all the money in India. Oh, wait.....

I don't think the re-sell value and market will be very good. It also has bad feng shui.

and not very theraputic

Yeah, I wonder if he's paying that staff of 600 a decent wage. Just another example of the greedy. All that money has to come from somewhere. Those who have too much take from those who don't have enough.

Do we have to do the same house again?

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/blogging/bloggingthe-ambanis-billion-dollar-home-via-forbes-050242

This building represents a quest for happiness that will never be realized. Like sissaphus said, 'sad'.

"Beautiful??"

Gross!

it's stupid.

It would be worth it if it turned into an Autobot and protected the continent and its people from Decepticons but I have a feeling it may not...

I think this is about the 3rd time I've seen a post about this house on Apartment Therapy. Please!

I thought it was the third time too, but couldn't find the second one.

Oh heavens.

If the family really wanted to "be green", they should live sensibly and use their money to start a company which would provide most of those 600 people (and maybe some others needing work) a much better job than being caretaker for some portion of a rich man's personal palace.

I wonder what people would have blogged when the Taj Mahal was being built at a time when everyone else lived in 50 sg ft tents.

Do you think he'll invite the starving children in 3rd world countries to come over for dinner one day?

I've never been one to deny affluent folks their right to enjoy their wealth, but come on!

I would be seriously uncomfortable living in a billion dollar office building surrounded by slums.

I agree with all the comments suggesting how ridiculous and obnoxious this is.. but since im not taking sides I have to at least mention that just because he has such a home does not mean he does not contribute to the poor/charity.

Suffice to say, to me, this is definitely the perfect example of not knowing who you are vs having everything.

You mean like the starving children on their doorstep?

According to one member of India's hyperwealthy class, the problems of the poor are just so overwhelming that they prefer to focus on things they "can do something about" like art and gardening.

But that's shameful thinking. A billion dollars would fix the sewage system in that slum and protect everyone, including the rich, from diseases such as cholera.

I wonder how often the familly sees eachother.....


"i'll see you on floor 19th in september"

I wonder how often the familly sees eachother?

"i'll see you on floor 19 in September"



lol Seaside..."robots in disguise" *queue electronic sounds*

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

All kinds of interesting facts and legends:
"In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and rubble as the footings of the tomb. Instead of lashed bamboo, workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the tomb. The scaffold was so enormous that foremen estimated it would take years to dismantle. According to the legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could keep the bricks taken from the scaffold, and thus it was dismantled by peasants overnight"

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Compare and contrast with the proposed California State Budget for 2008-2009:
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/agencies.html

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There is the matter of degrees...

It's VERY easy to point at this home and to see the "waste"...

To see money that has been used for what we might consider to be ridiculous amounts of luxury. Used for unnecessary items, objects. An ostentatious display of wealth.

However, there is a continuum of wealth...

At one end are the very poor with few resources. Did you know this:
"one of the leading causes of death among the developing world's children, responsible for approximately two million deaths each year. Even more shocking, diarrhea contributes to the death of four to six million people of all ages every year around the globe."
Source:
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=4270

Read more:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070904091811.htm
http://rehydrate.org/

And at the other end, are these folks, I guess. Building giant homes. Not ALL wealthy people do this kind of thing:
"On the one hand, Kamprad has a reputation for being, well, "cheap". He takes the subway to work, and when he drives, it's an old Volvo. Rumor is that when he stays in a hotel, if he feels the urge to drink one of those expensive sodas from the wetbar, he replaces it later with one picked up from a nearby convenience store. Yet IKEA has a long tradition of community outreach and philanthropy, with each store encouraged to support local causes, plus international sponsorship of UNICEF and others."
Source:
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/cs/famousentrepreneur/p/ingvarkamprad.htm

So, we have the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich.

But what about all the people in between? Just because we have less money than billionaires, it does not relieve us of a duty to humanity, or to the planet.

And realize that many of the items shown on this site would easily been seen as "ostentatious displays of wealth" to a whole lot of other people.

What do you think a $9,000 chair represents to someone without clean water?
http://www.dwr.com/product/classics/eames-la-chaise.do

Design doesn't mean squat when you have nothing to drink, nothing to eat, nowhere to live.

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What can money buy? What does it cost for things elsewhere? I found this reference, talking about One Laptop per Child:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_Per_Child

Reading through, I found examples of what money can buy elsewhere:
"John Wood, founder of Room to Read, emphasizes affordability and scalability over high-tech solutions. While in favor of the One Laptop per Child initiative for providing education to children in the developing world at a cheaper rate, he has pointed out that a $2,000 library can serve 400 children, costing just $5 a child to bring access to a wide range of books in the local languages (such as Khmer or Nepali) and English; also, a $10,000 school can serve 400–500 children ($20–$25 a child). According to Wood, these are more appropriate solutions for education in the dense forests of Vietnam or rural Cambodia.[71]"

So instead of a chair that probably isn't sat upon and is viewed at art, how about a school for 400 children?

There's something everyone can do to make it a little easier for someone or something. I didn't have much money and only had the disability as income, but I still managed to tend animals that had been abandoned. They got their shots and were spayed/neutered and are fed and watered daily.

In the past, I have gone without food so that they would have food. *I* knew when the disability would be deposited, but there was no way of explaining to them that there would be no food. So I went without.

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Folks don't have to go without for the most part, to make a difference. You don't really have to buy a whole school or save 50 animals or install a sewer system.

Just find a cause that you believe in and follow through.

Perspective: That La Chaise chair costs as much as what I receive yearly for disability payments from Social Security.

This is so excessive, its ugly!