FARGO, N.D. (AP) – The two small houses are going up on the back half of a lot just off a busy street, not far from downtown Fargo.
“These homes are identical in blueprint, they’re 13 by 23, with 12 foot ceilings, there’s a loft in each of them,” explains Grassroots Development president Justin Berg, the man behind this one-of-a-kind construction and research project.
One of the houses is built with a traditional wood frame, fiberglass insulation and covered with that shiny white house wrap material.
A second house a few feet away also has a wood frame but the walls are filled with 12 inches of hempcrete, giving it a brown, textured look inside and out.
The raw material is called hurd. It’s the inner woody core of the hemp plant, chipped into small pieces.