An affordable flat pack house that can be built in four weeks could revolutionise the housing industry, according to its designers.

The house is designed and manufactured by Daniel Reitsma and Edward Duc from the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

The pair claims the hybrid pre-fabricated modular house near Maitland is a world-first.

The house prototype was built at Woodberry by a local factory.

It is called the Modular Architectural Adaptable Panel (MAAP) House.

"It's a flat pack house, like building with Lego. If you use the same sized pieces you can build what you want," Mr Reitsma said.

The concept is marketed at first-home owners or low income households, and people interested in sustainable houses.

Buyers can add to the layout later by adding rooms when they can afford to.

Edward Duc and Daniel Reitsma hope their housing concept will be taken up around the country. ( 1233 ABC Newcastle: Bec Hogan )

Construction of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom prototype home initially took eight weeks, with a team of five — including a carpentry apprentice and three Year 12 students — working on it.

The small team was all part of keeping the cost down.

"It's basically impact drivers that put it together — you do need some tools, but mainly one skilled carpenter and some labourers," Mr Reitsma said.

Innovative project bypasses traditional construction practices

The designers said the ideal timeframe to build the house was four weeks, which could be done because the bathrooms and kitchens were made off-site.

"The bathroom is a complete module fitted out and then placed into place by a crane — once in, you can plug it in and use it the same day," Mr Reitsma said.

He said that even though the house was flat pack, most of the products used were Australian-made, and quality was not compromised.

The MAAP House designers say the ideal timeframe to build the house is four weeks. ( Supplied )

"The panels are one-hour fire rated. It is far and above anything we are building these days," Mr Reitsma said.

Mr Duc is the architect involved with the project, and has spent his whole career working on sustainable housing designs.

He said the MAAP House bypassed traditional on-site construction.

"In traditional construction up to 30 per cent of the materials and labour is wasted — houses use more energy than any other type of building in the world," he said.

Mr Duc researched sustainable housing as part of his PhD at the University of Newcastle, and said the flat pack concept was a world-first.

"At the moment we are short more than 200,000 houses in Australia, and the construction industry is falling behind," he said.

"The only way we will be able to house people satisfactorily is to produce houses in factories."

Now that the prototype is built, the pair hopes the design concept will be taken up around the country.