In 2006, Rowan Atkinson paid £2.6 million for a 1930s Oxfordshire house, knocked it down and fought to replace it with a glass mansion; 16 years later, he finally moved in

Most people know Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean, the bumbling character who barely speaks but always causes chaos. Off screen, the actor took on a very different kind of project, and it caused plenty of real chaos with his neighbors. In 2006, Atkinson purchased Handsmooth House, an old property dating back to the 1930s on 16 acres of land in Ipsden, Oxfordshire, for £2.6 million. He was not interested in living in the old property but preferred building something totally different from it: a glass and steel mansion. It would take years for that plan to move forward: Meier's design wasn't commissioned until around 2012, roughly six years after the initial purchase.

A comedian with a big architectural dream