During this summer the association Konopa welcomed youth interested in natural building to try out how they can use hemp as a building material. Three workshops took place in south Bohemia. Altogether, these 30 young people, mainly from Czech Republic, learnt how to prepare hemp-lime and hemp-clay mixture and apply it to walls, ceilings or floors.

Thanks to theoretical part of the workshops, the participants discovered different interesting properties of such materials like its breathability, heat and acoustic insulation capacity or ability to store the heat in its mass. Next to it, an environmental impact of materials used was examined. The description of the life cycle of hemp building materials will be one of the main outcomes of the project. Parts of the production process - from the seed to the application in a house - are documented in video too.

Those interested in the topic can visit our virtual photogallery at www.konopa.cz or come and see the picture exhibition at the 2nd edition of hemp exposition ‘Cannafest' on 25th - 27th November in Prague (www.cannafest.cz).

The project ‘We Build with Nature: Hemp Odyssey' is organised as a national youth initiative with the support of Youth in Action programme. For the spring - summer 2012, Konopa would like to continue with this project. They will prepare an international workshop focusing on the transfer of the knowledge and skills obtained during 2011 actions to other youth NGOs: "We'd like to invite young people from neighbouring countries, experts from western Europe, mainly from France and Ireland, as well as our friends from Eastern Europe and Balkan countries that we know that have strong interest in building with natural materials, hemp included. We aim to create a long-term cooperation with those that decided to live sustainably. For infinite joy and love." says the main organiser Michal Ruman.

"This summer I had the chance to experience first-hand what is hemp building all about. As EVS volunteer in YEE, I was invited to one of the hemp building workshops organized and run by the YEE member organization Konopa, from the Czech Republic. During four days we went through all the stages of the reconstruction of a house: isolation of walls and floor, revetment of chimney and other ornaments. We worked on the preparation of the mixtures of materials, analyzing the advantages of all of them and learning why it is important to use certain materials in certain places.

Last day, we enjoyed the sun with a bike trip. Our final destination was an already built straw house. Lukas, the owner and builder of the house, showed us his 'piece of art' explaining us which materials and techniques he used and what was the result after some years living in. Lukas' house won the 'Environmental Oscar' Energy Globe Award in 2011 (see www.energyglobe.com)."

Mercedes Fioravanti (EVS volunteer in YEE)

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
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