After spending some time investigating hempcrete and its phenomenal properties, I came across Passiv Haus design and immediately recognized the perfect match that hempcrete would make with this design initiative.
Essentially, Passive House is a building design that focuses on the energy demands of the building in regards to the thermal performance of the structure. It is very rigorous, taking into account the building envelope, complete insulating properties including thermal bridges and air leakages, and gains from passive solar heating.
To learn more I signed up for an introductory one-day course put on by the Canadian Passive House Institute West and presented by Monte Paulsen from Red Door Energy Design. The course was at Vancouver City Hall and was completely sold out to a wide range of architects, designers and builders in the local industry. There is definitely a ton of interest in the concepts of passive house design in the local industry and Vancouver is considered a hot spot for passive house design in North America. As well, the City of Vancouver looking to use it as a guideline for future building development in the city. As of now, there are no hempcrete passive houses in Canada, but the Nauhaus Prototype in North Carolina was designed to PH standards and built of hempcrete.
