The Hand-Sculpted House : A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage

Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv Ianto Evans What This Book Offers You xvi About the Authors xvii Questions & Answers about Cob xviii PART I: PHILOSOPHY, BACKGROUND, AND DESIGN 1(274) Ianto Evans Ianto's Story 3(1) Peasants and Farmers 4(1) The Importance of Housing Yourself 5(2) Natural Building 7(17) Learning from Nature 8(2) The Rise of Architects 8(1) Natural Laws 9(1) Learning from Conserver Cultures 10(4) What Are Natural Materials? 14(2) Unprocessed and Uncombined 14(1) Primary and Secondary Processing 15(1) Component Assemblies 16(1) Why Build With Earth and Other Natural Materials? 16(5) Health 16(1) Psychological Well-Being 16(1) Financial Empowerment 17(1) Comfort 18(1) Democracy and Empowerment 18(1) Tradition and Heritage 19(1) Durability 19(1) Environmental Impact 19(1) Steel Roofs in Kenya 20(1) The Natural Building Resurgence 21(3) Where's the Dumpster 22(2) Oregon Cob 24(16) A Brief History of Cob 25(3) Won't Burn Down, Bugs Can't Eat it, and it's Dirt Cheap 26(2) Kiko Denzer The Birth of Oregon Cob 28(5) Cookstoves As Inspiration 29(1) Our First Cob House 30(3) Characteristics of Oregon Cob 33(4) What Cob Does Best 33(1) Mass Cooler 34(2) Where Oregon Cob May Be Inappropriate 36(1) Cob in Hybrid Natural Buildings 37(3) Cob and Straw Bale Comparison Chart 39(1) Creative Economics 40(14) Building for Yourself 40(5) Thoreau on Shelter 41(1) Trading Money, Skill, and Time 42(3) Cheap Housing for Those Who Need It Most 45(1) Getting Free from the Trap 46(3) Finding Inexpensive Places to Build 47(1) Edward's Almost Free House 47(1) Borrowing Money 48(1) Checklist: How to Keep Costs Down 49(2) Interview: Brigitte and Elyse's House 51(3) Tilt and Spin 54(6) Watching Earth Turn 55(1) Some Cosmic Fundamentals 56(1) A Cosmic Quiz 57(1) Let Your Home Reflect Cosmic Awareness 57(3) The Site You Build On 60(16) Choosing a Suitable Property 61(1) Consider the Local Bioregion 61(2) Spend Time on the Land 62(1) Selecting the Precise Site 63(1) Create a Master Plan 63(6) Minimize Ecological Disruption 64(1) Consider Soils and Drainage 65(1) Determine the Microclimate 65(1) Look for a Far Horizon 66(1) Look for a Dominant Permanent Feature in the Landscape 66(1) Build on Slopes If Possible 67(1) Respect Your Neighbors 68(1) Taking Time 68(1) Testing Your Choice 68(1) Dealing with Problem Situations 69(4) Short of Sun 69(1) No Trees on Site 70(1) Noise 70(1) Invisible Architecture 71(1) Not Enough Privacy 71(1) Not a Site for a Cob Building 72(1) Interview: Eric Hoel's House 73(3) Designing with Cob 76(17) The Box Police 76(3) When the Materials Design the Home 78(1) A Currency of Pennies 78(1) Cob's Natural Geometries 79(1) For Your Edification 80(1) Thermal Mass 80(1) Essentials of Passive Solar Design 81(6) Heating and Cooling Your Building 84(1) Be Stingy with Glass, Unless Your Climate Is Mild 85(1) Natural Lighting 86(1) Catnap Research in a Cob Greenhouse 86(1) The Heart House 87(6) Redefining ``House'' 93(26) Intuitive Design 93(3) Dispense with Convention 94(1) Brainstorm a Lot 94(1) The Site Was There First! 95(1) Share Your Home with Nature 95(1) Keep It Small! 96(1) Places, Spaces, and Rooms 96(11) Curved Spaces Feel Bigger: The Case for Round Feet 97(3) Banish the Old Noun-Rooms 100(1) Act Out the Dance of Your Daily Life 101(2) Think Gloves Not Boxes 103(1) Your Workplace 104(1) Outdoor Rooms 104(2) Orient to Earth's Tilt and Spin 106(1) Make a Model 107(2) Make an Outline Plan 109(1) Adjusting the Time-Depth 109(4) ``I Design Old Buildings'' 111(2) PART II: BUILDING THE COB COTTAGE Michael G. Smith 113(6) Michael's Story 115(1) Building a Cob Cottage Step-By-Step 116(3) Materials and Tools 119(22) Raw Materials and Where to Get Them 119(13) The Geological History of Your Site 120(1) Composition of Soils 120(2) Determining a Soil's Suitability 122(1) Sand 123(1) Clay 124(3) The Island Without Clay 127(1) Straw 128(2) How Much Raw Material Will I Need? 130(1) Numbers Are Not Sizes 131(1) Finding Other Building Materials 132(2) Scavenging in the City 133(1) Scavenging in the Country 134(1) Tools 134(3) A Cobber's Tool Kit 135(2) Hand Tool Reflections 137(4) Jan Sturmann Site Respect and Preparation 141(14) Respect the Deep Ecology of the Site 142(5) Don't Clear Any Trees Yet 143(1) Work Slowly, Carefully, by Hand 143(2) Backhoe Madness in California 145(1) Work Out the Best Routes for Deliveries 146(1) Protect