Hemp in construction - The Hempcrete Topic: Designing and Building with Hemp-lime - page 18

Hempcrete used as a replacement for wattle and daub.
More detailed information on the way hempcrete works within a building's fabric can be
found in Chapters 4 and 7 .
Is building with hemp a new phenomenon? It hardly seems likely that human civilizations
would have cultivated the plant for millennia for such a wide range of uses without using it
in their buildings. It is unlikely, however, that physical evidence of any such use in ancient
times would survive, since plant-based building materials will of course eventually decay,
returning to the soil from whence they came. After all, that is one aspect of the very reason
that we are interested in them today: a low-impact building material will allow us to house
ourselves 'lightly', without leaving a legacy of adverse effects on the environment behind
us.
There is some evidence, however, that building with hemp did not start in the twentieth
century and, further, that properly maintained hemp buildings can last for centuries. A his-
toric hemp house in Miasa village, in the Nagano prefecture of Japan, now recognized as
a Japanese national heritage site, was built in 1698 and survives in good condition to this
day.