Locally Grown Hemp Explored for Textiles, Furniture and Interiors
Locally grown hemp that falls short of conventional textile requirements forms the starting point for SOW HEMP!, a research and design project by the Studio of Textiles at UMPRUM, the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Through experiments with fibres, yarns and composite materials, students explore applications ranging from furniture and acoustic elements to tapestries and bags.
The two-semester project brings together ten works at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, alongside material research and photographs by students from UMPRUM’s Studio of Photography II.
Working With Irregular Fibres
Hemp has long been used for textiles, ropes, sails and paper. However, competition from cotton and synthetic fibres, alongside political stigma surrounding the plant, has reduced its role in European textile production.
Led by Linda Kaplanová and Martin Pondělíček, the studio partnered with Lapka Farm in the Czech Republic’s Rakovník region. The farm grows and processes industrial hemp, reviving practices that have largely disappeared from the country over the past century.
Students followed the material from plant and stalk to extracted fibre. The available fibres proved too short for conventional textile production and contained a high proportion of hurd, the woody part of the stalk. Instead of treating these characteristics solely as defects, the students investigated applications suited to the locally available material.
From Raw Hemp to Interior Materials
The students broke, combed, felted, spun and dyed the fibres, combining them with other materials. Experiments produced bioplastics, rugs, tapestries, acoustic elements, objects and installations. In several projects, the hemp’s coarseness, irregularity and stiffness became features of the finished work.
The exhibition includes a hemp chair, a modular wall, acoustic panels and bags. A stop-motion film animates organic forms made from hemp paper, extending the investigation into moving images.
A separate collaboration with Kubák Weaving Mill in Strmilov explored blending hemp with locally sourced sheep’s wool. The most successful mixture contained 70% wool and 30% hemp, enabling the local hemp to be spun into a coarse yarn with potential interior applications.
Connecting Cultivation and Production
The project highlights the gap between growing a renewable raw material and having the infrastructure to turn it into usable products. Although industrial hemp can be cultivated and its fibres extracted in the Czech Republic, the studio identifies a lack of processing infrastructure for wider textile production.
SOW HEMP! also questions how current legislation accommodates hemp’s potential in paper, oil and building materials. Its focus therefore extends beyond individual objects to the conditions needed to support broader material use.
The exhibition runs from 17–25 October 2026 at Klokgebouw, Event Hall 3, stand 3.19, Eindhoven. A wooden and metal structure incorporating woven hemp strips and hempcrete blocks connects the installation to the materials under investigation.
Source & photos: UMPRUM