A monolithic hempcrete house on the Mullumbimby floodplain — breathable walls, no mould, no mechanical cooling.
Hempcrete is cast in place around a timber frame: hemp hurd, hydrated lime, sand and water. The wall breathes, so moisture passes through instead of condensing inside it, and the lime keeps getting harder for decades.
The house runs on roof-mounted photovoltaics with battery backup and harvests its own water. Because the hemp locks up carbon as it grows, the walls are carbon negative before the roof goes on.
A three-month crop on one hectare grows enough hemp to build a small house.
Studio note
- Location
- Mullumbimby NSW
- Completed
- 2017
- Walls
- Monolithic hempcrete
- Wall R-value
- R-15
- Fire rating
- 2.5 hours
- Carbon
- Negative in the wall
- Power
- Solar PV, battery
