Our house sits inside the Narara Ecovillage and I was lucky to learn about building with hemp from one of my future neighbours. Before we built the village, a group of us used to gather for potluck dinners and share dreams and information about natural build homes - straw, hemp, cob. We were a great support to each other.
Later, we helped each other raise the walls and feed the troups! I fell in love with hemp when I learned you could grow enough hemp to build your home in just 4 months, all the while giving back to the earth. I also loved that hemp absorbed sound, breathed and was fire resistant. The external walls are a mixture of Corten and Weathetex cladding and render on the hemp.
The architects did a great job on the passive solar design - the winter sun streams onto the thermal mass of the acid washed concrete floor and warms up our Mudtec mud brick interior wall. We only turned on our air conditioners twice last winter. I wanted large glazing on the east though, where our view is, so we put extra solar on the roof to power the air cons in summer. External shading got us the 9 stars still and we have lots of cross ventilation including some high windows. The windows are double glazed, wood on the inside and metal on the outside - I am so grateful for the low maintenance!
My husband had made a vege garden for a friend's uncle - he repaid us tenfold with all the recycled hardwood for the home from his local demolition business. I had an amazing builder who liked working with natural and recycled materials. He and the team helped pull out a beautiful wood kitchen from Sydney and we teamed it with some granite offcuts from a local kitchen supplier. It feels so lovely to be in a reused kitchen!
We had some fun too doing a hemp feature wall (unrendered) and building a walk in pantry that features our recycled hardwood all sanded back to its original glory. There's the rainwater tanks, hot water pumps, compost toilets, battery, EV etc so come along for a yarn
