The world’s tallest hemp hotel has been completed in South Africa. In Cape Town, South Africa, the 12-story hotel made completely out of hemp-Crete has been getting finishing touches. This building boasts an extremely small ecological footprint and is the world’s tallest building created with hemp materials. Although not opened yet, the plan is for the hotel to be opened within the next couple of months.
The 54-room hemp hotel is due to be completed in June. Right now, workers are placing the final touches on the tower. The tower itself is made entirely from hemp-crete, a new and widely sustainable material that could rival the ever-popular concrete. Hemp bricks are also fire resistant and climate friendly compared to the alternative.
Hemp bricks are often used, most notably in Europe. They are used for thermal renovation of existing buildings. These bricks are also carbon-negative meaning that their production sucks more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it puts in. Compared to concrete, this brick is significantly more sustainable.
“The plant absorbs the carbon, it gets put into a block and is then stored into a building for 50 years or longer,” explains Boshoff Muller, director of Afrimat Hemp, a subsidiary of South African construction group Afrimat, which produced the bricks for the hotel.
The cost for these hemp bricks are rather expensive now, compared to concrete. Technology isn’t as widely available nor as common. But although there is a hefty price tag, the benefits of switching to hemp-crete are significant in the long run.
Many companies are choosing to adapt this hemp material instead of the usual concrete to benefit those living on the planet in the future. Climate change is one of the largest problems this generation and the next face. Making the switch from concrete to hemp is one of the many things we can do as a society to reduce the effects of climate change.
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