Image by Oskar Proctor. Source: Practice Architecture
Material Cultures
Flat House
2019
Flat House is an experimental single family home built from hemp grown locally on site. It was commissioned by Steve Barron, owner of R&D facility Margent Farm in Cambridgeshire, to test the possibilities of hemp and other natural resources as building materials. Flat House led to the establishment of Material Cultures, a research cluster which is looking to further investigate and, eventually, produce the ultra-low embodied carbon construction system at scale.
Tags
Architecture Materials Hemp UK Sustainability Rural Houses 2010s Experimental
We are still working on this feature but have chosen to upload our work in progress: this is the network of creative connection surrounding Flat House by Material Cultures. Check back soon to see a more detailed and interactive version.
The birth of his first granddaughter prompted filmmaker Steve Barron "think about the future, what [he is] leaving behind. […] There are so many things to cure in this world," and through pioneering the use of hemp he wanted to "try and contribute and do something for our world, our planet." [1] Barron approached Paloma Gormley, looking for a building that "was experimental and that could act as a demonstration of the viability of hemp as a construction material." [2] The result, Flat House, was designed to "demonstrate how a low-tech approach and bio-based materials can be combined with offsite construction to create a scalable low-impact, beautiful architecture." [3] It is a prototype, proving the feasibility of prefabricated hemp-based construction to be used more widely on bigger projects across a range of developments. [4]
Image by Oskar Proctor. Source: Practice Architecture
At this time, Practice Architecture’s Paloma Gormley was already looking for alternatives to address sustainability in architecture that go beyond merely reducing operational carbon [5] and that “respond to evolving societal needs without the disastrous effects of current modes of production and growth.” For Gormley, Flat House was a testing ground for a “bio-based material system [that] can be produced efficiently at a regional scale and integrate with existing crop cycles.” [6]
Margent Farm, Oldhurst Rd, Pidley, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 3FB, England. Source: Google Earth
Gormley and Barron searched for a suitable home for Margent Farm together — the property they found is located just outside of Pidley in Cambridgeshire and had some old farm buildings still standing. "Planning permission was granted on the basis that the new building was set within the existing framework or perimeter of the then cattle yard." [7] It was designed to integrate the existing structures and retain the old steel frame. Barron applied for a hemp-growing licence and the first years harvest was used to construct the building. [8] "Working closely with engineers and material specialists we developed a prefabricated panel infilled with hemp grown on 20 acres of the farm." [9]
A post by Margent Farm showing the property before construction. Source: Instagram
The building's logic is low-tech and high performance, it is conceived as an alternative to petroleum based construction. This alternative approach brings with it a variety of expansive differences to the Oil Vernacular: "The body of the house is entirely made of materials that have been grown" [10] and "the careful orchestration of natural materials creates a building that regulates humidity, temperature and air quality without the need for any ducting or equipment." [11]
Video by The Modern House. Source: YouTube
Working with hempcrete allowed for a "truth to materials." [12] "Natural materials invite direct contact, experimentation and play:" Gormley and her collaborators had a direct relationship with the material, developing 1:1 prototypes and a new design language appropriate to its constituent parts and with "the potential to supersede those we have inherited from a narrow lineage of authors." [13]
Image by Paloma Gormley. Source: Practice Architecture
"The hemp had to be processed to separate the different elements of the plant – seed, fibre and shiv (the chopped woody core, used to make hempcrete) – and [the team] set out to develop a design that integrated the different materials produced." [14] The wall panels on the interior of the building are made with the shiv, while the "building’s exterior walls are clad with Margent’s corrugated hemp fibre rain sheets." [15] Noting the poetic nature of this construction, Barron remarks that building the building was almost like putting the hemp plant back together. [16]
Image by Paloma Gormley. Source: Practice Architecture
In an interview with the Architects’ Journal, Gormley explains that "plants sequester carbon as they grow, so if large transport distances aren’t involved, plant-based materials store more carbon than they produce." [17] In the book Material Reform, published by Material Cultures in 2022, they acknowledge that the reality of building with emerging materials:
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"At the moment, machinery to process hemp and flax straw is expensive and unevenly distributed, meaning that while these crops might be grown locally, they often need to travel great distances to a processing plant and back. For example, on [Flat House], hemp grown on-site had to travel to Yorkshire to a processing plant that had facilities to remove fire from the straw shiv and cut the shiv into shorter lengths. The shiv and the fibres then separated – the shiv was driven to Buckinghamshire, where it was bound with lime and cast into timber cassettes, while the fibres were shipped to France, were they were needle punched into a mat and impregnated with sugar resin and pressed into sheets of cladding. All the components were then delivered back to the site for assembly into the final building." [18]
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Another relevant concern, brought up by architect Thibaut Barrault in an article by the BBC, is the lime component of hempcrete: "'Hemp is great, but lime is still something that you should question as a sustainable issue,' he says. The production of lime requires heating limestone to approximately 1,000C, which emits carbon." [19]
Source: That Hempcrete Guy
