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Key Sustainable Residential Development in England, UK

19 Jun 2009

Hemp House England

Archial Unveils Unique Renewable House Made From Hemp

A unique energy efficient house made from hemp, designed by Archial Architects, has been unveiled at the BRE Innovation Park which showcases the future of low carbon and sustainable buildings.

The three bedroom Renewable House, which costs £75,000 to build not including ground works or utilities, uses renewable materials to deliver a well designed, yet low cost, affordable home.

The external walls are constructed from a revolutionary sustainable material called Hemcrete, provided by manufacturer Lime Technology, made from hemp plants grown and harvested in the UK and lime based binder.

Hemp is one of the fastest growing biomasses and is often used in paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, health food and fuel.

It is estimated The Renewable House’s carbon footprint will be around 20 tonnes lower than a traditional brick and block house. The hemp absorbs around five tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during its rapid growth period, which then becomes locked into the fabric of the building, making the thermal Hemp-Line walling solution ‘carbon negative’.

The Renewable House meets level 4 of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes – a national standard that measures the sustainability of homes against a set of design categories such as energy consumption and building materials. The Government’s target was for all homes from 2016 to be built against Code Level 3 standards.

The Renewable House can be used in several configurations; detached, semi-detached and terraced, with little alteration to the basic design. Archial’s modular system, which uses a timber frame and prefabricated panels that are assembled on site, reduce the time needed for onsite construction.

Archial Architects was commissioned by The Linford Group to design the energy efficient home as part of The Renewable House project that not only exceeds the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), but also offers an ideal solution to today’s affordable housing requirement.

The Renewable House is being delivered by the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC) with funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The house is being project managed by contractor The Linford Group which is managing the design development and construction, working with design partners Archial Architects.

Matthew Richardson, Associate at Archial Group’s Bournemouth division, said, “We were delighted to have the opportunity to use our experience in sustainable design to meet the challenge set by The Linford Group. The result has delivered a highly green housing concept that exceeds the Government’s home efficiency target and is both affordable and comfortable. I hope this design will become the benchmark for sustainable and affordable homes of the future.”

The house’s performance will be monitored over a three year period in order to establish evidence of the performance characteristics and the sustainability profile of the renewable building materials. It is anticipated the development will demonstrate that low costs and renewable building methods are compatible and together they provide a viable method of delivering sustainable, affordable homes.

The Renewable House is a unique housing project built on the BRE Innovation Park in Watford, which also exhibits other near zero-carbon demonstration properties and has attracted over 30,000 visitors so far, including HRH Prince of Wales.

One of the largest architecture practices in Scotland and the UK, Archial Group Plc employs around 200 staff in Scotland, operating from offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness.

Hemp House England image / information received 190609

Archial

Location:England

Zero-carbon home, BRE site, Watford, England
Sheppard Robson with Arup

picture from architect
BRE House