Workers in central Cape Town are putting the finishing touches on the 54-room Hemp Hotel, which is due to be completed in June. “Hempcrete” blocks derived from the cannabis plant have been used to fill the building’s walls, supported by a concrete and cement structure.
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Hemp bricks are becoming increasingly popular in the construction world thanks to their insulating, fire-resistant and climate-friendly properties. Used notably in Europe for thermal renovation of existing buildings, the blocks are carbon negative — meaning their production sucks more planet-warming gases out of the atmosphere than it puts in.
The industrial hemp used for the Hemp Hotel had to be imported from Britain as South Africa banned local production up to last year, when the government started issuing cultivation permits.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has made developing the country’s hemp and cannabis sector an economic priority, saying it could create more than 130,000 jobs. Afrimat Hemp is now preparing to produce its first blocks made only with South African hemp. Hemp Hotel architect Wolf Wolf, 52, sees this as a game changer to make hemp buildings more widespread in this corner of the world.
Carbon credits — permits normally related to the planting of trees to safeguard tropical rainforests that companies buy to offset their emissions — could help make hempcrete blocks more financially palatable, he says.
The carbon footprint of a 40 square metre (430 square foot) house built with hemp is three tons of CO2 lower than that of a conventional building, according to Afrimat Hemp.
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Hemp Hotel has been ranked the “tallest building to incorporate hemp-based materials in the world” by Steve Allin, director of the Ireland-based International Hemp Building Association.