[Scpg] COB Lecture and Workshops in Santa Barbara, San Diego and Malibu CA in March 2004

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Tuesday Mar 9 6:30 pm Slide Show and Talk at Sedgwick Ranch near Los Olivos 
near Santa Barbara
  With  cob builder and author Ianto Evans of Cob Cottage Company
http://nrs.ucop.edu/reserves/sedgwick/site_maps.html
Contact Betty Siemens 698-3840.

Mar 10-Mar 20 Santa Barbara, CA $680 Basics of Building with Cob: (10 days) 
with Ianto Evans
Our most popular workshop teaches professionals and owner-builders the 
basics of cob construction in 7 to 9
intensive days.
Cob Cottage Company Box 123 Cottage Grove, OR 97424
Phone or FAX (541) 942-2005 http://www.cobcottage.com
The best time to call is Monday, Wednesday, or Friday between 10:00 AM and 
5:00 PM
To get on Cob Cottage Email list contact cobcottage at earthlink.net for 
update on Cob Workshops

March 13 -18  BUILDING WITH EARTH! COB BUILDING WORKSHOP Pine Manor 
Retreat, Lake Elsinore, CA
Come join us for a 6 day intensive cob basics course
at Pine Manor Retreat in Southern California.
COURSE FEE: $500 includes meals, shared accomodations,
tuition, and course book.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Amber Wiggett has taught many
natural building workshops through the Non-profit
organization SpiralWorks which she and Ben Graham
co-founded. She also currently runs a womens natural
building company "Homemakers Ecological Construction"
specialising in cob, strawbale, timberframing and
more.
REGISTRATION:To register send a non-refundable deposit  of $100 to: 
Spiralworks  po box 20 Plainfield, Vt 05667
FOR MORE INFO: visit our website www.spiralworks.org or call Amber at 
802-454-1167 or amber at spiralworks.org

Thursday Mar 18 6:30, Potluck Followed By Slide Show and Talk $3 Donation 
With Ianto Evans cob builder and author in Santa Barbara
Bring food to share.
Community Environmental Council Gildea Center 930 Miramonte Dr, Santa 
Barbara CA
Contact Margie Bushman  805-962-2571. sbpcnet at silcom.com 
www.sbpermaculture.org

Friday Mar 19 3:00 pm Open house and Potluck at the Cob Building site 
outside Los Olivos
Come visit , view Cob Building in Action and talk the expert Ianto Evans of 
Cob Cottage Company Call Betty Siemens 698-3840.

Mar 21 Sunday Malibu CA COB One Day Workshop and evening Lecture at Wright 
Ranch 2pm
info. and directions:  http://elwright.net/wrightway/location.html or call 
(818) 591-8992
$75 at the door includes lecture, hands-on demonstration, slide show, book 
signing, and organic dinner
7pm Slide Show $20 Only
Please RSVP to Camille Cimino: camillecimino at earthlink.net or by phone 
(213) 480-8002
Scholarships available through Wright Way contact Peg Butler at  mossdaisy@ 
yahoo.com
A co-sponsored event by The Cob Cottage Company, Wright Way Organic 
Resource Center, and LA

What is cob?
The word cob comes from an Old English root meaning "a lump or
rounded mass." It's a traditional building technique using earth
mixed with water, straw and often sand. Cob is easy to learn and
inexpensive to build. It dries to a hardness similar to lean concrete
and is used like adobe to create self-supporting, load-bearing walls.
Cob has been used for centuries throughout Western Europe, even
in rainy and windy climates, as far north as the latitude of Alaska.
This ancient technology doesn't contribute to deforestation,
pollution or mining, nor depend on manufactured materials or power
tools. Cob is non-toxic and completely recyclable, which is
important in this era of environmental degradation, dwindling natural
resources and chemical contaminants. Since cob adds thermal
mass, it is appropriate for use in passive-solar buildings.

What makes "Oregon Cob" unique?
What began in Western Oregon in 1989 as an attempt to recreate
English cob has undergone huge transformations, to the point that
Oregon Cob now only partially resembles the traditional medium.
Influences from Africa and Latin America, and the conscious
attempt to make cob relevant to the third millennium, have created
something quite different from other building techniques. Here are
some distinctions:
· Oregon Cob is not simply a building material. We have developed
an integrated system of siting, design, wall geometry, materials
and building techniques.
· We have developed a range of application techniques to suit
different parts of each building: pise, "Gaab cob," cob loaves, etc.
· Oregon Cob is very strong in compression and shear because
carefully chosen ingredients are used, mixing a high proportion of
coarse sand to clay, with lots of straw. The clay is pressure
bonded onto every facet of the sand grains. The long-fiber straw,
sewn from layer to layer, creates monolithic structures with high
shear strength and walls without cracks.
· The sculptural qualities of the technique encourage built-in
furniture. This, together with rounded corners, eliminates useless
space and keeps buildings compact. Oregon Cob buildings
actually seem bigger than their "square" footage would suggest.
Why haven't I heard of cob before?
Cob is a recent arrival in the United States. In other parts of the
world, cob and similar techniques have been popular for millennia.
Throughout Western Europe many of the picturesque stuccoed or
whitewashed buildings are made of cob. In England today there are
thousands of comfortable cob homes, some of which have been
continuously inhabited for over 500 years. The durability and
comfort of these valuable houses has sparked a renaissance in
traditional cob centers such as Devon, where beautiful cob homes
are again being built.

