An innovative eco-friendly home in a Cotswold nature reserve has been sold for a world record £7.2 million for a country house.

The ‘thoroughly modern manor house’, modelled on a bee orchid found on the reserve, was sold off-plan last week.

The buyer has chosen to remain anonymous but speculation is rife with Brad Pitt having looked at the plans and Kylie Minogue having stayed nearby recently.

The size of an average semi, the cost works out at £3,000 per square foot.

Orchid House will be part of the Lower Mill Estate, built on a 550-acre privately-owned nature reserve near Cirencester, known as the ‘Capital of the Cotswolds’.

Building work for the house, which is one of the country’s most complicated planning applications, will take three years to complete.

It is hoped it will produce more energy than it uses, with an underground pump and geothermal heating.

The house is designed by Sarah Featherstone, whose practice in east London is designing part of the Olympic athletes’ village’