The Hemp Homes project is an innovative and exciting experiment which aims to identify the true environmental and commercial advantages of building homes using this particularly ecological and highly sustainable building material.

Two hemp houses now stand on a small social housing development in Haverhill, Suffolk, and are the first of their kind to be built in Britain.

Every step of their construction and subsequent occupation has been closely monitored to compare their performance with identical traditional brick and block built houses.

The project has been undertaken by the Suffolk Housing Society, with support from the Housing Corporation and St Edmundsbury Borough Council. It was prompted by the enthusiasm for using hemp as a principal building material by local architect Ralph Carpenter of Modece Architects in Bury St Edmunds who had seen the method being used in France where the hemp processing system was developed.

Suffolk Housing Society and St Edmundsbury engaged the support of the Housing Corporation to fund the Building Research Establishment to carry out extensive research into the project. The purpose of this was to demonstrate that hemp and lime construction is a viable low energy alternative to the more conventional forms of construction based on brick and concrete blocks.

The research has studied:

• Relative structural, thermal, acoustic, permeability and durability qualities
• Reduction in waste generated on site
• Environmental impact
• Construction costs of the two systems

Links were also established with a housing association in northern France, Hennebont OPC, which has embarked on a larger scale development using the same methods of construction with a view to exchanging information.

Since this initial contact Suffolk Housing Society and Hennebont have built more formal and wider ranging ties to see what they can learn from one another about providing and managing social housing in the two countries.

The hemp homes and their brick/block constructed neighbours are part of a larger £1.5 million housing development, £675,000 of which was provided in the form of a social housing grant jointly by St Edmundsbury Borough Council and the Housing Corporation. The four properties involved two hemp and two brick/block in the research project cost £176,000 to build.

The research has cost £75,000 and has been paid for in part by a £60,000 Innovation and Good Practice grant from the Housing Corporation.