The world’s tallest skyscraper built of industrial hemp will soon open its doors in South Africa.
With 12 storeys, a stunning view of Cape Town’s majestic Table Mountain, and a minimum ecological imprint.
Workers in central Cape Town are putting the finishing touches on the 54-room Hemp Hotel, which is set to open in June.
“Hempcrete” blocks generated from the cannabis plant were utilized to fill the building’s walls, which were supported by a concrete and cement structure.
Hemp bricks are gaining popularity in the construction industry due to their insulating, fire-resistant, and climate-friendly features.
The blocks are carbon negative, which means they take more planet-warming gases out of the environment than they put in.
They are widely used in Europe for thermal rehabilitation of existing structures.
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“The plant absorbs the carbon, which is then put into a block and stored in a building for 50 years or longer,”
Explains Boshoff Muller, director of Afrimat Hemp, a subsidiary of South African construction giant Afrimat that made the hotel’s bricks.
“What you see here is a whole bag full of carbon, quite literally,”
Muller says as he pats a sack of mulch at a brick factory on Cape Town’s outskirts, where hemp hurds, water, and lime are combined to form the blocks.
The industrial hemp utilized in the Hemp Hotel had to be imported from the United Kingdom.
Because South Africa had restricted domestic production until last year when the government began issuing cultivation permits.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has stated that growing the country’s hemp and cannabis business is an economic priority, with the potential to produce over 130,000 jobs.
Source: Africanews
