Step inside the House of the Year 2015: Flint House takes the annual crown

It's set in stone - Flint House is the UK's best new house 2015

The winner of the coveted 'House of the Year Award' 2015 has been revealed!

RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, scours the country each year in pursuit of the UK's best new house before crowning it with its annual House of the Year tiara.

The annual award was founded in 2001 and aims to find, celebrate and promote supremacy in housing architecture across the country.

On Wednesday, November 25, Channel 4's Grand House Designs: House of the Year had the honour of announcing this year's winner...

Flint House in Buckinghamshire!

flint house with grass lawn and trees

(Image credit: TBC)

Flint House sits in the Waddesdon Manor Estate and was commissioned by the owner himself, Lord Rothschild. Ideal for hosting guests who can't find space in the palace (this place blows Hogwarts out of the water) the nifty spot sits far out in the land with panoramic views of the untouched countryside.

Rising above the flat plains, the triangular building, topped with a stairway to heaven, is constructed of masonry and flint cladding.

house with stone wall

(Image credit: TBC)

According to architects Skene Catling De La Pena, it was important for the house to celebrate the countryside so they dipped it in flint native to Buckinghamshire.

To keep the architecture diverse and unique, they also designed it in a dramatic triangular shape as if sticking out of the ground like flint poking it's head out of the field's surface.

house with panels of glass

(Image credit: TBC)

Inside, it's just as stunning. Large panels of glass allow the countryside to stream in and for the sunlight to bounce off the walls, equally coated in nuggets of crystal flint.

house of nuggets of crystal flint

(Image credit: TBC)

The judges commended that Flint House is ‘a marvel of geological evolution and construction' before the RIBA president remarked: ‘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'.

flint house with chair and glass panel

(Image credit: TBC)

Estimated to be worth over
£2 million due to the house's grounds in which it sits, the house is a snug abode for when the high life of Waddesdon Manor gets a little too rich.

The shortlisted runners up this year were:

The Mill

mill house with stone wall and grass lawn

(Image credit: TBC)

Kew House

kew house with chair and lamp

(Image credit: TBC)

Levring House

levring house with glass panel and chair

(Image credit: TBC)

Sussex House

house with glass windows and garden with green plants

(Image credit: TBC)

Vaulted House

sloping roof house with white windows and exposed brick walls

(Image credit: TBC)

House at Maghera

sloping roof house with white walls and grey land

(Image credit: TBC)
Heather Young
Editor

Heather Young has been Ideal Home’s Editor since late 2020, and Editor-In-Chief since 2023. She is an interiors journalist and editor who’s been working for some of the UK’s leading interiors magazines for over 20 years, both in-house and as a freelancer.