These concerns notwithstanding, the team went to great lengths to maximize sustainability efforts on the project: "All of the remaining materials on site were used in the construction, a short distance from the house, of the CASS studio, a small building designed and built by students led by David Grandorge and [Paloma Gormley]." [20] They also made efforts to incorporate sustainability into the entire life cycle of the building: "At the end of the building's life, its elements can be reused or mulched and returned to the hemp fields in the form of fertiliser. In this way, building can become a gathering and recomposing of different elements of the landscape." [21]
Image by Oskar Proctor. Source: Practice Architecture
Human health was a factor in the creation of Flat House which is why the aesthetics of the building are also carefully considered. "The house draws from centuries-old material technologies and construction principles, re-rationalising them for contemporary building techniques." [22] "Sharing some of the methodology of Tudor construction, the building also has a historic quality, not just in the expression of the interior but in the atmosphere created by being in contact with 'real stuff.'" [23]
Image by Oskar Proctor. Source: Practice Architecture
Skeptical at first, hemp expert Will Stanwix, remarks that "prefabricated hempcrete panels […] proved incredibly easy to manufacture and very cost effective." He also emphasizes the raw hempcrete makes it feel "as though the room is giving you great big hug." [24] For carpenter Oscar Cooper, "having the opportunity to participate in the design and build of a structure that is attempting to create a synergy of restorative carbon-negative construction techniques with the provision of beautiful, healthy homes feels like a step towards a future we might be able to be proud of." He "continues to be inspired by the direction of travel that this project and others like it are going in, breaking a paradigm that assumes depletion of resources and the environment as a necessary part of human progress and provision of needs and shelter." [25]
Ground Floor Plan and First Floor Plan. Source: Architects' Journal
"The project has led to the establishment of Material Cultures, a research organisation which is exploring natural materials in the context of off-site construction." [26] It has also led to a number of projects in which Gormley and her collaborators are attempting to scale up the approach. "The first of those developments […] is the Phoenix Project alongside the River Ouse in the town of Lewes, East Sussex. The 700-home development includes 100 designed by Material Cultures with developer Human Nature. The plan is to prefabricate hempcrete panels in a warehouse already on site." [27] Paloma Gormley’s concern with prefabrication can be explained through her belief that by "co-opting the efficiency of mass production, decarbonised materials could change the course of the construction industry." [28]
"It's important to remember that carbon calculating is a fairly blunt tool when it comes to designing for ecology and we really need to be going much deeper in understandig the impact of the things we make. […] I've begun tentatively using the phrase 'circular ecology', an attempt to describe a construction logic in which buildings emerge from, and then reintegrate into, the landscape." [32]
Paloma Gormley, Practice Architecture
Gormley’s wider ambitions are to "change the terms on which buildings can be made." She desires an interdependence that will emerge between growing and construction cycles [which] means that seasonality and soil conditions become significant architectural considerations and that the stakeholders in our construction industry are no longer solely human." Though it breaks with the current logic of mainstream sustainability, to Gormley this is no novel idea: "Entropy is the enemy of reuse but the friend of biological processes. In our research practice we are interested in construction materials that can remain part of these biochemical and nutrient cycles, and modes of construction where the constituent parts of a building ultimately return to the ground. Rather than being contaminants, materials would belong to the landscape – which is how we have made things for thousands of years." [29]
Source: Practice Architecture
Alex de Rijke sees in Flat House a clear "message to the construction industry in the context of the climate crisis: don’t just talk about paradigm change while continuing with business as usual – do something positive about" [30] it. Or as Gormley says: "Transforming the construction industry is a momentuous task but a necessary one and a process that presents compelling opportunities to rebuild the cultures defining our built environment for the better." [31]
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Photos
Image by Oskar Proctor. Source: Practice Architecture
Image by Oskar Proctor. Source: Practice Architecture
Image by Paloma Gormley. Source: Practice Architecture
Image by Paloma Gormley. Source: Practice Architecture
Image by Paloma Gormley. Source: Practice Architecture
For the original sources and more photos, check out any of the pages listed under Further Reading.
Drawings
Ground Floor Plan and First Floor Plan. Source: Architects' Journal
South West Elevation. Source: Material Cultures
North East Elevation. Source: Material Cultures
South East Elevation. Source: Material Cultures
Section B-B. Source: Architects' Journal
Section A-A. Source: Architects' Journal
Panel Axonometric. Source: Material Cultures
Perspective Section through Floor and Wall. Source: Architects' Journal
For the original sources and more drawings, check out Material Cultures, Architects’ Journal, Huntingdonshire District Council, Architecture Today’s Fact Sheet, and Subtilitas.
Further Reading
Sources
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Related Entries
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Bibliographical Information
Contributors: Aurelia Goldlücke, Lion Tautz
First published 31.08.2023. Last updated 01.11.2023.
Note: In a previous version of this entry, Flat House was credited to Practice Architecture. We have updated the post to reflect changes in attribution brought to our attention by Paloma Gormley. 01.11.2023
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Cite this entry in APA 7 (remember to adjust the retrieval date):
Goldlücke, A.; Tautz, L. (2023, August 31). Flat House by Material Cultures. Database of Hope. Retrieved Month Day, Year from https://www.databaseofhope.com/flat-house-material-cultures
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