An award-winning contemporary house with interiors by David Mlinaric

Tucked away in the vale of Aylesbury in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor, which was built by the Rothschilds in the 1870s, lies an unexpectedly deserted valley with a vast empty horizon. Leaving the manor to your left, the drive winds down past Windmill Hill, the headquarters of the Rothschild Foundation and archives, and descends into a shallow bowl surrounded by undulating hills. Flint House, commissioned by Jacob Rothschild in 2015, sits at its centre; the only signs of habitation here are the turrets and finials of the manor and a church spire in the distance.

The Rothschilds, whose foundation now leases Waddesdon Manor from the National Trust, to which they bequeathed it in 1957, have a tradition of enlightened patronage and have always been collectors and commissioners of houses. Some 42 remarkable houses were built across Europe in the nineteenth century, but not many have had the resounding success of Flint House, designed by Skene Catling de la Peña. Built to house visiting fellows through a joint fellowship scheme set up by the Rothschild Foundation and the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, it won the prestigious RIBA House of the Year award a few months after completion. The judges described it as 'a marvel of geological evolution and construction'.

It is the most recent of four impressive buildings commissioned in the grounds of Waddesdon with a view to raising the standard of contemporary architecture in the UK. The other three are Julian and Isabel Bannerman's redesign of the dairy and its water gardens in the mid Nineties; Windmill Hill, dazzling in its structured simplicity, built in 2011 by Stephen Marshall Architects; and the Welcome Pavilion, elegant and discreet in Bauhaus style, completed in 2015 by Carmody Groarke. 'There is not enough good domestic architecture being commissioned in this country,' says Jacob. 'We are focusing on outstanding architectural design at its highest level and the best craftsmanship available. The idea is that the public will see Waddesdon and the new buildings as an architectural experience.'

To choose an architect, Jacob turned to his friend, the architectural historian Colin Amery, who recommended Irish Charlotte Skene Catling. Her brief was simple: to create a house of distinction. Charlotte walked the site for inspiration. It was mysterious and watery and, after forensic research, she discovered that it sat on a geological fault line of chalk and flint running from King's Lynn to the south coast. 'I was brought up near Cork and spent half my life in rock pools,' she says. 'I love the primordial cryptocrystalline nature of flints - some of them can be 200 million years old. I wanted to draw the geology out of the land, like an Anselm Kiefer painting, and create a rawness in Flint House that echoed the landscape. Jacob's knowledge of art and architecture makes him an extraordinary patron; he liked my geological response.'

Charlotte conceived the idea of two wedge-shape flint buildings, the main house and an annex, 50 metres apart but facing each other and engaged in a dialogue. They seem to emerge organically out of the earth, like geological extrusions thrown up by tectonic upheaval. John Lord, a master flint knapper from Norfolk, came with his team to cut the flints. The base of the house is made of large rough-hewn pieces with big flint gallets embedded in black mortar and, as the walls rise, they undergo a civilising process. The knapped flints become smooth square blocks fading from dark to pale grey, and then, at the uppermost level, the stepped roof line, made of lean blocks of chalk, seems to dissolve into the sky.