Lord Rothschild’s Waddesdon home wins top architecture award

Flint House, designed by architects Skene Catling De la Pena was announced as the winner during a special four part series of Grand Designs on Channel Four.

The home was described by judges as a ‘marvel of geological evolution and construction’, and was created to be a ‘celebration of location, material and architectural design at its best.’

Set in the Waddesdon Manor Estate, Flint House has a unique stepped design made from old fashioned flint.

RIBA president Jane Duncan said: “The shortlist for RIBA’s House Of The Year represents a remarkable diversity of architectural skills and outcomes.

“I am delighted that Skene Catling De La Pena’s Flint House for Lord Rothschild has won this year’s prize.

“Although superbly original and unique, it continues a fine tradition of RIBA award-winning houses that provide exemplars for others: architects, clients and developers. Congratulations to all involved.”

Lord Rothschild, who lives in the home with his family, said: “Charlotte Skene Catling’s wonderful design deserves the accolade and so do the Flint House team under David Smith for their superb work.”

A spokesman for Waddesdon added: “The brief for the building, completed in 2015, was open.

“The site was a island isolated within the context of the Estate.

“It was a strange, still place, and an anomaly of wilderness within highly cultivated agricultural fields.

“The response was to create a pair of structures which apparently emerge from the landscape, binding them deeply to the site and forming mysterious internal spaces that separate the public areas from the more private, introspective parts of the buildings.”