Pioneering Grandma Building Tiny Sustainable Homes Out of Hemp

 

There has to be a binder involved of course and vertical strength may be a serious problem.  Yet it produces cast walls with an excellent insulation value and can certainly take nails.  Actually a good profile to replace mobile homes or even to be used by mobile home makers.


Otherwise we are looking at tip up walls easily secured onto a concrete slab.  The inside is easily lined with gyproc to provide natural air cleaning as well and to eliminate off gassing from the organics involved.

It may well need stiffeners for ceiling panels but that is no issue either.  Those are simple boards acting as rafters, but otherwise not demanding precision.

This may give us much of the benefits of stress skin manufacture without the exacting precision hard met in manufacturing.


Termite and insect proofing generally is an issue as well.

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 Pioneering Grandma Building Tiny Sustainable Homes Out of Hemp


By WakingTimes September 26, 2016 

Vic Bishop, Staff Writer

The DEA considers hemp to be a dangerous substance and it’s still classified as a schedule I drug, alongside heroin and ecstasy, even though the plant contains almost no THC and has no psychoactive effects. Many believe this classification is the result of the oil industry’s grip on the legislative process in America, because hemp is one of the most viable alternatives to plastics, fuel and other building materials, in fact, it used to be an important domestically produced crop, and it even contains extraordinary health benefits.

“Hemp is the only plant that can feed you, house you, clothe you and heal you.”

The Tiny House Movement is Growing

As a response to unbridled consumerism and desire for infinite growth inherent in our economy, some are finding that satisfaction in life is not dependent on having and maintaining the ‘American Dream.’ Tiny houses are becoming widely popular, especially so for those not interested in participating in the debt economy which is driven by banks who’ve used the mortgage industry as a means of looting the nation.

“The tiny house movement is one of the latest innovations in personal freedom from an overly consumeristic and a debt-driven society.” ~Isaac Davis

Unity – Tiny Hemp Housing

In Bellingham, Washington, a local grandmother, Pamela Bosch, is making news for combining the philosophy of tiny home living with the growing innovation in building materials and practices made out of hemp. In what she considers a pioneering experiment in sustainable living, Pamela’s organization Highland Hemp House is using hemp imported from Europe to make model energy and resource efficient homes.

The planet we live on is a rapidly changing environment that demands that human beings become more conscious of our living arrangements.  Smaller spaces that require less energy are part of the emerging response to inefficient buildings, as are eco-villages with shared resources. Net Zero houses that produce the energy they will consume and permaculture designs that are mindful of the synergies of systems that support life in place.

So, as the Hemp House was envisioned, the role of the single family home in the setting of a small urban environment was contemplated.  Can this ever ubiquitous bastion of American life transition to a future that supports a more integrated humanity?  How should our contemporary castles of middle-America hold the spaces or be the places where we learn to thrive in balance with our living environment?  How can our living spaces support our adaptation to a less consumptive way of living that is also of higher quality? [Source]

Pam was recently featured on Seattle’s K5 News showing off the tiny home she is building by herself, proving that anyone can do it, so long as they have the desire to be a part of our sustainable future.

“We need to be building this way,” Bosch said. “We should have as many buildings as we can that are built out of a renewable resource that sequesters carbon, that is healthy and if it were legal would be very affordable. It’s an agricultural waste product we’re using.”

 

Hemp can be used for soil remediation, biofuels, plastic composites, organic body care and health foods, but until it’s regulated, farmers in Washington would need permission from the DEA. [Source]