4th Little Piggy Builds House of Hemp

And presumably smokes a bowl with that damn wolf and everyone lives happily ever after… Actually, a recent study at the University of Bath has shown that prefab panels composed of straw-bale and hemp are just as fire resistant as conventional building materials (if for some horrible reason your hemp house does burn down, you will have to actually deal with it as hemp contains none of the psychoactive chemicals that cannabis does). Researchers at the University of Bath tested one of the panels for fire safety by exposing it to temperatures of 1000°C and greater. Two hours of testing later, the panels had not failed. In the scientific community, this is known as a “FTW moment” followed by high-fives and possibly bong hits or beers (or both!).

This research on the BaleHaus (click the picture for videos on its construction) is being funded by both Carbon Connections and the Technology Strategy Board, the latter’s marketing department having no creativity whatsoever. Two researchers from the University’s BRE Centre in Innovative Construction Materials, Dr. Katharine Beadle and Christopher Gross, will be checking on the haus for a year. They will monitor the insulation efficiency, humidity levels, air tightness, and sound insulation to asses the performance of the straw/hemp panels as building materials. Hemp and straw are great sources of materials as they have an incredibly low carbon footprint. Craig White, director of ModCell (another company involved) had this to say about the project: “It is unacceptable that 27 per cent of CO2 emissions currently come from the energy we use in our homes, it is just as unacceptable to continue to emit CO2 through the energy we use to make them. If we are completely serious about being “carbon free” we need to rethink the design of our buildings on a large scale. The ModCell BaleHaus system is designed to deliver just such a sustainable method of construction. These tests will offer proof that sustainable building materials are a realistic option for building on a large scale.” BaleHaus’ materials are the brain child of White Design in Bristol and Integral Structural Design in Bath, and they were used last year by Kevin McCloud to build an eco-friendly house for the Grand Designs Live exhibition. The haus was then used as a safe haven for his fellow highlanders and pilots on the Star Fox team (citation needed).

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