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Biographies
Steve Allin
Steve Allin has enthusiastically pioneered the use of hemp in building in Ireland and internationally for the last 12 years & is the author of “Building with Hemp” 2006. He has also contributed articles to a variety of publications from the Green Building Bible to Cannabis Culture magazine.
He was a director of Hemp Ireland Ltd. (1998-2003) which was set up to research and develop a Hemp processing facility in Ireland. The information gained from this helped in developing the plans for a truly sustainable industrial production of hemp on a local community level as a bioregional approach to the production of basic ecologically appropriate food, biomass and building materials.
The use of hemp in construction was seen by Steve as the best way to expand the production of hemp and a way to increase the value of the hemp wood element of the crop.
In his activities connected to actually using the materials he has experimented with many different combinations of ingredients to create a binder for hempcrete and has consulted with different projects all over the world, from Austria to Canada and Slovakia to the U.K. And has worked on projects in Switzerland and all over Ireland.
He is currently acting as an advisor to the Eco Village project in Cloughjordan, Ireland and to students and Industrialists on the development of breathable binders suitable for use with hemp.
Noel André
An early convert to the enormous potential of Hemp, Noel André formed La Chanvrière du Belon in the late 1980's and was the first to evolve a small scale bio-regional processing facility in Brittany, France. As director of Technichanvre he has been promoting the use of hempcrete and hemp plaster materials as well as the use of hemp fibre insulation panels and soundproof matting.
Carol Atkinson, Kate Grubb, Alison Jardine
Three ladies who all have an interest in building with hemp. Kate has just built a hemp house in Shropshire, Alison is an architect with planning permission for a hemp bungalow in Scotland and Carol has nearly finished a straw house in Yorkshire that incorporates 2 hemp walls and lots of hemp reinforced plaster!
Terry Barman
Terry's interest in food led him to the possibilities of hemp seed and the potential of hemp as a crop in Ireland. After making contacts in the Linen industry in Northern Ireland he and others formed Hemp Ireland Ltd (1998-2003) to research the possibilities of small scale on-field processing machinery. Various systems were identified for the harvesting, storing and processing for niche markets for hemp in Ireland.
Monika Brümmer
Monika studied Architecture at the University of Arts Berlin, with her thesis being ‘Building with Hemp’, this project was written on hemp paper and completed with models of hemp fibre board and other hemp materials. The tests she carried out during this work formed the basis for the load bearing hemp bricks made now by the company in Gaudix Spain she formed in 1999, Cannabric. These hemp bricks were developed, together with loam building experts in Spain, to the Spanish norm of UNE 41410 and are used in new build projects, restoration and rehabilitation jobs. Since Monika discovered the versatile nature of hemp materials her enthusiasm has not waned. She also works as a consultant and organises courses and workshops on the subject.
Tony Budden
Tony will be speaking on Industrial Hemp and its applications in Africa. Tony
is a partner in Hemporium, South Africa's premiere hemp company. Hemporium aims to educate people about the industrial hemp plant and its multitude of uses by providing an array of products made from this versatile plant. He is also
involved in environmental issue awareness, and hopes to play a part implementing in the changes necessary to correct the ecological balance of our planet.
Ralph Carpenter
Ralph runs Modece Architects in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in the U.K. together with Richard Scales. He was the first architect in Britain to use the hemp-lime system at the housing development in Haverhill. This project was monitored by the BRE and the study when published created a wave of interest around the world and was largely responsible for the material being taken seriously by the construction industry.
Jayeson Hendyrsan
Jayeson Hendyrsan is a true pioneer in the green building industry. Living on the Pacific Northwest coast of Canada, he has been engaged in the alternative building industry for over ten years. His vision encompasses both a personal and ecological mandate to create healthy, affordable and sustainable housing options for those who want beautiful and healthy homes.
In a world ever more ecologically stressed, and a building industry that does harm to that ecosystem, a mission of creating both an energy efficient and durable shelter is a critical factor. A secure and safe home is a foundational human need… and basic human right.
