Is this REALLY the best house in the world? It looks like a wartime bunker but this three-bed Oxfordshire home has been named number one by the architects' bible www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3162120/Oxfordshire-s-Fayland-House-named-best-house-world-Architectural-Review.html ~ It may look more like a glorified wartime bunker than a classic manor but this modernist three-bedroom Oxfordshire home described as a 'radical take on the English country house' is deemed the best in the world. Despite being a far cry from a grand mansion or stately home, the futuristic house near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, has beaten off worldwide competition to be crowned the best new home by architecture industry bible The Architectural Review. Described by the judges as having a 'rigid, rhythmic façade' and a 'challenging, uneasy' design, the single-storey 'asymmetrical' property was completed two years ago. It is owned by multi-millionaire property developer Mike Spink and his wife Maria, who paid £6.7million for the prime 50-acre plot in the Chilterns in 2008 before knocking down the existing house on the site. The site was previously occupied by an early 20th-century house – said to be of no 'architectural value' – which was made up of a series of eight buildings, including stables, a gym, a greenhouse and an outdoor swimming pool. The Spinks then brought in leading architect David Chipperfield to design a three-bedroom home with a thoroughly modern twist. Like the best country piles, the house - called Faylands - is nestled among rolling hills and surrounded by a wildflower meadow with its own herd of cows.

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