All images courtesy of Practice Architecture
A three-bedroom, zero carbon, house built using modern methods of construction and hemp has been constructed in Cambridgeshire.
The ‘Flat House’ on Margent Farm has been built on the site of a steel-framed agricultural building using prefabricated timber-framed cassettes filled with a mulch of hemp, lime, and water. Once the mulch dried the cassettes were lifted into place in just two days.
The “hempcrete” that fills the cassettes offers a high degree of insulation, while the exterior is covered in corrugated panels made from the fibres of hemp stalks mixed with resin taken from agricultural waste.
The house, owned by TV and film producer and director Steve Barron and business partner Fawnda Denham, was designed by Practice Architecture.
The project has led to the establishment of Material Cultures, a research organisation exploring natural materials in the context of offsite construction.
