billion dollar house

[zed]

Just when you thought youre seen it all

I read this last week in the paper but finally got around to googling some pictures
http://worldcoolestblog.com/billion-dollar-home.html
A billions dollars (I think the 2nd dearest is about 150$million thus huge difference)

Anyways now I have a question WTF is it so ugly
surely for a billion dollars you would be able to have something decent built just for you + your 600 servants (what do they all do?) instead of something that looks like it was thrown together with lego

 

[Grall]

I read this last week in the paper but finally got around to googling some pictures

I first saw about this (at least then at the time) proposed house quite a while ago, so it's not that new.

A billions dollars (I think the 2nd dearest is about 150$million thus huge difference)

High-rise buildings are more expensive due to the methods of construction needed and the materials, and of course, sufficient real-estate downtown in a metropolitan city doesn't exactly come for free either...

Anyways now I have a question WTF is it so ugly

It's ugly to piss people off on purpose. It's to tell everybody else, "yes we know you're angry and you know what? We don't give a shit." It's a blatant display of extravagant bad taste.

+ your 600 servants (what do they all do?)

They exist solely to reinforce their owner's ego, of course. "See so many thralls I can afford to buy, see how filthy rich I am."

 

[Sxotty]

I definitely agree it is ugly, too bad.

 

[Npl]

well, he has money for 50 more houses to get it right.

Probably hes waiting for angry responses and will build the second one right next to zed

 

[homerdog]

He'll just buy New Zealand and declare it his vacation home

 

[Simon F]

Anyone here remember (the original) Thunderbirds? Need I say more?

 

[hoom]

I actually think it looks pretty cool.
Kinda like the worlds biggest stack of books though

I always imagined a proper implementation of Le Corbusiers' Rio Plan as being something like this in detail

(fortunately wasn't built because it'd have turned out like this instead)

Can't understand how this could possibly be worth a billion dollars though.
Apparently the land cost in the rich bits of Mumbai is pretty extreme & it may be including the contents of the house.

 

[Grall]

Can't understand how this could possibly be worth a billion dollars though.
Apparently the land cost in the rich bits of Mumbai is pretty extreme & it may be including the contents of the house.

Cost undoubtedly includes ridiculously expensive fittings. As a comparison, the Burj Dubai (which changed name when opening and I can't remember the new one), the world's tallest structure EVER built by humans, cost about $1.5b, and it completely dwarfs this pitiful little thing...

 

[aaronspink]

Cost undoubtedly includes ridiculously expensive fittings. As a comparison, the Burj Dubai (which changed name when opening and I can't remember the new one), the world's tallest structure EVER built by humans, cost about $1.5b, and it completely dwarfs this pitiful little thing...

Yes, it undoubtedly includes fittings but I think the Burj cost is WAY WAY under-reported. The more reasonable report I've seen is $4.1B unfitted. I've talked to people that have worked on similar projects and they think ~6 fully fitted and finished. To give you some idea on the real costs, the Lake/Fountain portion is in excess of $250M. Just the facilities equipment and engineering (AKA AC/Power) is likely in the $500M range.

 

[Grall]

I agree 1.5 sounds quite low really considering the EPIC proportions of the structure, but even $4.1B doesn't really sound that bad for a *160 floor* skyscraper doesn't sound totally outrageous.

Of course, when you have essentially slave labor building the fucking thing, it won't cost quite as many arms and legs as it would if situated in a western country, heh.

I am flippant here I know, but I probably shouldn't be. From what I understand quite a few people perished during construction, likely far, far more than would have been the case if built here in the west. That's not fun and games, that's deadly serious stuff.

While lives lost in a groundbreaking endeavour isn't anything new, or even catastrophic as long as something worthwile comes out of it (like the Apollo capsule fire back in the mid-60s), but to lose lives just because someone wanted to save a buck... Atrocious.

However, perhaps in 50 years, the Burj will be as iconic a building as the Empire State building in NY, and then perhaps the loss in lives were worth it.

 

[zed]

Perhaps many here are unaware of the commonwealth games that occured this month in India

The 10 meter high diving board was actually something like 10.5 meters!
the weighing machine for boxing was 2+ kgs out!
a bridge collapsed
etc

Whilst Im sure this building is structly sound I dont know If I'ld want to be sleeping up in the penthouse

 

[aaronspink]

Perhaps many here are unaware of the commonwealth games that occured this month in India

The 10 meter high diving board was actually something like 10.5 meters!
the weighing machine for boxing was 2+ kgs out!
a bridge collapsed
etc

Whilst Im sure this building is structly sound I dont know If I'ld want to be sleeping up in the penthouse

All depends on who the contractor is. The CWG obviously was a government contract in India which if you'd ever spent time in india....

So I used to go to Bangalore a lot for work, just down the road from the office they were building a bypass. A simple bypass, over a creek (aka sewer) and over a nominally 4 lane divided road. In ~4+ years it wasn't finished. The first contractor got the money form the government and ran. The second got some work done but then spent a year+ trying to squeeze more money out of the government. Then it sat untouched for a year while they tried to sew the second contractor, and then finally they hired a third contractor who actually started to get stuff done. So yeah, government contract in India are interesting.

OTOH, all the high tech high rises and 5/6 star hotels go up in record time, are built to withstand bombings and have fully redundant power and communication systems.

 

[dizietsma]

It's sort of like the Taj Mahal for chavs / rednecks.

 

[nightshade]

Perhaps many here are unaware of the commonwealth games that occured this month in India

The 10 meter high diving board was actually something like 10.5 meters!
the weighing machine for boxing was 2+ kgs out!
a bridge collapsed
etc

Whilst Im sure this building is structly sound I dont know If I'ld want to be sleeping up in the penthouse

The bridge that collapsed got the most of the headlines but people have to realize that things like that can happen anywhere, its just that this one happened to occur in an area near the games venue. The media obviously likes to make mountains out of molehills. Anyways the army reconstructed that thing in 5 days

 

[Grall]

Yeah, a bridge spontaneously collapsing is obviously just a molehill blown out of proportions by media.

And I'm sure a bridge built in 5 days by non-professionals will last at least as long as the previous bridge it replaced...

 

[nightshade]

And I'm sure a bridge built in 5 days by non-professionals will last at least as long as the previous bridge it replaced...

One would assume that the Indian army & its corps of engineers would be comprised of professionals. :/

 

[Grall]

They do nothing except build stuff all day long?

I'd rather have a proper construction company putting up major pieces of infrastructure around where I live, thankyou...

If you need to ford a river during a military campaign, sure. Bring in the army corps of engineers. But permanent structures have more stringent requirements than that.

 

[hoom]

Burj Dubai (which changed name when opening and I can't remember the new one)

Burj Khalifah after the Emir of neighbouring Abu-Dhabi who bailed out the Dubai government in the middle of the GFC.
Naming rights on the building is part of the price.

The bridge that collapsed got the most of the headlines but people have to realize that things like that can happen anywhere

Happened in Israel a few years back & that one killed some actual competitors too.

Of course, when you have essentially slave labor building the fucking thing, it won't cost quite as many arms and legs as it would if situated in a western country, heh.

I am flippant here I know, but I probably shouldn't be. From what I understand quite a few people perished during construction, likely far, far more than would have been the case if built here in the west.

True that the labour cost is vastly lower because of terrible working/living conditions but way fewer people died making it than you might expect.

At least according to the official deaths/injurys board near the end of construction (I believe thats lost hours due to injury)

From this epic thread cataloguing the construction http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=106899
Photographer Imre Solt has done an excellent job of both documenting the construction & the working conditions in my opinion.

 

[Grall]

I myself wouldn't trust that official board any further than I could throw it.

According to the wikipedia article, the building consortium refuses to release any actual figures, and Dubai doesn't track work-related accidents in official statistics. Besides, the largely asian immigrant workforce was treated very badly in other regards as well (they rioted because of it), so I really doubt the safety record was all that perfect either...

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ya I'm quite certain that sign is bullshit. That many people working for that long, you're going to have more injuries than that, from just walking around, let alone constructing a skyscraper.