The Hempcrete Project - Educational Eco Center

Welcome to our project page!

Who We Are:
We are a family with 5 children, ranging from 1,5 to 23 years old. We live in Andalusia, Spain, since 2006. We try to live in a conscious and responsible way. Making informed choices and educating our children with a sense of connection to themselves and the world around them. They are fluent in three languages: English, Spanish and Dutch, which has made them open to different cultures and peoples. 

Our Video: https://vimeo.com/435358740/0763e6a94b

Stephen, a maker of fine Spanish hand-made guitars, has known since the age of 17 he wanted to be a luthier. Growing up on one of the first organic farms in the UK from 1976 he gained much knowledge of soil husbandry and care for the land. From 1987 he dedicated his life to making guitars and runs a busy workshop in Spain making bespoke instruments and also teaching the art of guitar making to students from around the world. He has the innate ability to create community around him, through his work. First in Lewes in the UK and later on in Spain he has a circle of apprentices and former students who have become makers after studying with Stephen.  Website: http://www.stephenhillguitars.com/

Marjolein, a Tibetan yoga teacher and reflexology practitioner, has first pursued a corporate career in The Netherlands after getting a degree in International Business Administration and upon moving to Spain has switched her focus completely and started her education in the ancestral knowledge of self-healing practices from Tibet and complemented this later with a new form of clinical reflexology called Duopody. She runs her own practice in La Herradura and works with people from all over the world. Website: http://www.inspira.info

Having gained experience in running a permaculture school garden in the local public school in La Herradura and later another organically run large vegetable garden with some others, we learned a lot about teaching the principles of harmony with nature and permaculture.
In his early adulthood Stephen already gained experience building and restoring with traditional techniques in Italy and applied these methods later also on rebuilding a small mountain house in Spain, that served for a time as his guitar making workshop. 

With our project we want to reach out to the community around us, both locally and internationally, to create a new future in living and working, and to that end we envision a small center where we can run courses, bring people together and promote living in connection with nature. 

Important to us is the minimum impact on the environment and to promote living in the most self-sufficient way possible.

Background:

When you are able to come on board and be a part of our project in whatever shape or form, we will be able to create an educational space for people to come together and share ideas on sustainable living, alternative building methods (not conventional) using hempcrete and permaculture principles. It will be a place where people can get hands-on experience in every aspect of the project and will have tools to start their own. 


Why Hempcrete?

Hempcrete is lightweight cementitious, bio-composite, insulating material, weighing about one seventh of the weight of concrete, which is rapidly gaining acceptance in mainstream construction industry. It is made from hemp fibre, lime binder and water.
This exceptional building material excels in its energy efficiency, temperature
and humidity management. It creates a healthy living environment, because of the use of non-toxic building materials, the breathability of the structure and its resistance against pests and molds. It is also highly fire proof.
Its energy efficiency ratings are very high and thus provide the owners with low energy bills both in summer (building stays cool) and winter (building keeps heat).

The growing of industrial hemp for building absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and the use of lime has a much lower carbon impact than cement due to much lower energy requirements to process lime.  When hempcrete is produced it continues to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere
Modern concrete is an inherently high carbon producing process that gives out large  volumes of CO2.


Objective [Where the money will go to?]:

Hempcrete homes are long lasting. The average home is estimated to last 50-100 years. Hempcrete, on the other hand, has the incredible life span of at least 300-500 years, if not longer and is recyclable. It is truly the ultimate building material! To build an even more future proof way, we will also be using bio-technology. We will put in an off-grid electricity system, solar and wind powered, and use an eco-friendly hot water system. The septic tank will be providing us with a grey water system, where the filtered water can be re-used for irrigation.

Goals:

With this project we aim to influence people in the choices they make when creating their own home. We want to create awareness in our local and international community about the need for alternative and sustainable building methods, to train others and provide a model home open to interested visitors and in its building phase used as a training ground for workshops in bio-construction. After the building phase is over we want to remain a hub for people to come together and run hands-on workshops on sustainable living and permaculture. 


Timeline of Construction:

March 2021 - Complete External Construction and Internal Layout
.
November 2020 - Installation of Infrastructure and Hempcrete Materials
.
July 2020 - Land & Site Clearance, Building of Timber Frame Structure
.
March 2020 - Site Acquisition is completed!
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Sept 2019 - Down Payment on Site Acquisition & Fees (For full details, please download the Project's PDF Our Website)
.

Building Workshops [important events/dates]:

1. Using hempcrete in flooring.
2. How to build a Stone and hydraulic  Lime foundation plinth.
3. Timber framing for hempcrete construction.
4. Traditional roofing using beams, cane, hempcrete and tiles.
5. Stone wall renovation using hemp and lime mortar techniques. 
5. Hempcrete wall building using the shuttering technique. 
6. Lime and sand wall rendering.


Important Links:

Our website:
https://www.thehempcreteproject.net/

Facebook Page:
https://fb.me/hempcreteproject

Instagram Page:
https://www.instagram.com/the.hempcrete.project/

Get To Know Stephen: 
http://www.stephenhillguitars.com/

Get To Know Marjolein: 
http://www.inspira.info