I am off on a Cob Building Adventure

I am very excited to be heading off on an adventure to Summerland. I am all packed up and even got a new tent. For the next two weeks I will be camping in Summerland and helping build a recording studio as part of Cob and the Community. I will be helping put up the walls and learning all about the different stages of building.

My dream is to build my own cob home on Mayne Island next summer.

Cob is a very old method of building with earth and straw or other fibers. It is quite similar to adobe in that the basic mix of clay and sand is the same, but it usually has a higher percentage of long straw fibers mixed in. Instead of creating uniform blocks to build with, cob is normally applied by hand in large gobs (or cobs) which can be tossed from one person to another during the building process. The traditional way of mixing the clay/sand/straw is with the bare feet; for this reason, it is fairly labor intensive. Some of the process can be mechanized by using a backhoe to do the mixing, but that diminishes the organic nature of it.

The wonderful thing about cob construction is that it can be a wildly freeform, sculptural affair. I've seen some very charming homes made this way. Cob was a common building material in England in the nineteenth century, and many of those buildings are still standing.

Cob buildings are beautiful. You can see pictures of some cob homes at http://www.cobworks.com/.

Pat Hennebery leads the workshop and he has been an leader in the world of Natural Home building. He has built many cob homes with folks on Mayne Island and beyond.

In April I went to a workshop on how to plan your Natural Home at OUR EcoVillage in Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. Elke Cole led an inspiring weekend and I hope to post pictures from this event soon.

I hope the sun shines today as I set off up the highway to Summerland. I want to put the top down on my little red beetle and enjoy the trip.

I hope you are all having a great summer, and I will be posting some pictures of my adventures in the next few weeks.