With breathtaking views over Table Mountain, the world’s tallest building made of industrial hemp is set to open in Cape Town this June.
At 12 stories tall, the Hemp Hotel at 84 Harrison st. used carbon-negative materials that captured more carbon in the walls of the building than it emitted manufacturing them.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa believes that the cannabis and hemp industry could create 130,000 jobs in places like Afrimat Hemp—the producer of the so-called “HempCrete” blocks which went into the hotel.
Made from water, lime, hemp, and a cement binder, the blocks from Afrimat Hemp are made of entirely South African hemp, which along with selling to corporate clients, are also used to build a number of social housing projects in South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique.
For the Hemp Hotel, Afrimat Hemp partnered with Wolf Architects in Cape Town for the build.
The company admit that hemp construction is 20% more expensive than traditional materials, but the urgency with which some corporations want to help tackle climate change offers them a unqiue opportunity: selling carbon credits—but with buildings, rather than trees.
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“We can fund forests, or we can fund someone to live in a hemp house. It’s the same principle,” Afrimat Hemp’s carbon consultant Wihan Bekker told African News.
Company data shows that a 430 square foot house (40 square meters) produces 30 fewer tons of carbon than traditional methods, around what a mature tree can sequester in its roots across its lifetime.
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