Hemphouse Serbia

Awards & Nominations

SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook – Selected project 2023, Selected project (link)

Grand Prix at the 44th Salon of Architecture 2022 (link)

Award in the Architecture category at the 44th Salon of Architecture 2022 (link)

House of the Year 2021, for Serbia and the region –  gradnja.rs (link)

3rd Prize at the 5th Balkan Architectural Biennale 2021 (link)

Nominated for the 2022 Piranesi Award (link)

Nominated for The ArchDaily 2023 Building of the Year Awards (link)

Authors

Ljubica Arsić & Daniel Fuchs

Location

Žagubica, Homoljske planine

Collaborators

Predrag Milosavljević

Aleksandar Simonović

Structural engineer

Vladimir Pešić

General Contractor

Hemplicity

Year

2017-2021

Photography

Milovanović Marko, Ljubica Arsić, Daniel Fuchs

Press

Daily Dose

ArchDaily

BSA-Publikationen

gradnja.rs

werk, bauen + wohnen

afasia

Bach Mühle Fuchs 

Åvontuura

Hanfkalk.ch

Lectures / Talks

Expert meeting “Future of construction – sustainable materials”, Mikser Festival & University of Belgrade – Faculty of Forestry, 30.May 2025

Discussion ‘Blind Date: SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook’ – S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel,

Panel Discussion (Participant): ’ Coming home: A single family house”, organised by Gradnja

Presentation of the winners of the Grand Prix at the 44th Salon of Architecture – The Museum of Applied Art Belgrade, 21.April 2022

Bund Schweizer Architekten BSA-FAS  – Zurich, 08. Oktober 2021

Summer School Ticino with  HSLU und i2a – Blenio Valley, 03.September 2021

Pecha Kucha SIA (Schweizerischer Ingenieur- und Architektenverein) – Zurich, 27. September 2018

Lecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade – 25. November 2018

The material as project initiation

The story of this house begins with the vision of a house in nature, built of hemp.

The client wanted a holiday home on a farm in the Homolje mountains, the construction of which was to use mainly building materials made of industrial hemp (hempcrete). This central aspect of the project task, with its possibilities and limitations, undoubtedly determined the theme, the construction system and even the shape of the house.

The project task originally envisaged the construction of a typical house based on the principles of hemp construction that could be applied in different spatial contexts in terms of its configuration – form and spatial organisation. In the initial phase of the design, the principles of modulation of the flexible spatial configuration were established, which would offer the possibility of variations in terms of the number of modules as well as their mutual arrangement, i.e. the distribution of functions within each module. Indeed, the house is conceptually defined by a series of connecting modules that allow for a gradation in the size of the house. These premises have strongly influenced the further development of the project, although the idea of a typical house has been abandoned. Nevertheless, this house retains the character of an uninterrupted series – a matrix that can be conceptually and hypothetically connected ad infinitum.

Keywords: hempcrete, matrix, configuration, autonomy of form.

Context: Landscape and Autonomy of Form

The endless, untamed and somewhat dramatic landscape of this area, known for its sinkholes (morphological depressions) on the edge of the Homolje Mountains, and the gently sloping topography towards the southeast-northwest. An environment without neighbouring buildings and only a few accessible roads form the context in which the house was built.

After visiting the site, the question naturally arises as to what kind of relationship a holiday home should establish with the abstract, untouched landscape on the edge of the Homolje Mountains.

The house does not try to flirt with its surroundings. On the contrary, the house is conceived as an artefact that stands in a dialectical relationship to its natural surroundings. Rather than courting and imitating the landscape, the house builds a new context with the clear archetypal stipulation that the house is the result of a construction and that what is built can never be natural in this fundamental conceptual sense. On the other hand, this house is made from nature, the materials (hemp and wood) and the construction technique are adapted to the climate and technologically “clean”. In that sense, this house required nothing more than an honest attitude towards building in nature. Like a ship on dry land from the film Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, this house stands alone and in harmony with its surroundings.

