Strathmore Road: The Hempcrete Home Takes Shape
Construction is underway at Strathmore Road, bringing our low-energy hempcrete home to life on a compact infill site in Bristol. Following planning approval in summer 2025 and the development of the technical design, we’re pleased to share photographs of progress on site.
Our earlier post explored the design ambitions and the journey to planning permission. With work now underway, this update looks more closely at the materials and construction details that will turn those ambitions into a finished home.
Making Use of a Constrained Site
Tucked behind neighbouring terraced houses, the site presents an opportunity to create a family home within an established residential neighbourhood. Its enclosed setting requires careful consideration of access, privacy and the relationship between the new dwelling and surrounding gardens.
The design balances the accommodation with usable outdoor space, while controlling where windows face and how views are screened. These decisions help the house make effective use of the plot while respecting its neighbours. The proposal also incorporates an existing garage structure. Retaining useful building fabric reduces demolition and gives the new home a direct connection to the site’s previous use.
Why Hempcrete?
Hempcrete is central to the project’s material strategy, bringing together the ambition to reduce heating demand with the use of plant-based construction materials. The wall design combines hempcrete blocks with cast-in-situ hemp around the timber structure. The timber frame carries the building’s structural loads, while the hempcrete provides insulating infill. Lime render and plaster complete the wall assembly, providing finishes compatible with the hemp-based construction.
Using blocks alongside material cast in place allows the construction to respond to different parts of the building and the geometry around structural elements. The result depends on careful coordination of the frame, infill and finishes, particularly where the walls meet openings and other building components.
From Drawings to Construction
Much of the technical design work has focused on these connections. A wall’s insulation is only one part of its performance: the junctions at floors, windows and roofs must also be carefully resolved.
At Strathmore Road, this has involved coordinating structural connections with insulation continuity and weather protection. Window positions, reveals and roof edges need to work together, with sufficient space for each material and a clear sequence for assembly.
The connection between the retained garage and the new construction introduces another layer of coordination. Different forms of construction must meet while maintaining a coherent approach to the building’s enclosure.
The construction stage makes these relationships tangible. Details previously developed through drawings and models become physical assemblies, revealing how the individual layers fit together before they are concealed by finishes.
A Low-Energy Home
Alongside its insulated fabric, the home uses orientation and shading as part of its passive design strategy. South-facing glazing supports winter solar gain, while roof overhangs and external louvres help manage sunlight and provide screening.
Planned rooftop solar generation complements the approach to reducing energy demand. Sedum roofs introduce planted surfaces into the compact site, providing opportunities for habitat and rainwater retention. These measures have been considered together, connecting the building’s form and material choices with its intended energy performance and relationship to the wider environment.
Following the Build
Seeing Strathmore Road move from drawings into construction marks an important milestone. The photographs shared here record that transition, and we’ll continue documenting the project as its structure, hempcrete walls and interior spaces take shape.
See the project page here
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