Alexandros Tsamis: Industry has yet to fully realize the potential of natural materials

Alexandros Tsamis is associate director of the Center for Architecture, Science, and Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and also serves as an assistant professor in the School of Architecture

CASE is an institute-wide research center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a mission to design, develop, and translate next-generation technology addressing the climate crisis within the context of the future of the built environment. 

We are developing next-generation construction materials derived from renewable resources. One such very prominent resource is hemp. Hemp offers a great opportunity to develop new local economies around it that span the agriculture, processing, manufacturing, and construction sectors

What was a win for your company in the past year? 

At CASE and RPI we believe in leapfrogging ahead of existing technology. Our focus is on developing more advanced, next-generation products and processes that can enable wider adoption of hemp as a mainstream raw material for construction. 

To echo the words of my colleague and collaborator, Daniel Walczyk (RPI, Manufacturing Innovation Center (MIC)), unlike synthetics, the industry has yet to fully realize the potential of natural materials. Producing high-quality, high-volume materials using renewable resources is still a great challenge when compared to the established practices or the known chemistry of synthetics. Our mission is to develop technology and gain a comprehensive understanding of processes that bridge the gap between the supply and demand of renewable construction materials. 

What is something about hemp building/construction/processing you didn’t know a year ago? 

During this past year, CASE started working on a natural fiber composite material that could be used for retrofitting obsolete residential buildings. Part of the project required us to develop composite material samples using natural fiber textiles. It was difficult to find a US manufacturer of hemp textiles and/or hemp yarn that could eventually supply in large quantities. Supply chains of natural materials and their products are highly complex in the United States and need to be addressed. 

What challenges does the hemp building industry face that it must overcome in the next five years? 

The building industry would also have to update. Although some positive steps were taken in 2023, today building codes in more general terms do not permit the adoption of materials like the ones we are discussing here. This is a disincentive for architects and contractors to specify such materials for their projects which in turn disincentivizes farmers to grow hemp crops that would supply those materials to manufacturers. This is a vicious cycle that could be stopped if policy, regulations, and building codes would act more favorably towards renewable materials. 

The same vicious cycle creates a disincentive for R&D  funding to come directly from the manufacturing or building Industry for the development of new  materials for construction. As the supply of raw materials has not been connected in an efficient  way to the demand for low-carbon building and infrastructure construction - although the need is  there for both sides - the industry is reluctant to take a risk.

A challenge for the next five years is to create enough pilot projects that demonstrate the effectiveness of those materials so that the  industry can perceive the full potential of hemp, and accelerate its growth in the market creating  job opportunities across sectors.