cob

The Hermitage

Guest Post by Collin Vickers Hassan Hall, natural builder and self-styled woodsmith, combines permaculture principles with an ancient, artisanal approach in his ecologically sustainable homestead: the Hermitage. Tucked away on the wild margins of Dancing Rabbit Eco-Village amidst a riot of herbs and flowers, the Hermitage is a much beloved … Read more

This Cob House Offers Plans for a $4,500 Cob Home

by Christina Nellemann

Alex Sumerall of This Cob House recently received his natural building training, but already his Tennessee company also offers plans, guides, workshops, consultations, crew training and books on the natural building technique. Cob is an earthen building material that is made from hand formed loaves of clay, sand, straw, and … Read more

The Foxhole a Cob and Timber Tiny Home

by Kent Griswold

Guest Post by Collin Vickers Modern day pioneers, Mae Ferber and Benjamin Brownlow, have set out to rediscover the lost arts of Old West homesteading in the information age, with a touch of high technology and fervent passion for ecological sustainability. Their adventures in eco-living take place in the Foxhole, … Read more

The Freeman – Tiny Cob House Plans

by Kent Griswold

Advertisement The Freeman is a 120 square foot tiny home model made out of cob. Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and water. This tiny home model stands on the principles of being economical and sustainable. Almost all of the materials needed to build the house can be … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving Day 2012

by Kent Griswold

I would like to wish all our North American readers a Happy Thanksgiving Day! I thought this house fit the mood of the day and I hope you enjoy it. This is the Laughing House sculpted by Linda Smiley and Ianto Evans out of cob, clay, sand, and straw. Dug … Read more

Cob Building Workshop

by Kent Griswold

Learn Natural Building with SunDog School of Natural Building The SunDog nine day workshop is designed to teach ordinary people the skills to build their own cob cottages, from the foundation to the roof. Our projects are small, most are under 200 square feet, and geared towards attaining a high … Read more

Taproot Farm Cob Workshop

by Kent Griswold

Review by Kasey March

About two months ago my boyfriend, Shane, sent me an odd text, “Can you take off from work July 8 – 11?”

“I think so, why?”

“We’re going on vacation.”

And so began the Super Secret Vacation saga. For weeks I guessed where we might be going and worried about what to pack.

“Are we camping?”
“Maybe.”
“Ok, we’re camping. We can’t be going South – it’s too hot. Are we hiking?”
“Maybe”
“Do I need a bathing suit?”
“Yes.”

And on it went until July 8th when we got into the car. All I knew was that we were camping in West Virginia. But what on Earth was in West Virginia?

When we pulled into Taproot Farm (taprootfarm.info) I thought we were lost and asking for directions to a nearby state park. Then I met Beth Reese, a gracious and friendly woman who greeted us as if we were old friends – not strangers who had just pulled down her long drive way, uninvited, to ask for directions. She and Shane were chatting away when I saw Sigi Koko’s green VW bug with Build Naturally scrawled across the back bumper. It clicked.

Cob Building – Off the Treadmill

by Kent Griswold

This movie is entitled “Off The Treadmill” and is about getting out of mortgage debt by using the very ground we stand on to build our own homes. “It’s dirt cheap”, says Ianto Evans, master cob builder and architect at Cob Cottage in Southern Oregon. This film was created by … Read more

That Roundhouse

by Christina Nellemann

This roundhouse, built of cordwood, cob, straw and recycled windows, is located in southwest Wales and owned by Tony Wrench. It’s not only a low impact, natural dwelling built with what was on hand, but it’s become a symbol for the rights of natural builders within the United Kingdom.

The house was built in 1997 by Tony and featured solar power, a wind turbine, composting toilet and reed beds for gray water. Tony based this house on American Indian designs he had seen in history books. In the past, he had had experience building “wacky structures” and wanted to live as close to the land as possible. Even though he built it inside Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, with agreement from the owners of the land, he never got permission for the structure from the local planning board. After several court appearances, he and his partner, Jane, decided to demolish it in 2004, but changed their minds after public demonstrations persuaded them not to. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority attempted to get a court injunction to force Tony to demolish it, but were persuaded to allow it to stay up until July 2006, when they could re-apply under the new Low Impact Policy. In 2008, the committee voted to give Tony a conditional for three years. So – the roundhouse still stands.

Beautiful Cob

by Christina Nellemann

For next summer, I’ve been looking at taking a cob building workshop to update my building skills, learn some natural building techniques, and get closer to the natural world. The process of building a tiny house out of earth and found materials is very appealing. While doing my research, I came across a few tiny cob houses that I thought epitomized how warm, human-scaled and friendly they can be. Some of these were so beautiful, I just had to share.

Pedalpalooza: Tour of Southeast Portland Tiny Homes

by Kent Griswold

Following is a guest post by my friend Tammy Strobel who publishes the Rowdy Kittens Blog.

Shift is an organization in Portland that brings people together for bike based fun. Every year Shift facilitates an amazing event called Pedalpalooza, that spans a 2 week period.

With 291 events, most organized by individuals, bikers of all persuasions are likely to find many events of interest. Nearly all events are free.

A few weeks ago Eli Spevak, from Orange Splot, LLC, organized a Pedalpalooza ride featuring tiny homes. A group of 150 cyclists gathered for the tiny home tour, in Southeast Portland.

We stopped at six tiny homes and saw a number of different housing styles, including: a 14 x 8 gypsy wagon, a little house made of cob, a nanny’s house on wheels, a straw-bail tiny house that is being used as a detached bedroom, an urban village, and a cute little home that was converted from a garage to a little cottage.

Ziggy visits Cob Cottage Company

by Kent Griswold

Ziggy, who built his own cob house sent me a note telling me about his visit to the the Cob Cottage Company in Oregon.

He just put up a post with a slide show of pictures of his visit. He went to visit Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley in their home in Coquille, Oregon.

Ianto and Linda are two very influential cob building pioneers in North America, and authors of The Hand-Sculpted House, the number one go-to book for cob construction.

Be sure and watch his slide show and read his post as he covers a lot of good information on cob building and what he learned from his visit. Here is what Ziggy came away with from his visit: