Buzzby

House Of Hemp Breeds Controversy
Cannabis construction could be destroyed at end of the month
Brandon Swanson | The Prague Post | 01/25/2006

LITOMERICE, NORTH BOHEMIA - Petr Jacek's dream of turning the house he has made out of hemp into an environmentally friendly answer to rising housing costs in the Czech Republic is likely to go up in smoke.

A gardener, self-described "unofficial architect" and admitted marijuana aficionado, Jacek has spent nearly five years designing and building the two-story structure using hemp he grew himself in the small village of Trnovany, 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from this industrial town.

But regional officials here plan to raze the house unless Jacek, 38, submits paperwork before Jan. 31 detailing the structure's specifications — something he says he will not do. They say he must also pay a 30,000 K? ($1,265) application fee — money he says he does not have.

"Mr. Jacek's construction is illegal," says Jan Nejtek, head of the Regional Building Office in LITOMERICE. He says the building fails to meet technical construction requirements and does not conform to planning laws.

"We have turned to him more than once and given him the chance to apply for a construction permit," he says.

Jacek says he should not have to submit any building plans because the house is an experiment and a work of art. And even if he thought he should provide them, there would still be a problem.

"There are no technical specifications," he says. "I am working on an idea that is in my head."

Growing home

Jacek's house stands 6 meters (20 feet) tall and is built entirely out of natural and recycled materials. The foundation is stone, the windows come from old paneláks, and an industrial mixture of hemp, lime and clay provides the walls.

"If I had never smoked weed, I would have never thought to build the house," he says, sitting behind a tall beer in a bar in LITOMERICE.

He says he was looking for a way to build a home cheaply without harming the environment. When he heard about people in France using hemp for homes, he knew he wanted to try it.

Hemp, or cannabis, is legal as long as it contains less than 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance found in the plant and exploited for both leisure and medicinal purposes. Marijuana has an average THC content of 4 percent, whereas hemp's content is comparatively negligible.

Hemp fiber has been used for thousands of years for rope, sails, clothing and even food.

Jacek discovered that he could create a wall by weaving the stems of the plant together and binding them with lime and clay.

He says he eventually hopes to market the design to young, poor families.

Jacek says he has put nearly 80,000 K? into the project.

Budding concern

When he reported his experimental construction, Jacek says, government officials told him he could not build it from hemp.

Officials deny this.

"If hemp can improve construction in any way, I am not against the idea," Nejtek says. "But all this would have to be checked by experts."

Jacek says he had an architect look at the house and say that it was sound.

The problem people have with his hemp house is aesthetic, Jacek says, not structural.

"My neighbors say, 'It's terrible. Who would want to look at that? It should be in Africa,'" he says.

Indeed, Trnovany Mayor Katerina Tumová says she has nothing against Jacek's research, but she complained to the regional office because of how the building looked.

"Standing where it is, it doesn't really fit in the local environment; it disturbs the way the place looks," she says. "The best thing would be to move it to the outline areas, a place closer to nature, rather than leaving it in the middle of typical housing infrastructure."

Chronic misunderstanding

Hemp houses are nothing new, and have caused public outcry in many places where they have been built.

The Pine Ridge Timber Framing Project "stirred up a hornet's nest" in South Dakota in the late 1990s with the construction of a 2,400-square-foot (223-square-meter) house using hemp materials, says Tom Cook, the project's director.

"We did encounter objections to the construction from neighbors," he says. "And they were severe."

In spite of Oglala Sioux tribal sovereignty, the project has been in federal court battles, most recently Dec. 12. Cook says that misinformation is what fuels the debate about hemp.

"They only said hemp is marijuana and marijuana is illegal, so we're building an illegal house," he says. "Of course, their objections were emotional and had to do with the 'message' being sent about hemp."

Pipe dreams

Jacek says he will continue with his plans in spite of the government.

"I will build it again, but I will built it smarter," he says. "I won't make the same mistakes as last time."

But with Jacek's refusal to get government approval for his hemp house, it's hard to see how he will be able to avoid the one mistake that threatens his current construction.

He says that he may move to Kazakhstan or Armenia, where he can be left to continue his project in peace.

He is resigned to his house's likely fate, but does not despair.

"If it is ruined, flowers will grow there anyway," he says.
—
— Petr Kaspar and Sylvie Dejmková contributed to this report.

Brandon Swanson can be reached at bswanson@praguepost.com

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killer12382

"He says that he may move to Kazakhstan or Armenia, where he can be left to continue his project in peace."

Oh sure, thats two really safe places.

StewScum

i wannna see some pictures

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Life is like a pot of stew, if you don't stir it up every once and a while, all the scum rises to the top -Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.

Buzzby

Click the link to the original article. I tried to include the picture but for some reason the forum software choked on it.

StewScum

I can't believe that dudes tree house is stirring up any controversy. He should be congradulated for having the balls to live in something like that in Europe, and if it works, hell, could be some very affordable housing. We might have hemp towns. I don't think i'd live in it though, it looks like i could kick a hole in the wall.

Buzzby

It looks like the kind of tarpaper shack that homeless people put up under bridges. If someone set one up next door, the bottom would fall out of your property values.


I'd have to agree. We owe some respect to our neighbors.