Tucson Hemp Block Workshop Launches Learning Center Retrofit
Old Pueblo Hemp Company founder Micaela Machado speaks in front of hemp blocks which will be used to retrofit six cabins at a school district STEM and nature camp. Photo courtesy of Instagram
Tucson Hemp Block Workshop Launches Learning Center Retrofit
By Jean Lotus
A hemp block and hemp-lime insulation workshop held in Tucson, AZ last week marks the beginning of a summer project renovating an environmental learning center for area students. The “Hemp Fiesta” organized by contractor Micaela Machado of Old Pueblo Hemp Company and featuring Sergiy “Doctor Hemphouse” Kovalenkov and others introduced about 40 participants to hemp building materials.
More than 16,300 hemp-lime (also known as “hempcrete”) bricks will be used to renovate six cabin structures at the Cooper Center for Environmental Learnings, a project with the University of Arizona and used by students in the Tucson Unified School District and located on 10 acres of Sonoran Desert land, seven miles west of downtown Tucson. The cabins were first built in 1972 and need renovation.
“We are using our OPH blocks to insulate the existing CMU cabins from the exterior, so we are treating them like a brick veneer in the application,” Machado told Hemp Build Mag. “This was new for me and it took my skilled masons to show me how to do it. This application opens up so many opportunities in the home renovation world which we really need to get our hands on.”
Artist rendering of new updated structures at the Cooper Center for Environmental Learnings outside of Tucson, AZ. Photo courtesy of Cooper Center for Environmental Learnings
The Cooper Center is using several natural building methods in the renovation plan. The plan began with adding odor-free composting toilets and a shower facility, which included a striated rammed earth wall on the camp bathhouse.
The rammed earth wall was built by Tucson-based Ray Clamons, founder of Natural Building Works, who also spoke at the hemp building event. Clamons presented a plaster workshop utilizing localized materials, including a secret ingredient — the juice of the nopal, or prickly pear cactus. Prickly pear juice adds cohesion to adobe or rammed earth blocks and adds waterproofing to lime plasters.
“This [event] is my first experiment with hempcrete,” Clamons, who works with straw bale and adobe/rammed earth. “I’m looking forward to working with it more this year.”
Sergiy “Doctor Hemphouse” Kovalenkov (right) mixes hempcrete at the Tucson Hemp Fiesta. Photo courtesy of Instagram
Learning from Experts
The event was moderated by Nebraska contractor Tina Jones, who renovated an historic 1911 general store with hemp in 2023.
Workshop attendees learned from Sergiy Kovalenkov, a civil engineer and founder of Ukraine-based Hempire Holdings. Kovalenkov is one of the most experienced hempcrete builders in the world with dozens of projects under his belt since his first exposure to hempcrete in 2010 in Tasmania, Australia. The hempcrete workshop used hurd from farms in eastern Colorado and two forms of lime binder, including Kovalenkov’s “Magic Minerals” pozzolans and Mexican Micropoz.
Kovalenkov is currently serving as a consultant on one of the largest hemplime commercial projects in the United States, the Kosmos Stargazing Resort in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Four of the resorts 20 hempcrete villas are under construction and the first early guests will be arriving next month. The resort will formally open in 2027. Kosmos founder Gamal Jadue Zalaquett gave a presentation at the workshop showing the plans for a hempcrete subdivision in the valley, built by Kosmos’s sister company Naturalia Construction.
Workshop participants were able to create hemp-lime sample blocks using a CINVA-Ram lever press designed for hempcrete. Photo courtesy of Instagram
Hemp Fiesta participants watched a screening of the Patagonia-produced short documentary The Green Buffalo and met Danny Desjarlais, team leader of the Lower Sioux Community’s hemp building program in Morton, MN. Desjarlais said that other Minnesota tribes had visited the Lower Sioux’s hemp processing facility and toured four houses built on the reservation. Plans are being made for a large community center made of hempcrete to be built on another reservation, as well as a 90,000 sq. foot school, Desjarlais said. This October, the 13th Annual International Hemp Building Symposium will be held for the first time in the United States on the Lower Sioux reservation.
“Danny’s crew has been an inspiration to all the other tribes,” said Mary Jane Oatman, founder of the Idaho-based Cannabis Industry Trade Association.
Ray Clamons, founder of Natural Building Works, speaks at the Hemp Fiesta in Tucson. Photo courtesy Jean Lotus
Gamal Jadue Zalaquett applies plaster to a sample hempcrete block wall at the Tucson Hemp Fiesta.
The fiesta included speakers from other parts of the industrial hemp industry with hemp smoothies served and presentations from Thatcher Michelson of Eat More Hemp, Ryan Doherty of Tiger Fiber and others.
The event ended with a hemp fashion show organized by Ale Diaz with participants modeling garments from the Hemp Fortex textile showroom in Los Angeles.
Children participating in the hemp insulation of a playhouse at the Tucson Hemp Fiesta. Photo courtesy Jean Lotus
A mom of three, organizer Machado encouraged children to attend the workshop, and the kids appeared fascinated by the materials and the building process.
Exposing children to natural building is one of the great parts of the Camp Cooper project, she told HempBuild Mag.
“The project allows us to showcase hemp building as an educational tool for years to come,” she said in an interview. “Thousands of kids will learn about hemp building when they go there over the years and that is the ULTIMATE GOAL -- to pass on this great knowledge to the next generation.”
Please Support Our Classified Advertisers
(To find out more about advertising CLICK HERE).
Publications
Green Builders
Build your hempcrete dream house in Austin, TX with Gradek Contracting and Design
High Desert Hemp Homes - Building with hemp in the Rocky Mountains
Experienced Natural Building Engineering Services from Verdant Structural Engineers, CA
Naturalia Construction, Colorado-based Sustainable Construction with Hemp
Aaron Grail Construction, No. Cal: The intersection of art, design and performance
Hemp Building Research and Training
Hemp Build School online and IRL for Homeowners and Professionals
Follow the Hemp Casita to learn more about building with hemp.
Hemp Hurd (shivs)/Hemp Fiber/ Hemp Microfiber
CannaVision, Fort Worth, TX: Home of the Pulsewave Hemp Processor
IND HEMP: Supporting Farm Families and Rural Communities with Natural Materials Processing
Wyoming Hemp Company - Industry-leading industrial hemp suppliers
Aggricrete, TX, Natural Materials with Superior Sustainability
Hempcrete installers/Insulation subcontractors
Americhanvre Cast Hemp: Supplies, Equipment, Experienced Hempcrete Installation
Hemp Build Network: We Make Building with Hemp Possible, New Braunfels, TX
Hemp Building Company: Hempcrete installation, supplies Lafayette, CO
Hemp Batt Insulation/Supplies
Lime Binder
Hemp Wall Panel Products
Preorder your hempcrete tiny house from Sativa Building Systems
Panel solutions from Homeland Hempcrete
Hemp Composite Boards
Bison Biocomposites produces sustainable thermal insulation, hempcrete, hemp hurd, and more.
Hemp Blocks
