Extravagant is a word that comes to mind when you think about this residence. Not everyone has three helipads, six floors of parking and numerous floating gardens as features built into a home they don’t even live in. Approximately valued at $1 billion, and considered one of the most expensive private residences in the world, what’s wrong with it?

Mukesh Ambani has a net worth which Forbes says hovers at $27 billion. He is also more than likely India’s richest individual.

His new house in Mumbai was completed last year, but all he seems to do there is have the odd party. He also enjoys hosting movie screenings and dinners in a majestic ballroom.

Commissioned as family home, Antilla (as it’s known) may not have been built to the ancient Indian architectural doctrine known as Vastu Shastra – similar to Feng Shui – and this could be why he doesn’t want to live there.

Sources say he chooses rather to live with his wife, children and other extended family at the less lavish Sea Wind, a 14-storey apartment tower in the city.

Friends claim he’ll host a party and then shuffle across town to Sea Wind and stay there instead.

Hello, everybody…

Ambani is however now coming under increasing criticism from the Indian public for not occupying the excessive residence.

The media condemned him last year too, because many Indians, especially in Mumbai, survive on virtually nothing. Some say this may have hurt his feelings and pushed him even further from his dream home.

The New York Times is sticking with the Vastu Shastra theory, though:

Vastu, a philosophy particularly significant in Hindu temple architecture, emphasises the importance of directional alignments that create spiritual harmony. Many Hindus believe that living in a building not built according to vastu principles brings bad luck.

Basannt R. Rasiwasia, a Vastu expert whose clients include prominent businessmen and their families — although not Mr. Ambani — said Antilla appeared to run afoul of one of the key principles of Vastu: the building’s eastern side does not have enough windows or other openings to let residents receive ample morning light.

Rasiwasia said: “From the outside what I see is that the eastern side is blocked while the western side is more open. This always leads to misunderstanding between team members or sometime may create issues. This also indicates more hard work to achieve moderate success. There is more negative energy coming from the western side.”

Architects, Perkins & Will, and interior designers, Hirsch Bedner Associates, have also declined to comment because of confidentiality agreements.

Opulence is grand…

Either way, it seems to be lacking one essential element for any happy home: permanent residents.

Shame.

[Source: NYTimes]