A construction and architecture conference in London next June is slated to feature a house made of hemp. But it now looks like the hemp house isn’t going to be as architecturally distinct as originally planned. The architecture firm that was initially contracted to build it have been dropped in favor of a more off-the-shelf design, and apparently this can mean that the house will be less eco-friendly. As Building Online reports:

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson has been axed as the architect of a pioneering eco-home set to be built using hemp at the Building Research Establishment’s innovation park.

Two months ago, the practice was jointly commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and renewable materials and technology quango, the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC), for the Hemp House, which aimed to reach level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes using natural materials also including lime.

Now, Aukett’s has claimed its proposal has been replaced with an “off-the-shelf” housebuilder’s design because its plans were not traditional enough for the NNFCC’s liking.
[...]
Andrew Sutton, project architect for Gaunt Francis’s BRE innovation project the Green House, warned it was dangerous to make a housebuilder solely responsible for the design and build.

“This is a hugely missed opportunity,” he said. “A housebuilder will struggle to achieve higher codes without a design team.”

There is, of course, two sides to every coin. Even though a less intricate design could results in having a less than eco-friendly rating, it could make hemp-houses seem more affordable. That in turn could fuel more widespread use of eco-friendly hemp-based building materials. So even though individual houses would be less environmentally friendly than they might otherwise be, there would sure be a lot more of them, meaning that overall, the construction industry becomes more sustainable in the net analysis.

Of course, we’ll just have to wait and see just what an “off the shelf” hemp house looks like. After all, it may simply contain mostly token hemp materials that don’t impact the construction industry all that much at all.

A British company named BRE is organizing a building a construction conference for June, 2009, and it looks like the event is going to feature a house made of hemp. As Building.co.uk reports:

A house made from hemp and a dwelling by the Prince’s Foundation will be among the star attractions at the BRE’s Insite event in June 2009.

The event, called Insite 09: Constructing the Future, will include a building exhibition, a topical conference programme and an interactive indoor demonstration. The event aims to showcase the latest developments in design, technology, materials and building techniques.

In addition to a hemp house to demonstrate the benefits of renewable fuels and materials, the Innovation Park will include the Prince’s Foundation’s ‘natural house’, a sustainable home built from natural materials, as well as a health centre.

It makes perfect sense to see hemp being used as a construction material at a conference that’s exploring the use of renewable fuels and materials. Hempcrete, for example, is not just easier on the environment than the mining and chemicals production that goes into concrete. It can also be up to seven times stronger than concrete, weighs half as much, and is three times as elastic.

For more information on this building and construction event, check out the Insite09 page.