Earth building has many forms such as adobe, sod, rammed earth, straw-clay, and wattle-and-daub. Cob is its British name and it is a method of building with clay, sand, and straw that is low-cost, disaster resilient, fire proof, and democratic. These are just a few of its impressive qualities. Hopefully over the length of this post you will be able find several more. "Cob is a structural composite of earth, water, straw, clay, and sand, hand-sculpted into buildings while still pliable", is one of the definitions of cob from the 'The Hand Sculpted House'. But I wouldn't take any definition of cob too seriously because you can pretty much make any changes you want and be able to change anything that didn't work out at any time. There is nothing new about cob or mud houses. But if I said mud house, you would probably be imagining a little hut in a village inhabited by a poor person that would fall apart at any given moment. But that is what the housing market and 'development' has taught us to believe. It has taught us to forget the simplest and most long-lasting solutions that our ancestors knew all along and so many groups of people over the world still know. But natural earth building is not yet seen as a commodity and I am so grateful for that. This blog post is about cob building and what I learnt over a 2 week intensive Cob and Beyond workshop run by Betty Seaman and Kelly Nafie at Spirit Pine Sanctuary in June, 2016. We were building an Aikido Dojo. Why cob ? (or any natural material) Frankly after this workshop my question has become, "why not cob!?" There are so many reasons to choose building with earth over any of the new industrial materials like cement, glass, and steel. Some of the reasons that made most sense to me were: Long-lasting (almost permanent), resilient and effective for climate and disasters, democratic building process, connection with the earth and community, and dirt cheap! Long Lasting/Permaculture Permaculture is all about building long-lasting permanent, multi-functional structures. Cob fits perfectly into this model. One of the oldest and largest mud/adobe buildings still standing is the The Grand Mosque in Djenne, Mali, built in the 13th century measuring 100 m (328 ft) long and 40 m (131 ft) wide. Earth structures easily last hundreds of years even without any real renovation. Most modern concrete or cardboard buildings (thin wood houses found in the USA) have a life span of 40 to 100 years. Why wouldn't we want to build something that will last for our grand children? Resilient and Effective When I say that cob houses are effective, I mean that they do exactly what we need - stay warm in the cold and cool during the heat. Concrete houses do the exact opposite where they become colder in winter and hot in summer. Cob houses have thermal mass which means that they absorb heat into the walls during the day when its hot (making it cooler inside) and then release this heat into the house in the evening when its cold. How cool is that? You can add straw bale to cob walls where you need insulation so that the cold or heat (whichever one you want) doesn't escape. Cob is resilient to so many natural disasters such as fire, typhoons, and earthquakes. Several studies have shown that round or curvilinear buildings made of earth without posts have great structural integrity and do not collapse in earthquakes. They are also excellent for disaster relief housing because they can be made very quickly. The only major impact on earth building is slow degradation from rain and wind. But these days with plasters you don't really even have to worry about that anymore. Plus it happens at an extremely slow rate. All you need to do is ensure that water never gets into your walls from the land or through the foundation. Any other issues such as cracks or weathering are easy to fix. Democratic Building Process I guess to me this was very important because being a small person, not exceptionally strong physically, I was still able to build this house. In fact, anyone can build a mud house, children, grandmothers, women, non-professionals, unskilled workers, friends etc. We could all build our own houses and we used to do that not so long ago. We have been made to feel that only construction workers, architects, and engineers can build houses and only with extremely expensive and specialized materials and tools. With cob you pretty much don't need any of those and therefore it is accessible to everyone. All you need is earth, stones, and roof material. Our instructors kept reminding us as we were building, never us the word 'worry' because with cob there are no mistakes that cannot be corrected. Connecting with Earth and Building Community Since ancient times, building homes was a community process involving the entire village. Everyone would come together and build for each other. Building with cob is always easier, faster, and much more fun when it is done in a big group. Play hard in the day and then eat, sing, and laugh together. Such a wonderful life... A group of 15 people can easily build an entire small cottage in 2 weeks. You get covered in mud from head to toe, there are no toxic materials, just beautiful mud under your feet. Financial Empowerment It is amazing how little money you need to build with mud and most of the times the most expensive components come to you for free if you just ask for them or look for them. Small (cozy) cottages can be built in less than $2000 and a bigger, comfortable two bedroom house in less than $10,000. But you can also build for almost completely free. It really is up to you how you design and source your materials. You can build entire seating areas, benches, bookshelves, closets, bathtubs, passive refrigerators, ovens, and more from cob. Its an amazingly versatile material that can look beautiful and last forever. It is economically cheap and should not be commercialized because its all about building yourself and with your community. It is an act of defiance to the prevalent development structures and a going back to the roots of where we have come from. There is so much more that I can talk about - the process of building, the team bonding, the inspiring instructors and their lives, the singing and laughing, but I will end here. If you want to know more, just ask.
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