Eco Modernism, or: We Have Never Been Modern (Bruno Latour)

From the aspect of design, as already mentioned, instead of a design strategy that envisages the transformation or imitation of the terrain, formally speaking, the house has an autonomous form that is “lowered” to the terrain. This process aims at not altering the physical characteristics of the natural environment. Since the house is built of hemp, which, in its own way, makes it an extension of the natural environment, its autonomous form avoids pleonasm in the natural-artificial relationship, ie. on the relation materiality-shaping.

Indirect references and inspirations for the architectural structure of the house are based on the progressive Yugoslavian modern heritage of the 1960s. The articulate, innovative language of complex geometric matrices explored by architects of the time, as well as a multitude of variations and inventions in prefabricated construction, served as a platform for the development of the structure of this house.

Flexible modularity and spatial organization

As an autonomous building, the house is raised off the ground and oriented towards the highest point of the horizon. Horizontal floor and ceiling slabs contrast with the undulating terrain. To make the most of the sunlight and the view of the mountain ranges in the distance, the house has an elongated form and extends over a higher plateau that hovers above the landscape. The elongated base is interspersed from floor to ceiling with large window openings, each framing the landscape in the distance.

The building was developed over two levels that follow the configuration of the ground. The focus of the content that makes up the stay in the house is on a higher level, within the cohesive octagonal spatial scheme that prioritises fluid movement and visual communication. Each unit module is built from the geometry of an equilateral octagon, arranged rhythmically one after another. All modules are connected by a continuous terrace – gallery that can be considered an integral part of the living space, depending on the external conditions. The main access to the house is via the lower level, which is partially buried in the ground. In addition to the spacious entrée, the lower-level houses additional facilities such as a sauna and a winter garden.

The rooms are arranged rhythmically so that they follow one another. The result is a flexible spatial structure with continuous exterior and interior spaces. The house is both a “pavilion” and a “cave”.

Sustainability at the local level: autochthony of materials and construction techniques

The construction industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world. Architecture as a discipline often distances itself from the process of creation of the materials used in construction, we see it as a finished product imposed on us by the market. Furthermore, the importance of (energy) sustainability throughout the life of the building should be emphasized, as well as the question: what happens to the material when the life of the building is over?

Hempcrete is a bio-composite material consisting of the fibrous core of a hemp stalk mixed with water and lime as a binder. Hempcrete is completely non-toxic and can be used in many ways – from building non-load-bearing walls to floors and roof insulation. The material is fireproof, water resistant and a good insulator. Hempcrete does not rot when used above ground and can be fully recycled. It absorbs excess moisture from the air until the humidity in the room drops again, thus creating a balance of humidity in the room.

The way bio-composites are used in relation to the architectural features of the house can be seen as a special quality of this house. Indeed, it is common practice for buildings constructed from hemp materials to resemble or directly apply vernacular construction principles (traditional or “eco-hobbit” houses). Paradoxically, in these cases, the material is usually not visible on the façade or inside the house. In contrast to these practices, this project seeks to show the beauty of the bare material, which changes over time and ages with the house. The hemp walls give this modern building a kind of rural authenticity. The intention is to alter the materials of wood and hemp under harsh weather conditions and to obtain a patina over time.

The design process also considered the principles of passive solar energy harvesting – the orientation of the house and openings, and the angle at which sunlight enters the house depending on the seasons.

Thanks to night cooling and the use of natural and renewable building materials such as wood and hemp, a comfortable indoor climate is created without the use of mechanical devices. The facility has an integrated system for rainwater collection, wastewater treatment and organic waste collection. In the basement there is a greenhouse for growing vegetables and herbs. This allows for at least partial self-sustainability even outside the productive summer months.

Storing CO2 by growing hemp and later incorporating it into the house is one of the ways to decarbonize the construction industry and invest in clean energy by spreading these methods.

By translating local knowledge and principles into a modern, high-performance form and structure, our long-term goal is to promote the use of ecological materials, which are still believed to be not readily compatible with the aesthetic principles of contemporary architecture.