The more architects try building with hemp, the more they are won over by its incredible benefits for both homeowners and the environment, according to a Guardian report.
For example, architect Michael Leung decided not to use toxic materials in building after a family member died from asbestos-related cancer.
"When you go on a healthy building journey, inevitably you bump into hempcrete," he told the Guardian. "I really want to see it taken much further into the mainstream."
Hempcrete is made by mixing natural hemp plant fibers with a lime binder. The result can be packed into frame walls onsite, or it can be made into prefabricated blocks or segments that can be shipped to the construction site.
In walls, hemp is great for managing humidity. Architect Anna Maskiell of Public Realm Lab told the Guardian that hempcrete "literally breathes." Public Realm Lab recently won the National Award for Sustainable Architecture for its hempcrete structure Powerhouse Place.
Besides its breathability, the Guardian outlined many incredible benefits of building with hemp.
"Hemp is a single system. It's your insulation; it's also your facade," Maskiell said.
Additionally, hemp is carbon-negative, meaning that growing, processing, and building with it removes more carbon pollution from the atmosphere than it adds to it. Its powerful insulating properties reduce the need for synthetic insulation such as fiberglass and reduce the energy usage of homes built with it.
Mature hemp can be grown and ready to harvest in 100 days — unlike wood, which takes decades to mature — and it is restorative for the soil where it's grown, making it a much more convenient crop to grow for building material.
Walls made of hempcrete have an attractive texture that can be left bare or finished with traditional materials, adding architecture and design possibilities. When a hemp building is demolished, the walls can be crushed and reused rather than sent to a landfill.
Overall, construction with hemp is only about 20% more expensive than double brick construction — and that cost will go down as the material becomes more widely used. Most of the extra expenditure is due to the higher labor costs of hiring specialists, but if hempcrete becomes popular enough, ordinary construction crews will learn how to work with it.
All this adds up to a material with great possibilities for the future.
"We were really sick of designing buildings that were just less bad, tinkering around the edges with solar panels and that kind of thing," Maskiell told the Guardian. "We were really on this mission to try to find a material that was truly regenerative."
And now they've found it.
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