Hemp House / Bach Mühle Fuchs + Ljubica Arsić

Text description provided by the architects. In the beginning, there was a vision of a house made of renewable raw materials in the Homolje Mountains. The task confronted us with various questions: How can we think of a holiday home in the periphery that justifies the destruction of an intact landscape inherent in the building? How do we build in a foreign context, with simple craftsmanship and local resources? 

The result is a house that stands in relation to its surroundings. Instead of imitating the landscape, the house is conceived as a man-made artifact. As an autonomous object, it hovers above the hill and is oriented towards the highest elevation on the horizon. On the other hand, this house is made of “nature”. The walls are made of hemp lime, the load-bearing structure of wood. 

The bio-composite material and the square timbers condition the design. To increase the span, the timbers were joined into trusses. The varying heights of the beams form the roof, and the varying distances between the columns form the corner points of the bracing, angular walls. The house was developed from the context, but at least as much from the construction.

The combination of ecological building materials, simple construction methods, and partial self-construction make of the project personal research for sustainable architecture. The house draws its strength from being a sign of change, paradoxically shaped by a traditional building method. With its low-tech approach, it shows an alternative way of building that is more climate-friendly.