It is some house Kate Moss has bought in Highgate. A late-17th-century, Grade II-listed London townhouse, it has become the focus of media attention – and concern from locals this week – because Moss wants to give it the celeb treatment, with a steam room in the basement along with a new kitchen (to add to the existing two) and an MI5’s-worth of CCTV cameras. What I like best about the story is that the house is said, repeatedly, to have been designed by the poet and visionary William Blake.

Poor Blake rarely had two pennies to rub together and could never have afforded to live here: the house was, in fact, built by a London merchant of the same name. But another poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, did live and die here, and the house was owned by the writer JB Priestley, too. Camden Council says it has received just one lone objection to Moss’s underground plan, although Maya de Souza, a Green Party councillor for Highgate, has serious concerns about the basement works, which she believes could cause flooding in many other Highgate houses.

One property man who knows all about basement conversions is Jon Hunt, founder of the estate agent giant Foxtons. He’s spending far more than Kate Moss paid for her house to excavate a four-storey hole in the back garden of his Grade II-listed house to build a sports hall and a museum for his Ferrari collection. His latest development, however, is very much above ground. The plan is for a new tower, replacing the Texaco garage on London’s Albert Embankment, to be designed by Rogers Stirk and Harbour. This will be a challenge even for the property magnate: five proposals for towers here have been rejected in recent years; the last, in 2008, was for a 23-storey steel and glass tower by Make architects. Only time will tell if the Richard Rogers tower will rise up.

Telescope with a view … Jodrell Bank’s Lovell telescope in Cheshire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Meanwhile, what looks to be a very modest proposal by the Bowker Sadler Partnership – to build four two-bedroom houses and two two-bedroom bungalows for the Cheshire Peaks and Plains Housing Trust at Lower Withington – is causing distress among Manchester University scientists working at Jodrell Bank. That number of houses might seem insignificant, but the problem is one of location. Jodrell Bank, founded in 1945, remains a thing of ethereal beauty and globally esteemed research – its magnificent Lovell telescope, opened in 1957, is still the world’s third largest steerable radio telescope.

As Professor ST Carrington, head of astronomy and astrophysics, has written to Cheshire East Council: “The potential electrical interference generated from this development is of considerable concern.” This week, a spokesman for the University of Manchester said: “The University fully appreciates the need for affordable housing, but also wishes to protect Jodrell Bank … many electronic devices used at home and elsewhere produce radio frequency emissions, intentionally or otherwise, and the radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank are extremely sensitive in order to detect extremely faint emissions from distant stars and galaxies.”

Up in Scotland, a modest proposal has gone down so well that it might become a design template for a whole region. Konishi Gaffney architects’ competition-winning design for the regeneration of the Clydeside village of Kilcreggan on the Roseneath Peninsula, 40 miles west of Glasgow, is an attempt to show that, by reimagining their neglected waterfronts, Clydeside villages can become not just more attractive to locals – top priority – but compelling places for visitors. So, here are new quays, waterside walkways and promenades, aimed at making Kilcreggan and other Clydeside villages newly proud of themselves.

Model house … Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House from Lego Architecture. Photograph: fbtb

Finally, here’s a house you can make at home. The latest model in the Lego Architecture series is a 2,276-piece replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago, launched on 27 August. With its low lines and free-flowing interiors, the 1908 house is often cited as one of the first truly Modern homes. I’m not sure if a child of five could make it alone, but at least you won’t need planning permission or historic building consent for this one.