A U.S. company has come up with what it says addresses the issue of affordable housing for employees in luxury resort towns – Kondo, a tiny house utilising hemp in its construction.
Kondo uses USA- grown hemp in the production of its biocomposite shell, providing superior thermal performance and moisture permeability.
A pretty much fully self contained modular housing system (there’s no laundry), Kondo will be offered as single or dual units.
A single unit is comprised of a kitchen and bathroom downstairs, a pull down dining table and sofas with storage. Upstairs in the loft is provision for a couple of beds. The dual unit can sleep up to 5 and offers a greater amount of storage space.
Options for the Kondo including grey and black water storage below the floor, rain collection and filtration; with water stored in the walls. The units feature energy star appliances and solar panels can be installed on the rooftop, along with access to share battery capacity. Its creators say Kondo can be a carbon-neutral housing solution.
Featuring smart technology, functions of the house can be fully controlled from a smart-phone application.
According to a related article on Curbed, the makers of Kondo won’t be selling the homes, but instead leasing them to towns and organisations needing workforce housing solutions. The East Hampton Star reports the leasing cost would be be USD $150 to $200 per week per bed.
The units can be easily moved to another location when no longer needed.
Other tiny hemp homes we’ve covered in the past include the HempHome: Tiny+, which features hempcrete in its construction.
The use of hemp in residential construction is by no means confined to the tiny house movement. Home builders are increasingly turning to hemp construction products for use in full size houses. Hemp can provide the basis for high performing insulation, rendering, solid walls and even chipboard.
Industrial hemp has been used in building applications for thousands of years and hempcrete has proven to stand the test of time, preserving caves in India wide open to the elements for 1,500 years.