How is cob different from adobe?
Cob is only one of many methods for building with raw earth, the
world's commonest construction material. It surpasses related
techniques such as adobe, rammed earth, pise, and compressed
earth bricks both in ease of construction and freedom of design.
The most basic difference is that adobe is formed into rectangular
bricks which are dried in the sun before being used, while cob is
built wet. Cob therefore lends itself to organic shapes: curved walls,
arches and vaults. Building with cob is a sensory and aesthetic
experience like sculpting with clay. You can add on, cut out, or
reshape at any time, even after the cob is dry. Cob is well suited to
cool damp climates like its native Britain; its resistance to rain and
cold makes cob well suited in all but the coldest parts of America.
Why doesn't it wash away in the rain?
Cob is very resistant to weathering and can withstand long periods
of rain without weakening. However, too much exposure is best
avoided by building roof overhangs and gutters to protect the walls
and constructing a high impervious foundation. In windy areas a
lime-sand plaster is traditionally used to protect exterior cob walls
from wind driven rain.
What about earthquakes?
No building system is earthquake-proof under every seismic
condition, but a cob mansion in Nelson, New Zealand has survived,
without a crack, two major earthquakes which destroyed the town
around it. In South Yemen, in a fault zone, there are Medieval
earthen houses 13 stories high. Since a cob building is one
monolithic unit reinforced by straw, it has no weak straight-line
mortar joints, making it stronger than brick or block. The carefully
regulated geometry and scale of Oregon Cob buildings gives them
high strength. This is achieved by building mostly curved walls, by
tapering and buttressing them, by adjusting wall thickness and
material mix, and by keeping roof spans short.

Isn't it cold and damp inside?
Winter visitors to cob buildings in Oregon often comment on how
warm and dry they feel. Cob walls one to two feet thick provide
immense thermal mass and adequate insulation in that climate,
ideal for passive solar construction. Cob structures in chilly (not
cold) climates require little additional heating in winter and remain
cool and comfortable on hot summer days. Because cob is
fireproof, it can be used for building ovens, stoves and chimneys.
One of our favorite designs is a cob bench or bed heated by the
flue of a wood-burning stove.

Can I build it myself?
Cob construction is a sculptural craft that is easily learned and is
built without forms or machinery. Building cob is easier and more
enjoyable with a crew, so it lends itself to community projects,
building parties and workshops. Many cob structures have been
completed by small inexperienced crews during a single season.

How long will it take to build my house?
The rate of building depends on weather and the size of your
workforce; in a dry weather workshop setting we can build up to a
foot of height per day. In wood construction, the frame is a tiny part
of the work, but a cob wall once built is finished apart from the
plaster. Pipes and wires are laid directly in place and there's no
need for sheetrock, tape, spackling, sanding, painting, sheathing,
or vapor barriers. But racing to build fast is missing the point and
half the fun. Unlike conventional modern building with its frenetic
pace, power tools, and scope for errors and accidents, cob-making
is a peaceful, meditative and rhythmic exercise.

How much will it cost?
Cob is one of the cheapest building materials imaginable. Often the
soil removed from foundation and drainage trenches and leveling
the site is enough to supply all construction needs. The
owner-builder can take great satisfaction in supplying the labor,
building little by little in leisure time, or inviting friends to join in the
excitement of hand sculpting a whole house. With inventiveness
and forethought, the costs of other components (doors, windows,
roof, floors, etc.) can be extensively reduced. The Cob Cottage
Company works primarily with found and recycled materials and
hand-worked lumber. Using local materials such as poles, bamboo,
native stone, and cedar shakes, our second cob cottage was
completed for about $500, and has been Ianto's and Linda's home
for four years.

What about building codes?
North American codes today protect the industrial manufacturers of
building components better than they do homeowners. Not
surprisingly, there is no code for cob (though nowhere is earthen
building prohibited) so many cob builders choose not to involve
building officials. Legally permitted cob buildings are beginning to
appear, though any permit involves expenses, paperwork and
delays.
Ianto Evans and Michael Smith, with Linda Smiley, are cofounders
of The Cob Cottage Company. Ianto Evans is a landscape
architect, applied ecologist inventor, writer and teacher with
building experience on six continents. Cob is traditional in Wales,
his homeland. Michael Smith is the author of The Cobber's
Companion: How to Build Your Own Earthen Home, and has taught
over 20 cob workshops in Canada and the US.
The Cob Cottage Company
PO Box 123, Cottage Grove OR 97424
ph 541-942-2005
www.deatech.com/cobcottage
This article has been excerpted with permission from The Cobber's Companion by
Michael Smith (available from The Cob Cottage Company at the address above).