Habitat Atlas: Informing the Future of Bio-Based Building Construction
Habitat Atlas is an open platform that turns longitudinal occupant experience into evidence for deciding whether to build with bio-based materials. Hemp-lime is well characterized in the laboratory: a systematic review of 309 studies found nearly 80 percent on material properties and 3 percent on occupants. Owners, architects, builders, lenders, and policymakers decide on more than material properties. They weigh comfort, health, upkeep, cost, and the reasons a household chose the material, a holistic value proposition that only years of occupancy can confirm. Without that evidence the risk stays with whoever decides. Habitat Atlas is a mixed-method platform that turns qualitative testimony into quantitative scores.
In-depth interviews with twelve residents of eight hemp-lime households in the UK, France, and the Netherlands, each occupied for at least three years, are coded across eight categories and twenty-three subcategories, and every category is scored from 0 to 100. Comfort & Wellbeing scored 100 because not one remark was negative, Values & Motivations 97, and Temperature & Humidity 95. The lowest score, Social & Public Perception at 71, comes from Professional Acceptance, not from the homes. Every score is grounded in occupant testimony, so readers can check the number against what occupants actually said. That is how the platform builds trust. It is free at habitatatlas.org. It starts with hemp-lime and is built to extend to other bio-based materials.
Project Date: 2025-Present
Researchers: Arta Yazdanseta, Xinyu Liang