It will be a case of grow your own home at The LifestyleGreen Show this September. The NIE Your Energy sponsored event on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September at Castle Espie, Comber, will feature a building made from recycled products.

Using materials such as reclaimed glass panes, bottles, tyres, waste packaging and wood, the Reed Room will feature hemp, which as a building material actually reverses the impact of global warming.

The hemp crete mix used for the structure and render is breathable and is ideal for a healthy environment. The cordwood walls will utilise non-native trees such as Leylandii and Sitka Spruce, which once debarked and seasoned, will be successfully preserved with the hemp crete’s alkalinity.

 Read & Inwardly Digest!

A first on the island of Ireland, the building, which will remain at Castle Espie after the event as a visitor reading room, will illustrate how it is possible to create a living space from locally-sourced material. The Triangle Room will be environmentally friendly, energy efficient and earthquake-proof!

As many people face the insecurity of high mortgage repayments, escalating home heating costs and the effects of the current credit crunch, a house using the principles of this concept will produce more energy than it consumes. It offers a viable solution as a dwelling of the future, proving that sustainable building design using readily available products, is not only aesthetically pleasing but also economically smart and climate-clever.

Earth-filled recycled tyres will provide the three columns that will frame the triangular build. Local company Hempire Building Limited will supply hemp from their Northern Ireland base at, Drenagh, Limavady.

Commenting, Philip Allen, a director with Hempire and Triangle Room project manager said:

“From a sustainable perspective, thousands of homes, rather than hundreds could be built without encroaching on food producing land, using the methods employed for this concept at Castle Espie. The conventional building industry and high energy housing is responsible for nearly half (48%) of all CO2 emissions. Hemp Lime which is stronger and lighter than concrete, is an exciting solution to many of our most urgent environmental problems from fuel crop to a proven construction material.”

Continuing: “Hemp is the only biomass crop that is dual purpose, yielding both energy material and food. The seeds are highly valuable as a source of Omega oils 3, 6 & 9; in fact humans could survive on hemp seeds! The versatility of hemp today has led to the development of many products made from the plant. These include bread, pasta, ice cream, beer, toothpaste, shampoo, soap and other toiletries.

Hemp’s historic use in the textile, rope and canvas industries before replacement by today’s synthetic fibres, means that this versatile plant is now enjoying a well-earned revival.”

Other features of the Reed Room will be a reed bed sewage system, under floor heating using the thermal properties of the sun, a heated seating area, a grey water system and a flat strong roof top garden.

Insulation under the roof will keep the naturally sourced heat within the building. A mix of polystyrene packaging to inlcude dry food packagaing and larger polystyrene protective packaging will be inserted under the roof.

Aside of being free of charge and highly efficient this is also a way of re-using packaging which is usually difficult to recycle conventionally.

A glass panel at the front of the build will bring both light and energy into the room. Tomato plants and other food crops will grow in this space. Outdoors a kitchen garden on a miniature scale, will continue the theme of self-sufficiency and will include a pond made from tyres to attract nature’s natural pollinators into the area.

Although this is a concept at this stage it offers possible solutions for those interested in achieving a more self sufficient lifestyle which both reduces the impact on the environment and gives quality of life.

The building and garden will continue to evolve at Castle Espie with innovatory additions to the structure and the surroundings.

It will also provide a basis for ongoing research to record heat levels throughout the year for comparison purposes.

Links: www.HempireBuilding.co.uk www.wwt.org.uk/visit/castleespie/