HFT Hemp Building Symposium 2024 - Review

Whether in combination with lime, clay, geopolymer or mushroom mycelium - the natural building material hemp combines a variety of properties.
The two-day symposium presented the world‘s oldest cultivated plant and was aimed at architects, interior designers, structural engineers and all those interested in the topic of “building with hemp”. The focus was on working with hemp shives, with both basic and expert knowledge being passed on. The design potential was demonstrated by lighthouse projects that have already been realised. Obstacles and challenges were discussed and strategies for scaling up through the development of innovative processes were presented, such as the prefabrication of wooden elements with rammed hemp lime.
After the theoretical discourse on the first day, the practical application of different construction methods was demonstrated on the second day.
The hemp building symposium was organised by the study programme of Interior Architecture at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Architecture and Design. Following the symposium, the contents will now be compiled and made available to the public in a publication.

The symposium was organised by a committee consisting of Prof. Jens Betha, Head of the Laboratory for Natural Building Materials, Dipl. Des. Melissa Acker and Patricia Klier M.A. in cooperation with hemp engineer Henrik Pauly M.Eng.

Many thanks to the Verein der Freunde der HFT and all other project partners, volunteers and participating companies.
Further information: www.hanfbausymposium.hft-stuttgart.de

In the first thematic block, an overview of the plant, its history and the hemp cultivation industry at international and national level was given.

The second thematic block dealt with the introduction to various processing options for hemp lime: RAMMED- MASONRY- SPRAYED- PREFABRICATED.
This block served as a theoretical introduction to the practical part on Saturday afternoon.

In addition to lime as a binding agent, hemp shives can also be combined with other materials. The most important ones have been briefly explained in this block:
HEMP + CLAY / MYCELIUM / GEOPOLYMER.

In the last block of the symposium, the hemp cultivation methods explained the day before were demonstrated in practice:
RAMMING - MASONRY - SPRAYING - HEMP + MYCELIUM

The symposium offered companies, for example from the hemp building materials industry, the opportunity to present themselves and their products to the Stuttgart audience as part of an exhibition. In addition, there was a product pitch as part of the programme, in which companies were given 60 seconds to present their company and products.

Also on display were acoustic elements made of hemp shives in combination with natural lime or geopolymer by third-semester students of the International Master of Interior-Architectural Design (imiad).
More information at www.hft-stuttgart.com/studies/fields-of-study/architecture-and-design/projects/imiad-hemp-and-acoustics

The symposium has shown how important formats are for interdisciplinary exchange and knowledge transfer between planners, experts, craftspeople and students. The aim is to create synergies and jointly develop innovations to make natural building materials suitable for mass use - for a more sustainable built environment.

A publication summarising the contents of the Hemp Building Symposium is currently in preparation. The book is intended to disseminate knowledge on the topic of “Building with hemp” among students, planners, craftsmen, experts, builders and other interested parties and thus make a small contribution to the building revolution.