You don't need to be an economist to know that poorly designed modern flats are destined to lose value. Iconic architect-designed houses, however, are a different matter. One such radical new house, Badgers View, is about to be built in the Chiltern Hills, near Chinnor.

The owner, John Steven Miners, a jeweller and antiques dealer, bought the site 18 months ago. “You don't get many chances in life to build your own home,” he says. “We could have done a pastiche Neo-Georgian mess or one of those Post-Modern white cubes, but we wanted something true to our time.” Dr Miners, a former geologist, had a vision of “rocks of chalk thrusting up from the underlying strata - a collection of tumbledown boxes with glass ends”.

His architect, Tim Lewis, of Lewis & Hickey, managed to turn this idea into a design for an unusual fourbedroom house that they both expected would alarm the planners. “It went straight through without a hitch,” he says. “They even praised it as an enlightened piece of design, which doesn't often happen.”

Dr Miners says: “I thought we would have to drag it kicking and screaming through appeals, but I managed to convince neighbours, the parish council and the head planner. We were approached by Grand Designs but decided it would be too intrusive.”

He will live in a caravan on site during the £1million build. The house was provisionally valued a couple of months ago at £2.5million, but he insists that the value is unimportant because he intends to live there rather than sell. He just hopes the banks financing the build take the same view.

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