Hemp Concrete: A High Performance Material for Green-Building and Retrofitting

Designing Matter, Discipline, Energy and sustainability, Essay, expanding design practices, Monika Brümmer, No Density, Urban Paradigms

Architect’s role, Architecture&design, Architecture&nature, Biodegradable, Cannabric, Cannabrick, Clay, Cradle to cradle, Design, Designing Matter, Discipline, Ecological design, Ecological researches, Energy, Essay, Future projections, Global Awareness, Green’s potential, Health contributor, Hemp concrete, Local materials, Low-energy building, Material experimentation, Matter, Natural materials, New materials, New Statements on Nature, Planetary urbanizations, Renewable resources, Research, Resources, Return to nature, Sustainability, Sustainable construction, Urban Paradigms, Utopian practices

Text by Monika Brümmer, Mª Paz Sáez-Pérez, and Jorge Durán Suárez -- http://www.cannabric.com/?len=en

Emerging tendencies, inspired by environmental and energy saving criterions for building envelopes, refocus on a new challenge: the use of plant materials as bio aggregates in green concretes. Hemp concrete has not only a positive balance in its climate change indicator, it also has a positive health impact. Increasing research, developed mainly over the last 15 years, highlights innovative applications of natural fibres for the green building sector among which hemp concrete is one of the most promising.