Sensitive Areas 146(1) Walk-in Buildings 146(1) Site Preparation 147(5) Dig Test Holes 147(1) Transfer Your Design onto the Ground 148(2) Build a Full-Scale Mock-up 150(1) Drive in Foundation and Datum Stakes 151(1) Finally, Begin Clearing the Site 151(1) Erect a Temporary or Permanent Roof 152(1) Interview: Site as Sanctuary 152(3) Drainage and Foundations 155(11) Site Drainage 155(6) Rubble Trenches 156(1) Other Drainage Techniques 156(1) Digging Trenches 157(1) The Importance of Good Drainage 157(1) Filling Trenches 158(1) Foundations 159(2) Building a Stone Stemwall 161(5) Experimental Foundations 164(2) Making the Best Cob 166(14) How Cob Was Mixed Historically 166(1) Preparing Clay Soils for Mixing 167(1) Testing Your Mix 168(1) The Snowball Test 168(5) The Crunch Test 168(1) Test Batches and Test Bricks 169(1) Mixing Cob on Tarps 170(3) Notes on Tarps 173(2) The Pit Method 174(1) Using Machines for Mixing 175(2) Mud, Labor, Pleasure 176(1) Tips for Speed and Efficiency 177(1) Cob Mix Trouble-Shooting Guide 178(1) Custom Mixes 178(2) Building Cob Walls 180(17) Cobs, Gobs, and Blobs 180(4) Trodden Cob 182(1) Cob Loaves 182(1) Gaab-cob 183(1) Creating a Monolithic Structure 184(2) Connecting Two Cob Walls 185(1) Three Contagious Conditions 186(1) Wall Thickness 186(1) Drying 187(2) Settling 189(1) Getting It Straight 190(3) Tapering Walls 191(1) Trimming Off Excess 191(1) Tools for Trimming 192(1) Pipes and Wires 193(1) Incorporating Other Materials 193(1) Reaching Higher 194(1) Scaffolding 195(1) Second Stories and Up 195(1) How Fast Can I Build? 195(2) Sculpting with Cob 197(15) Sculpting a Whole House 198(1) Remodeling 199(1) Built-in Furniture 200(1) Corbelled Shelves, Arches, and Niches 200(3) Starter Projects: Garden Benches and Walls 203(3) Learning and Growing with Garden Walls 204(2) Earth and Fire: Cob Hearths 206(6) A Heated Cob Bench 206(1) Rumford Fireplaces 207(1) A Lorena Cooking Stove 208(1) An Earthen Bread Oven 209(2) Mass Heating Stoves 211(1) Windows and Doors 212(15) Keeping the Wall Strong above Openings 212(2) Connecting Cob to Door and Window Frames 214(2) Installing Nonopening Windows 216(3) Replacing Broken Windows 218(1) Window Placement 219(4) Windows for Magical Light 219(1) Windows for View 220(1) Windows and Solar Gain 221(1) Windows vs. Ventilators 222(1) Doors and Doorways 223(4) Half-Doors 225(2) Roofs for Cob 227(19) The Parts of a Roof 228(1) Roof Design 229(3) The Shape of a Roof 230(2) Building a Roof Structure 232(3) Ceilings 234(1) Roof Sheathing 235(1) Living Roofs 235(3) Thatch 238(2) Metal Roofing 240(1) Tiles, Shakes, and Shingles 240(2) Roof Insulation 242(4) Wool 243(1) Straw and Straw-Clay 244(2) Natural Floors 246(11) Mass Floors 247(7) Preparation for a Mass Floor 247(2) Poured Adobe Floors 249(3) Tamped Cob Floors 252(1) An Adobe Block Floor 252(1) Oil and Wax Finish 253(1) Other Materials 253(1) Hydronics and Hypocausts 254(1) Suspended Floors 255(2) Plasters and Finishes 257(18) Exterior Stuccos 258(2) Don't Use Cement Stucco 259(1) Interior Plaster 260(1) Materials for Stuccos and Plasters 260(2) Inner Light 261(1) Tools for Plastering and Mixing 262(1) Preparing a Wall for Stucco or Plaster 263(1) Earth Plasters 264(3) General Tips for Plastering 265(1) One-Coat Kaolin Plaster 266(1) Litema Clay-Dung Plasters 267(1) Gypsum 268(1) Lime-Sand Plasters 269(2) Washes and Paints 271(4) Limewash or Whitewash 271(1) Alis by Carole Crews 272(1) Other Natural Paints 272(2) Water-Resistant Finishes 274(1) ONWORD: BRIDGING THE INNER AND OUTER WORLDS 275(20) Linda Smiley Linda's Story 277(2) Sculpting Sacred Spaces for Well-Being 279(1) Intuitive Design and Magic Spots 280(3) Intuitive Design Exercise 283(1) Writing in a Magic Spot 284(1) Make a Model 284(1) Cob and Health-They Belong Together 285(3) Mud Dancing 286(2) Cobber's Stories about Delight and Quality of Life 288(3) Joan 288(1) Mike 289(1) Elisheva 289(1) Tricia 290(1) Relationships and Cob Love Stories 291(4) A Match Made in Mud: Misha and Elisheva Rauchwerger 291(1) Earth, Ovens, Art 292(1) Kiko Denzer A Mud Artist Soulmate 293(2) APPENDICES 295(35) Appendix 1: Common Errors in Cob Construction 295(3) Appendix 2: Codes and Permits 298(6) Appendix 3: Cob and Water 304(7) Appendix 4: Cob and Earthquakes 311(4) Appendix 5: Research Needed 315(4) Appendix 6: Wildlife in the Home 319(4) Ianto Evans Appendix 7: Teaching and Learning 323(7) Glossary 330(4) Resources on Cob and Natural Building 334(3) Recommended Books 337(4) Index 341