State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction

Carbon-neutral and carbon-negative construction is gaining significant interest in the home building industry. Accordingly, the development of new materials and innovative redesign of the existing materials are on the rise. This paper presents the results of a review study on hempcrete as a new, eme...

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Main Authors: Anthony C. Jellen, Ali M. Memari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Designs
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2411-9660/9/2/44
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author Anthony C. Jellen
Ali M. Memari
author_facet Anthony C. Jellen
Ali M. Memari
author_sort Anthony C. Jellen
collection DOAJ
description Carbon-neutral and carbon-negative construction is gaining significant interest in the home building industry. Accordingly, the development of new materials and innovative redesign of the existing materials are on the rise. This paper presents the results of a review study on hempcrete as a new, emerging construction material, which is crop-based and is accordingly expected to provide a highly sustainable construction system. The paper reviews the mixture design, properties and attributes, different methods for its application in construction, building code requirements for construction of hempcrete homes, mechanical and structural properties for home building, and evaluation of the current state of hempcrete application as a non-load-bearing construction material. The paper also reviews the status of developments toward using hempcrete as a load-bearing system. The study shows a snapshot of the methods used for the construction of hempcrete buildings and touches on efforts that are ongoing to increase the compressive strength of hempcrete toward load-bearing applications. Such an increase would depend on different factors such as curing temperature and humidity, binder type and percentage, hemp-to-binder ratio, water-to-binder ratio, and additives.
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spelling doaj-art-824fdfe64fba44ca93649b360d98d0152025-08-20T02:28:12ZengMDPI AGDesigns2411-96602025-04-01924410.3390/designs9020044State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building ConstructionAnthony C. Jellen0Ali M. Memari1Jellen Engineering Services, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050, USADepartment of Architectural Engineering and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USACarbon-neutral and carbon-negative construction is gaining significant interest in the home building industry. Accordingly, the development of new materials and innovative redesign of the existing materials are on the rise. This paper presents the results of a review study on hempcrete as a new, emerging construction material, which is crop-based and is accordingly expected to provide a highly sustainable construction system. The paper reviews the mixture design, properties and attributes, different methods for its application in construction, building code requirements for construction of hempcrete homes, mechanical and structural properties for home building, and evaluation of the current state of hempcrete application as a non-load-bearing construction material. The paper also reviews the status of developments toward using hempcrete as a load-bearing system. The study shows a snapshot of the methods used for the construction of hempcrete buildings and touches on efforts that are ongoing to increase the compressive strength of hempcrete toward load-bearing applications. Such an increase would depend on different factors such as curing temperature and humidity, binder type and percentage, hemp-to-binder ratio, water-to-binder ratio, and additives.https://www.mdpi.com/2411-9660/9/2/44hemphempcretehome buildingcrop-based construction materialthermal insulationsustainable construction
spellingShingle Anthony C. Jellen
Ali M. Memari
State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction
Designs
hemp
hempcrete
home building
crop-based construction material
thermal insulation
sustainable construction
title State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction
title_full State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction
title_fullStr State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction
title_full_unstemmed State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction
title_short State-of-the-Art Review of Hempcrete for Residential Building Construction
title_sort state of the art review of hempcrete for residential building construction
topic hemp
hempcrete
home building
crop-based construction material
thermal insulation
sustainable construction
url https://www.mdpi.com/2411-9660/9/2/44
work_keys_str_mv AT anthonycjellen stateoftheartreviewofhempcreteforresidentialbuildingconstruction
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