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Flat House is a three-bedroom home at Margent Farm in Cambridgeshire, built as a prototype for prefabricated hemp-based construction. Its timber cassettes are filled with hempcrete, and the project uses hemp grown on the farm—linking agricultural production to the building’s material system. The project is described as low-carbon, but the cited project sources do not provide a quantified carbon total or verified reduction.
What is Flat House?
Designed by Practice Architecture with Material Cultures, Flat House is a 100 m² dwelling completed in 2019 at Margent Farm, Cambridgeshire. ArchDaily lists Margent Farm as the client and describes the home as a prototype intended to explore prefabricated hemp-based construction for possible application at a larger housing scale. ArchDaily’s project description and project data give the dwelling’s program, area and year.
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What is Flat House made of?
The main wall system consists of prefabricated timber panels, or cassettes, filled with hempcrete. Hemp fibre cladding is also part of the exterior material palette. The hemp used in the system was grown at Margent Farm, making the project a case study in connecting local agricultural production with building materials and off-site fabrication. Material Cultures’ project account describes the low-tech approach and bio-based material strategy.
How does hempcrete construction work here?
Hempcrete is made from hemp, lime and water, according to The Guardian’s review of Flat House. At Flat House, it fills timber cassettes that were prefabricated before being assembled on site. This approach puts material preparation and building assembly into a linked sequence: the hemp is grown on the farm, incorporated into construction components, and those components are then raised into place.
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The design also responds to the complexity of conventional wall build-ups. The Guardian attributes to Practice Architecture’s Paloma Gormley the observation that modern construction often involves “five or six layers of stuff”—including paint, plasterboard, insulation, vapour barriers, waterproof membranes, structure and cladding—which can make a building difficult for its users to understand. Flat House’s material strategy presents a more legible alternative, though the project sources do not establish a measured comparison against conventional construction.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where was the hemp grown?
The hemp was grown at Margent Farm, where the house is located. That farm-to-building connection is central to the project: it demonstrates how an agricultural crop can become part of prefabricated construction, rather than treating the building material as disconnected from its source.
How long did assembly take?
Practice Architecture’s project description says the prefabricated elements were raised into place in two days. That figure describes this assembly stage only; it is not the full construction schedule and does not include the time needed to grow the hemp, manufacture the components or complete the house.
What performance does the design aim to provide?
Material Cultures says the material strategy is intended to regulate humidity, temperature and air quality without ducting or equipment. This is a description of the design approach, not a published set of measured post-occupancy results. The cited project accounts do not provide figures that quantify those effects in use.
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Does Flat House have measured carbon or energy results?
The project is described by its sources as low-carbon or low-impact, but the reviewed project material does not provide a quantified embodied-carbon total, a lifecycle assessment, a verified carbon saving or measured operational energy results. The low-carbon description should therefore be read as a project aim or claim, not as a verified comparative result. Without a stated assessment boundary and comparable measured data, Flat House cannot be assigned a defensible carbon-reduction figure from these sources.
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