Subj: UK: High hopes for hemp homes



Source: BBC Online



Date: 12 May, 1999







A British town could be accused of going to pot as more than £100,000 is spent

on building two homes from cannabis plants.



Forget the traditional bricks and mortar.  In this housing experiment, all the

walls will be made from Hemp.



Its qualities are said to include excellent insulation and easy recycling.



A hemp compound, mixed with lime, will be used for external and internal walls

where its thermal efficiency and sound absorbing qualities can be put to best

use.



Some smokers may be disappointed to learn there will be little to gain from

trying to chisel bits of the crop out of the house for a roll-up as this

treated version of the crop is non-flammable.



--High-rise





Work will begin next month on the two hemp houses in Bury St Edmunds, in

Suffolk, in a project that could signal the return to use of this once common

crop in the UK.



Housing Corporation spokesman Jonathan Rosenberg said:  "Our organisation

supports a wide range of innovative projects.  Some are to do with bricks and

mortar and some are more socially based.



"New techniques have not been adopted in this country in the same way as they

have been in some European countries."



The new homes will be built next to two brick-built houses and comparisons

will be made in cost and performance.



The materials will be imported from France.  The basic structure will be a

timber frame around which the hemp compound will be poured.



--Plant of the past



All being well, the homes' new residents will be able to move in during

January next year.





Although hemp cannot be grown in the UK without a special licence from the

Home Office, it used to be used widely in the middle ages for clothing, sails for

ocean-going ships and food.



The Housing Corporation, which is funding the £104,000 project, says links

have now been developed with a housing association in France, the Hennebont OPC,

which has embarked on a large scale development using the same material.