1st International Conference on Innovative use of Hemp in Construction Sector (IIHC)

We welcome on board architect Dr. Andrej Smid, Studio B@za for sharing his knowledge and ideologies as a key note speaker for our 1^st international conference on innovative use of hemp in construction sector held at Ljubljana, Slovenia on Nov 13^th & 14^th.

Studio B@za has a wide range of services that offers: design, engineering, consulting, supervision, translations and related services. they design public and private buildings, residential, industrial, business, shopping and other multipurpose buildings, consult investors and clients, supervise the building processes.

Elena Yaneva studied civil engineering at TU Wien and developed a fascination for natural building materials during her studies. She co-founded Hempstatic with the goal to accelerate the transition from a linear to a circular economy in the building materials sector. Hempstatic manufactures eco-friendly and biodegradable sound insulation, that is free of chemicals, plastics, and toxins. The product design is based on four circular principles: re: use | re: pair | re: manufacture | re: generate. The company’s mission is to increase the use of biogenic raw materials in the building sector while reducing CO₂ emissions and hazardous waste generation. Their business model promotes the creation of new biobased value chains rooted in industrial symbiosis between agriculture and construction.

Prof. Merta research interest is focusing on the development, characterization and optimization of advanced high-performance composite building materials (primarily cement-based) with enhanced environmental sustainability, circular-based design approach and improved durability toward their application in civil engineering structures.

Her goal is to understand the complex relationships between the microstructure of the material, the interaction between the constituents at mesoscale and the influence on the final macroscopic properties of the material by a holistic approach considering the entire lifecycle of the material.

Dr. Laetitia Marrot is a senior researcher within the FRISSBE project. She completed her MSc in Materials Science in 2010 in France, and graduated in 2014 with a PhD in biobased composite materials from the University of South Brittany. After her PhD, Dr. Marrot worked both in academia and industry for various fields (transportation, agriculture, packaging), in France and in the USA. Dr. Marrot started her research career in Slovenia in 2018, and she was awarded in 2020 funding for a two years Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) individual fellowship at the InnoRenew Center of Excellence. Since 2022, she researches innovative ways to increase the fire performances of sustainable bio-based materials within the FRISSBE project at the Slovenian National Building And Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG).

Dr. Marrot’s main interest is to develop environmentally friendly materials to reduce our dependence on petrol-based resources. Her expertise spans plant fibers, polymeric and cementitious composites reinforced by natural fibers, biocarbon, smart textiles and sustainable coatings.

Michela Turrin is an associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the Delft University of Technology. She leads the section Digital Technologies and the research at LAMA, Laboratory of Additive Manufacturing. Her goal is to support design decision making from materials to building applications, toward sustainability of the built environment. In architectural engineering approaches to scarcity of resources, her work develops computational design methods at the intersection of architecture and building technology, featuring parametric modelling, optimisation, machine learning and additive manufacturing.

Dr. Thirumalini Selvaraj, professor, CO2 Research & green technology centre, Heritage Research lab, completed her Doctoral research in Heritage Lime mortars characterisation and Simulation and has 20 years of Research experience with 70 publications in the field of heritage materials and structures. Her primary areas of research include developing scientific methods for restoration of heritage structures, chemistry of Traditional building materials used in Indian heritage structures and development of carbon capture technology in buildings using organics additives and lime to promote their sustainability.

She has done repair and restoration for more than 30 heritage structures in India and documented around 20 plant and organic additives used in the ancient structure. She serves as member in scientific expert committee of Hindu Religious and charitable endowments board, state and central Archaeological departments, Government of India. She has three patents to her credit on organic additives such as Terminalia chebula, Jaggery (unrefined sugar) and plant extracts from Aloe vera on lime mortars to replicate the traditional buildings. She is currently working on new old materials in civil engineering, carbonation potential and carbon storage of organic lime mortars in bringing out the sound scientific proof for the use of ancient eco- friendly admixtures in modern construction.