Indian Company Develops Affordable Hemp-Based Home Prototype
GoHemp Agroventures, a company specializing in industrial hemp and hemp-based construction materials and located in Uttarakhand, India, has unveiled a prototype of an eco-friendly home built entirely from materials derived from processed hemp. The project’s architects, Namrata Kandwal and Gaurav Dixit, hope that this type of construction will be key to solving India’s long-standing issues with affordable and safe housing.
The home was built in the village of Phaldakot, in the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, using materials provided by local farmers. Notably, the prototype was constructed from hemp industry byproducts rather than specially cultivated plants, demonstrating the economic efficiency of the design. The two-story home covers an area of 73.3 square meters.
Designed for Extreme Conditions
According to Dixit, the house was specifically designed to withstand the extreme weather and natural conditions common in India. The hempcrete walls retain heat and protect the interior from drafts, which is especially useful in mountainous regions like Phaldakot, located in the Himalayan foothills at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. At the same time, the house is well-ventilated during the summer, when temperatures reach 95-104�F (35-40�C), and it can withstand monsoon winds and moderate earthquakes. The materials used do not rot or foster dangerous mold. Additionally, the lightweight nature of hemp-based materials adds an extra layer of safety in the event of structural collapse due to earthquakes or other natural disasters.
Fast and Cost-Effective Construction
The main advantage of the hemp home is the speed and low cost of construction. As Kandwal notes, all necessary materials can be grown and processed directly at the construction site using just one type of plant. “Given India’s population and its growth rate, if we plan to provide affordable and decent housing for everyone by 2050, we would need to import almost 60% of construction materials due to shortages within the country,” says Avlokita Aggarwal, a professor of architecture at the Indian Institute of Technology. “However, by using hemp as a universal raw material, we can produce everything needed-cement, beams, flooring, and other components-right at the building site. This approach also conserves India’s natural resources, such as sand for cement production, since all of these can be replaced by a single, endlessly renewable plant.”
According to the architects, about three tons of hemp stalks were used to build the prototype. The only non-hemp material used was the mortar for binding the hempcrete bricks, which was supplied by a company from Dehradun. Even the furniture and decorations inside the house were made from hemp or recycled wood. “We even used hemp oil to varnish the doors and window frames,” Kandwal notes.
The total construction cost was about $39,000, which included basic solar panels for water heating and electricity, as well as a 5,000-liter water tank beneath the house. The project’s creators emphasize that the cost would drop significantly with mass production.
GoHemp closely collaborated with another local hemp company, Namrata Hemp Company, which provided machinery for processing hemp stalks into building materials. The $13,000 machine can process up to one ton of hemp stalks per day and is considered an essential part of any future plan to build hemp homes across India.