Sustainable house being built in Cooriemungle using a hemp material

Amidst the dairy farms of Cooriemungle a house is being built using the product.

The architect and builder behind the Cooriemungle project is Ben Kampschoer. He is erecting the house for his parents to live in on their dairy farm.

Ben's father, Wim, said the family aimed to live self-sufficiently, with the material perfect to help them be more sustainable.

Agriculture Victoria said the cannabis plant could be legally grown for medicinal uses, but also for use as a fibre, in cosmetics and food.

The Kampschoers will be assisted by south-west tradespeople, including Warrnambool's Billy Gardner.

The appliances in the house will run off solar power and will use heating pumps for the hot water service.

Wim said the family drove around in a Holden Commodore, but hoped to become more sustainable with their car by purchasing a hybrid vehicle in the future.

"We want to minimise our impact on the environment," Wim said.

"That's what we've always been doing."

While the building material can be grown and sold across various states in Australia, the Kampschoer's imported the material from the Netherlands.

Ben said the fibrous product was made from the cannabis plant and was mixed with lime and water to form the foundations.

"There's 600 millimetre courses. You put the formwork, timber panels on, then you pack in the hemp and put another layer of formwork on it.

"You work away around the building in strips.

"The idea is not to press it like you would in masonry because there's air inside the chips but then there's also air in the walls - that's your insulation.

"It is also mould resistant."

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He said the layers of hemp would then be coated with plaster.

Ben said the project started in May 2022 and was expected to be completed by June.

He said the house was built and designed the same way as homes using other materials.

"If people come and have a look they will understand it and that it's just like any other construction material," he said.

"The material cost is equivalent but at the moment it's the labour.

"I think that's just because it's an industry that's been building houses with bricks for 100 years so we know how to build with bricks.

"Hempcrete is quick to use so I think when it gets to that level of popularity, which I think it eventually will, it's probably going to be comparable.

"Probably the biggest thing is getting trades to become aware of it."

Ben came across the material when designing a home in Melbourne.

"A client came in said 'we want to build a hempcrete house'," Ben said.

"My boss used to say yes to everything, so he said 'yes, we can do that' and so we designed them a house.

"It was during the COVID-19 pandemic so the first time I saw the material was when we were on-site building - they did it DIY.

"I learnt lots of things and was sold on the material.

"It does lots of things by being insulating, as cladding, being fireproof and termite resistant and it reduces carbon."

Ben was sceptical about the material at first.

"I think you've got to see it," he said.

"That's why I encourage people to come and have a look because you can talk all you like.

"I went up to the house I designed in Lyonville in central Victoria and was there casting the walls then coming back to have a look at them cured.

"I thought 'I now see the benefits of it, now I understand it'."

He has also been met with jokes when telling people what material was being used to build the house.

Wim was also sceptical at first, but said he had now been won over.

"At the start I was really sceptical about it because you've got this fibrous material and its going to be a wall," he said.

"You're tapping it down and it's really soft, but within 24-hours it's standing up on its own.

"The idea is to have a rendered layer on top of it - you have the three layers of render - then you seal it first and make it all level, then the last render you can have a colouring in it."

"If this is exposed to the weather all the time then it would eventually break or fall down," Wim said.

"It dries like cement."

Ben said while hempcrete had insulating properties, they would install reverse cycling cooling, run by solar panels, and a wood fired heater in the house, with the aim being to minimise the use of both appliances.

"We're not expecting to use them all of winter or all of summer," he said.

"But the idea is that once you move in it will be a low cost of operation."

New houses being built in Victoria must meet a minimum energy efficiency rating of seven stars.

This home will be 7.8.

In late-August 2022, the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) raised the rating from six to seven.

This incorporates heating and cooling, hot water and lighting.

DEECA said energy efficient homes were more comfortable to live in, cost less to heat and cool and helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The new standards will begin in Victoria in October as part of the National Construction Code 2022.

The state government said it would remove barriers to installing efficient electric hot water systems under the new code. It also said it would help households experience further benefits from investing in solar panels and support Victorians who chose all-electric new homes.

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