For the last month I have been looking into this new way of building, that has so many benefits and is certainly sustainable, an area that I became interested in, in the last two years, yet I could barely find a few newspaper articles about some adventurous people who have actually build houses using hemp. Yes, hemp! That’s what I thought first as well, how can one do that? So here are a few facts about building with hemp.
It is a plant that grows very fast ( it is ready to use after 4 months) and naturally stores and absorbs CO2 up until the plant is burnt or recycled in the case of building material. Recently, it has been used as a building material due to it’s insulating properties that absorbs, retains and then releases water vapour making the building ‘breath’. This way the internal temperature is stabilised impacting on the air quality inside.
The plant ( more precisely the core or shiv ) is mixed with a lime-based binder ( this blew my mind) making panels out of them that are then installed into a frame ( mostly wooden) and used for building. This combination offers a perfect insulating, fire and decay resistant option for building new eco friendly and zero carbon footprint buildings. Even the Science Museum tested out this new method for its archival storage resulting in all hating and cooling devices for a year.
To me it sounds like a great new building method that would cut down on everyone’s energy and heating bills, providing a healthier space to live in, and for those who care about the ecological issues of our world, offering a ‘guilt’ free option and not to mention a more affordable housing system.
So hopefully this new ingenious method will be embraced in the near future and building will be done more consciously.
beatrixjszabo 