Grand Designs: The Street - Paul and Blanka
Category: Press Pack ArticlePLOT 6: THE HEMPCRETE HOUSE
NAMES: PAUL AND BLANKA
BEDROOMS: 4
BATHROOMS: 3
STARTED: JUNE 2016
FINISHED: AUGUST 2018
BUILD ESTIMATE: £160K
FINAL BUILD COST: £300K
Paul and Blanka have two young sons and live in a rented house in Oxford. They’re building the cheapest, most sustainable house on the street for an impressive budget by using relatively low-tech, but time-consuming, techniques, with Paul planning to do a lot of the work himself.
However, while the materials are cheap, their handcrafted hempcrete house costs a lot more in labour than they had imagined. With time dragging on, the family are forced to live a nomadic lifestyle for the time it takes to build the street’s most eco home.
The eco-credentials of this house, the time given to its construction, and the amount of work Paul single-handedly puts into the project are nothing short of remarkable, but they will require a huge amount of tolerance and patience from his family, as they wonder whether their separation from Paul as he works on the build will ever result in their dream of family togetherness.