Those of you who have an interest in building with cob as in the Little Cob Cabin posted recently, will enjoy this site by Brian Liloia one of our readers.

Brian is a 23 year old currently living at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, learning to fulfill his desires to live more sustainably and self-sufficiently.

There’s a growing need to help shape a more eco-conscious, less destructive, and healthy culture, and he hopes to share some of his experiences living in a community that values these qualities.

Building With Cob

Brian explains his cob building process that they have developed over the past few weeks.

• Mixing Cob: The first step is the “burrito”, which consists of the final cob mix of sand, clay, and straw. When the consistency is right the mixture will roll and shape into a burrito.

• Making Cobs: The second step is to make “cobs”, or little loafs of the material. Kind of like kneading dough. Each loaf should only take a few seconds to make.

• Cob Wall: The third step is moving the loaves to the wall and lining them up. The wall is soaked with water before applying the new loaves.

• Cobbler Thumbs: The fourth step is taking cobbler thumbs ( a wooden tool) and “stitching” the cobs together, by working the straw into the layer below the new cobs and blending them together.

• Cob Finishing: In the fifth step you use your hands to create a clean, plumb edge.

Brian’s cob cottage footprint is 20×16, and the structure is spiral-shaped, with an urbanite foundation and all cob walls. The house will feature a reciprocal living roof, and it will make maximum usage of passive solar and feature a rocket stove connected to a mass cob bed.

• View pictures of the cob building under construction.
• Building with Cob Work Exchange.

Cob Building Photographs

Urbanite Foundation

Making “Cobs”

Three Foot Cob Walls

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Hi Everyone. Sorry it has been so long since the last post. My computer’s mother board started to die and it took a few days to get it replaced. I need to get a back up computer in the near future.

Today we are going to look at a cob cabin.

Building with Cob

This beautiful cabin was built by members of cobworks.com and cob cottage. Located in Mayne Island British Columbia, Canada.

Cob is a mixture of sand clay and straw - wet enough to mold yet dry enough to build up without forms. Walls are built up to be monolithic, which gives them greater strength in earthquakes. Cob invites your creativity to be expressed in the process of building your space: living space, meditation space, work space, sleeping space, play-space. Build curved walls, arches, and niches. And who says that walls are flat? All it takes to make the step towards your dream space is a fairly short learning process, to gain a sense for the material. A fun way of learning is to participate in a workshop, where you work on a structure and learn hands-on, with opportunity to discuss your ideas with others, pick up knowledge of the whole process and meet new friends.

Cobworks

To learn more and to check out workshops visit cobworks.com.

Entry Door

Fireplace

Kitchen

Stairway to Loft

CalEarth’s Eco-Dome can be built out of nothing more than dirt, barbed wire, and the same kind of polyethylene bags used to make sandbags to contain floods. The house will probably last longer if you mix some cement with the dirt, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

The bags come in the form of a continuous tube, and the house is constructed of layers of dirt-filled “snakes,” with barbed wire laid between them to keep them from moving. This 400 sq. ft. home is one of CalEarth’s plans that can be built from the dirt on your land.

It’s 21st-century adobe: faster and easier than traditional adobe construction, because you don’t have to make and dry individual bricks. This construction technique can be learned quickly by anyone, and is about the cheapest possible way to build lasting shelter. But these are by no means temporary buildings; they are so robust that they meet California building codes.

Plans and a DVD and bags are available at the CalEarth’s Eco-Dome web site.

Eco-Dome video of the construction:

Eco-Dome pictures of the structure.