HEMP HOUSE

Necessity really is the mother of invention, especially if you are an architect. The combined problems of recession, climate change, commodity shortages, congested cities, lack of affordable housing and a host of other irritants would be enough to have many of us lie down in a darkened room with a wet towel wrapped round our heads, not so if you are one of the many enterprising architects coming up with clever ideas at the moment.

The latest wheez to come off the drawing board is a house built entirely out of hemcrete, a mix of hemp and lime. Called The Renewable House, it is low carbon, relatively cheap to build and constructed mostly from a material that can be grown in many countries.

Since hemp absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while it grows, the house's carbon footprint is reduced further. Designed by British-based Archial Architects, the modular homes can be used in either terraced, semi-detached or detached formats.

(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)