Homes of the Future, Informed by the Past
Learn with us and from us. Visit Highland Hemp House for a hands-on experience, training and consultation in hemp-lime construction.
It is our mission at Highland Hemp House to teach as many people as we can how to build with the greenest of building materials. Since committing to this goal, I have had many adventures and fortuitous meetings.
In the US, we are not exposed to residences that have been occupied for centuries as in Europe, Asia, and Africa--especially on the West Coast. But don't we want buildings to endure? Wouldn't it be a better use of materials to design for functional longevity? Hempcrete is essentially reconstituted limestone. It is not dissimilar to many buildings of antiquity that used burned lime as a binder and a surface treatment.
Nature has utilized lime/calcium for shelter and structure for hundreds of millions of years. Nothing synthetic can compare. For endurance, health, versatility or performance.
Elsewhere you have read about the energy conserving, carbon capturing benefits of building with lime and bio-aggregate. Consider now how calcium, the building block of ancient skeletons and exoskeletons cycles throughout the earth's crust and her inhabitants. Concrete, in which calcium is a primary element, is ubiquitous in modern times, but lime has more endurance and better hygroscopic performance; it is better suited for above ground walls while only using a fraction of the energy that concrete needs for processing.
In the US, we are not exposed to residences that have been occupied for centuries as in Europe, Asia, and Africa--especially on the West Coast. But don't we want buildings to endure? Wouldn't it be a better use of materials to design for functional longevity? Hempcrete is essentially reconstituted limestone. It is not dissimilar to many buildings of antiquity that used burned lime as a binder and a surface treatment.
Nature has utilized lime/calcium for shelter and structure for hundreds of millions of years. Nothing synthetic can compare. For endurance, health, versatility or performance.
Elsewhere you have read about the energy conserving, carbon capturing benefits of building with lime and bio-aggregate. Consider now how calcium, the building block of ancient skeletons and exoskeletons cycles throughout the earth's crust and her inhabitants. Concrete, in which calcium is a primary element, is ubiquitous in modern times, but lime has more endurance and better hygroscopic performance; it is better suited for above ground walls while only using a fraction of the energy that concrete needs for processing.
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Our FounderPamela Bosch
Pamela Bosch is an educator, artist, hemp activist, and founder of a pioneering project in the State of Washington to use hemp-lime and other natural materials for retrofit to create a bio-philic, healthy living space. She considers the Highland Hemp House to be her legacy project and hopes that it will inspire others to amplify their own climate solutions. |
