LITOMĚŘICE, NORTH BOHEMIA

Petr Žáček's dream of turning the house he has made out of hemp into an environmentally friendly answer to rising housing costs in the Czech Republic is likely to go up in smoke.

A gardener, self-described "unofficial architect" and admitted marijuana aficionado, Žáček has spent nearly five years designing and building the two-story structure using hemp he grew himself in the small village of Trnovany, 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from this industrial town.

But regional officials here plan to raze the house unless Žáček, 38, submits paperwork before Jan. 31 detailing the structure's specifications — something he says he will not do. They say he must also pay a 30,000 Kč ($1,265) application fee — money he says he does not have.

"Mr. Žáček's construction is illegal," says Jan Nejtek, head of the Regional Building Office in Litoměřice. He says the building fails to meet technical construction requirements and does not conform to planning laws.

"We have turned to him more than once and given him the chance to apply for a construction permit," he says.

Žáček says he should not have to submit any building plans because the house is an experiment and a work of art. And even if he thought he should provide them, there would still be a problem.

"There are no technical specifications," he says. "I am working on an idea that is in my head."

Growing home

Žáček's house stands 6 meters (20 feet) tall and is built entirely out of natural and recycled materials. The foundation is stone, the windows come from old paneláks, and an industrial mixture of hemp, lime and clay provides the walls.

"If I had never smoked weed, I would have never thought to build the house," he says, sitting behind a tall beer in a bar in Litoměřice.

He says he was looking for a way to build a home cheaply without harming the environment. When he heard about people in France using hemp for homes, he knew he wanted to try it.

Hemp, or cannabis, is legal as long as it contains less than 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance found in the plant and exploited for both leisure and medicinal purposes. Marijuana has an average THC content of 4 percent, whereas hemp's content is comparatively negligible.

Hemp fiber has been used for thousands of years for rope, sails, clothing and even food.

Žáček discovered that he could create a wall by weaving the stems of the plant together and binding them with lime and clay.

He says he eventually hopes to market the design to young, poor families.

Žáček says he has put nearly 80,000 Kč into the project.

Budding concern

When he reported his experimental construction, Žáček says, government officials told him he could not build it from hemp.

Officials deny this.

"If hemp can improve construction in any way, I am not against the idea," Nejtek says. "But all this would have to be checked by experts."

Žáček says he had an architect look at the house and say that it was sound.

The problem people have with his hemp house is aesthetic, Žáček says, not structural.

"My neighbors say, 'It's terrible. Who would want to look at that? It should be in Africa,'" he says.

Indeed, Trnovany Mayor Kateřina Tůmová says she has nothing against Žáček's research, but she complained to the regional office because of how the building looked.

"Standing where it is, it doesn't really fit in the local environment; it disturbs the way the place looks," she says. "The best thing would be to move it to the outline areas, a place closer to nature, rather than leaving it in the middle of typical housing infrastructure."

Chronic misunderstanding

Hemp houses are nothing new, and have caused public outcry in many places where they have been built.

The Pine Ridge Timber Framing Project "stirred up a hornet's nest" in South Dakota in the late 1990s with the construction of a 2,400-square-foot (223-square-meter) house using hemp materials, says Tom Cook, the project's director.

"We did encounter objections to the construction from neighbors," he says. "And they were severe."

In spite of Oglala Sioux tribal sovereignty, the project has been in federal court battles, most recently Dec. 12. Cook says that misinformation is what fuels the debate about hemp.

"They only said hemp is marijuana and marijuana is illegal, so we're building an illegal house," he says. "Of course, their objections were emotional and had to do with the 'message' being sent about hemp."

Pipe dreams

Žáček says he will continue with his plans in spite of the government.

"I will build it again, but I will built it smarter," he says. "I won't make the same mistakes as last time."

But with Žáček's refusal to get government approval for his hemp house, it's hard to see how he will be able to avoid the one mistake that threatens his current construction.

He says that he may move to Kazakhstan or Armenia, where he can be left to continue his project in peace.

He is resigned to his house's likely fate, but does not despair.

"If it is ruined, flowers will grow there anyway," he says.