Extensive experimentation, as well as plain old trial and error, led to the development of a hemp-fiber based, lightweight concrete and incorporating sustainably harvested local timber he built one of the first “hempcrete” single family dwellings in North America, the expansion of which is currently underway. Intrinsic values of the material itself create radiant warmth in winter, passive air conditioning in summer, resistance to rodents and insects, fire and mold. Many visitors remark on the ambiance and warm “feeling” of the house.
Jayeson is currently researching the possibility of having his hemp-building project qualify for Platinum LEED standard for Green Building design. Using hemp-concrete building techniques, there is also a potential to achieve low cost housing projects in poorer regions of the world.
Ladislav Krejza
Ladislav Krejza is a electronic engineer from Slovakia. Having learnt about the hemp buillding system he traveled to Avignon to train with Canosmose. With little previous experience he set about putting this knowledge into action by building his own house.
Joseph Little
Joseph Little
A committed environmental architect, Joseph has been promoting
hemp-lime construction since 2003 when he came across the concept
while studying for his Masters in environmental construction in the
Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. His practice, founded the
same year, specialises in low-energy, healthy forms of construction.
His latest initiative, Building Life Consultancy, launched the same
week as the conference, is focused on providing support to other
architects, building system manufacturers and builders to enable them
design and build lower energy, healthy buildings.
He is particularly fascinated with bringing together the two sides of
the environmental construction movement, i.e. the energy lobby and the
natural building materials lobby. Low energy without health is
dangerous, natural building materials without lower carbon-in-use also
seems a loss. Affordable Passivhaus construction using hemp-lime may
well be the Holy Grail.
A current test project at Slane Castle incorporates five different
approaches to internally insulating the stone walls of a well-built
19th Century farm building. Three of the approaches use hemp-lime.
It will be fully monitored and a paper published on the results.
Ian Pritchett
Ian has been involved with Lime as a building materials since 1986 when he started IJP a company specialising in the correct application of Lime mortars and plasters to ancient buildings. He has since then widened the scope of lime usage with Lime Technology UK, the company he formed to promote Lime products in new build projects where he started to include the use of hempcrete, joining with Hemcore and Lhoist to produce the Tradical® hemp-lime system for the UK and international markets. He has been involved with the biggest hemp building projects in the world to date, including Adnams brewery warehouse in Suffolk and the accommodation block at CAT in Wales. Lime Technology recently took control of Hemcore and the new company is called Hemp Technology.
Clarke Snell
Clarke Snell has been involved in the 'green' and 'natural' building world for quite a while and has written a couple of books on the topic, 'The Good House Book' and 'Building Green: A Complete How to Guide to Alternative Building Methods' He is currently getting ready to break ground on a unique hempcrete project in the US in Asheville, NC. As far as we know, it will be one of the first (if not the first), permitted hempcrete residences in the US. There are a number of unique aspects to the project and Clarke will be telling us all about these in his presentation at the Symposium.
Henry O'D Thompson
Henry O'D Thompson is a conservation builder with over 30 years experience, from castles to condos, cathedrals to cottages. He worked for many years overseas, America, Canada and England. He is a committee member of the Building Limes Forum Ireland and is on the traditional skills register of The Irish Georgian Society. He has completed many projects financed by the Heritage Council who have featured his work.
Hélène Vidal
Originally from Perpignan, South of France. she studied in Barcelona before returning to France. More recently she moved to the medieval town of Pezenas, where she established the studio, Atelier Bio Creation, a non profit making association, devoted to the promotion of the use of environmentally friendly materials in buildings and the instruction in techniques of plaster finishes, such as hemp plaster, the Moroccan finish, Tadelakt, and lime plaster.
Hélène offers training courses over 2-3 days in the studio and also assisted workshops on site, to give advice and practical assistance to Clients’ with their own building projects who, with the benefit of the training, after 3 days can continue the projects to completion themselves.
Passionate about the environment, Hélène uses only top quality materials in her work, combining natural pigments, with eco-friendly materials and traditional techniques.
