STUNNING new images have been released of an eco- friendly house which will generate its own power and water supply by rotating on rollers to track and utilise sun and wind.

Work on the 10,000-sq ft circular building started 18 months ago and its foundations are now in place.

The radical house, which is due for completion by 2010, has just been put on the market for £4.5m.

The rotating home is being built at Snelston, near Ashbourne, by a Derbyshire entrepreneur who wanted to combine everything he had learned as an engineer.

Robin Hamilton, 61, who has worked in a variety of disciplines, including civil engineering and aero engineering, is carrying out most of the work himself with the help of friends.

He said: "I wanted to bring all the things I've learned into one project. Most recently, I've been an environmental engineer and it seemed logical to have this as a home."

The Dumble, named after the hollow it is being built in, will automatically follow the sun across the sky, turning 180 degrees over 12 hours at a speed of two inches a minute.

Mr Hamilton said: "By tracking the sun, the house will be able to generate twice as much passive solar energy than if the house was stationary."

A wind turbine will be built on a glazed atrium roof and Mr Hamilton will be able to angle the house in the direction of prevailing winds.

"It's going to be fun to push a button and make the house go round," he said.

"The rotation will be just 0.02mph but the view out of the window will be different every couple of hours."

Mr Hamilton, who is married to Rosy, 60, and has three grown-up children, is trying to sell their country estate, a large red-brick farmhouse with several outbuildings on 19 acres of land near Ashbourne, to finance the building of The Dumble. But the current downfall in the housing market has made this a difficult proposition and so they have also placed The Dumble on the market for a guide price of £4.5m.

"We're testing the market to see what interest in The Dumble there might be," Mr Hamilton said.

"It's an extraordinary house for someone with extraordinary taste. If the right offer came along, we'd consider selling."

If the couple do find a buyer for the project, it would net a very handsome profit for Mr Hamilton. He said: "Part of the idea was to design a building or concept which looked modern without costing a great amount of money. It's being built at a surprisingly low cost and has the added bonus of being environmentally-friendly."

Mr Hamilton worked as an aero-engineer at Rolls-Royce, Derby, in the 1960s and 70s. He then set up Fauld Motor Repairs in Tutbury, before establishing ET2 Ltd, which makes recycling machines and environmental equipment.