Hannah Segerkrantz, a product designer from Estonia, is rethinking how materials can shape not only objects but also communities. Her current focus is hempcrete, a carbon-absorbing mixture of hemp and lime, which she treats not just as a sustainable alternative to concrete but as a medium for creative experimentation.

Segerkrantz began by working at the scale of furniture, testing hempcrete’s versatility by pouring it into fabric molds and combining volumes into sculptural forms. The results are sturdy yet textured pieces that reveal the material’s unique character. But for Segerkrantz, the process is as important as the outcome. To ensure that her experiments could be replicated and adapted by others, she produced Hemp-it-Yourself, an open-source instruction manual that transforms her designs into a collective resource. What began as personal research has grown into a global library of hempcrete practices, empowering a dispersed community of makers to experiment with climate-positive building blocks.

As part of the inaugural Young Climate Prize cohort, Segerkrantz was mentored by Wael Al Awar, co-founder and principal of waiwai. His own research into sustainable alternatives to concrete, showcased in the acclaimed WETLAND project at The World Around Summit 2021, provided both technical insight and inspiration for Segerkrantz’s expanding vision.