World's Most Expensive Home - with a little Dallas connection

The world’s largest and most expensive home (valued at about $2billion) will be completed in January 2009. And it isn't even in Texas.

The 27-story skyscraper in Mumbai, India, will be the residence of Mukesh and Nita Ambani. Mr. Ambani is the head of petrochemical company Reliance Industries and is the fifth richest man in the world. The couple have three children and currently reside in a 22-story tower that the family spent years remodeling to suit them. The custom designing of the property is being handled with architecture firms Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Assoc., based in Dallas and Los Angeles.

Called Antilla, the Ambani home will be 550 feet high, have 400,000 square feet of interior space, nine elevators, a ballroom and a section for security guards and assistants. There will also be an ice room with man-made snow flurries where residents and guests can escape the Mumbai heat. (I guess global warming isn't an issue for these folks.)

The residence will cost more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings and will have taken 4 years to complete. Antilla's shape is based on the concept of Vaastu, an Indian tradition similar to Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through a building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects.