Over the years I have worked my way up in the architectural world to be in a place I am now very happy with. My speciality is the interior luxuries such as home entertainement systems with projectors, plasma/LCD TV screens and home cinema systems. The company I now work for are architects to the wealthiest property developers in the world so expectations are high.



After ten years with the company, I have now been allowed to participate in the latest project of theirs. A meeting is held in the developers office opposite Harrods. Walking into the reception area is an experience in itself. Met by two receptionists and a whole bank of plasma screens is quite a greeting and it makes you feel rich just standing here.

For my part, I am here to discover the needs for home entertainment systems required in the new residential apartments in Hyde Park. Obviously, the company know about this as they have a 100 inch plasma screen installed on their own yacht. With a reputation for knowing 20% of the worlds wealthiest people, a standard has already been set and with this company owning 20 acres London, incorporating the finest design in residential living, the pressure is definetly on!

After thrashing out all the main requirements and paperwork, we move onto The Ivy where a table has already been booked for lunch. This is where we discuss the minutiae of The Garden Apartment. Sold for a mere 50 million pounds money is no object. However, the owners have made their money by not wasting it so have requested the very best in home cinema systems at a price that suits them.

The developers are very protective of their clients and all we are allowed to know is that the new Garden Apartment owners are from a very wealthy Russian family. Their daughter is an up and coming young tennis player and this has to be taken into consideration when planning the interior and exterior of the home. For their protection, a panic room has been built into their apartment and an eye recognition entry system is installed.

Back at the office a week later, having given this project a lot of thought, I have come up with the following plan to submit to the developers for approval from the client.

An area of the apartment is given over to the tennis coach who is residing with the family and here an interactive white board is to be installed for the planning and teaching of the young tennis player. Outside, we are going to install an outdoors virtual tennis court for a Nintendo Wii so even when not on court, practice is an on-going availability.

Happy with this, the clients then go on to allow us to take over the whole home entertainment package, installing a sumpteous cinema with drop down projectors. Plasma and LCD TV's are a must in all rooms including the bathroom which, incidentally, is equipped with a bath hewn from the finest wood and monogramed towels!

The entertainment package is approved and installed and, while the owners are very happy with this, little do they know it is actually affordable to the average person looking to upgrade their home entertainment system. We have been responsible for organising the installation of interactive white boards in schools and home cinema systems for average city workers as well as for the ridiculously rich and famous.