Cob Building - Go Ahead, Call It a Comeback
by Sean Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio 
on 08. 7.07
For hundreds of years, those living in Ireland, England, and Wales mixed dirt, straw, sand and water to make mud walls, which when compacted and placed on a foundation formed a type of dwelling called cob buildings. Industrialization brought the widespread use of stone, wood, brick and steel in many buildings in these areas, and the traditional techniques of cob building for some time fell by the wayside. However, during the last 20 years, there has been a resurgence in interest for cob building techniques - much of this interest stemming from the building style's claim as one of the most affordable eco-friendly building methods around (cheap as dirt one might even say). So, why hasn't cob building been plastered all over the TreeHugger pages or the U.S. Green Building Council's site? Well, frankly, most of the building in the cob revival have been downright ugly, compared most often to Hobbit homes or mushroom palaces. Cob building's mainstream comeback might be in the works, though. Cob building methods are starting to be used in buildings that (gasp!) even look cool. First it was buildings such as the incorporation of cob into houses such as the Cobtun House, which was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architect's sustainability award a couple years ago. Now, plans are in the works for a contemporary green home in Victoria, British Columbia, that will be "the first code-approved, load-bearing, high-occupancy two-storey cob house in North America."
But, just because the 2,150 square foot house uses building methods borrowed from a few centuries ago doesn't mean the rest of the house will be stuck in the past. Plans call for solar and wind power, a wall of south-facing windows, and even a dedicated plug for an electric car. All of these amenities, in addition to materials, engineer's drawings and labor (their own estimated at $20/hour) cost a very reasonable $97 a square foot. Green buildings on the cheap, who would have thunk? ::Via Globe and Mail
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Whatever snob! Hobbit houses are AWESOME.
Yeah, what he said. Stick your snobbiness. Round is beautiful.
Good to see the picture for this article is of People's Coop Market in Portland Oregon. What makes this building greener than some of the LEED certified buildings in Portland? Most of the customers arrive by bike and have small waste footprints.
Ugly??!! I find most all of cob the buildings that I have seen photos of to be very inviting and attractive buildings. What is ugly to me is all of the gargantuan boxes being built almost every where. You know the ones that all look the same, sterile, uninviting, no pleasing aesthetics...
Honey Comb reinforced, like a moving box with x-shaped spaces for glasses.
I hate the version of "green" that only cares about environmentalism to be fashionable, for whom "green" is simply a trendy, holier-than-thou lifestyle for those wealthy enough to be able to afford "correct" purchases. With your senseless knock on cute, timeless, and sustainable cob building you have shown just where "treehugger.com" stands... vapid consumerist bandwagon jumpers. It's your kind of "fashion" mentality which is responsible for the superficial, wasteful disposable materialist mindset that has made such a mess of planet earth in the first place. Choke on a $7 organic quince.
Wow, love the responses so far. And I didn't even have to write them! Yup, this place is consumerist up the wazoo, with an insane fondness for soulless metal and white boxes. Cob is never going to be cool until someone can find a way to make it shiny and exclusive and designer. If you or I could afford it? Ugly hippy trash.
The posts above are very dissapointing to me. I'd expect a green crowd to understand false dichotomies and not fall for them.
Claiming that the Cob buildings are ugly is not a tacit endorsement of traditional suburban architecture. It is actually possible for both to be butt ugly, believe it or not.
While it is nice that some buildings are being put together to be as tightly packed with "green" features as possible, that doesn't make it good looking and it doesn't make it livable.
I've been largely disappointed by many of the cob buildings I've seen because they've completely lost the idea of Sustainability in design. Instead of thinking through the problems of home design, they've ignored financial and livability considerations just so they could focus on the environmental ones.
Sustainability is all about balance, and ultimately environmentalism should be as well. Make some more livable and affordable cob buildings and you'll start seeing more people jump on the bandwagon.
Although I understand that saying cob buildings are ugly is not a "tacit endorsement of traditional suburban architecture" , I was disappointed with the article. Cob structures, as the article itself points out, have been relegated to the fringe since contemporary building materials have been dominant. It stands to reason then that those who make use of the building material will be of a mind to re-imagine standard design approaches.
I might point out that the roundness of cob structures, as was hinted at in some of the initial replies, stems from an architectural truth that honeycomb layouts, round rooms, and domed ceilings are far more conductive to energy conservation etc, than are the squared spaces of traditional wood frame housing.
The complaint that a lot of the current support for "greenness" is trend based. This is, I hope, a first step for people who, if not for its new found popularity, might never have come to eco-friendliness on their own. To move beyond this first step is going to take some serious creativity and ingenuity on the part of everyone. That may mean abandoning conservative ideas of what's hot and what's not.
I must say, I'm no hippie tree-huggin freak; infact- I'm a "Conservative Republican" -BOO! However, I find large atractibility in the notion of not killing every green thing on GOD's "green" earth. Further more,.. I do like the idea of cob/hobbit dwellings! Providing that, as pointed out above... they don't look like some pair of drunken buffoons designed it.
Come on people, just because it's green doesn't mean it's pretty to look at! Some people "ARE NOT" artists!! No matter how much they want to be. So YES, a cob design can be "hairy butt ugly" - if your the honest type that is... Here's my attached point, be honest about that point, and if you determine you are not an artist (with "talent") then find someone that is -so you dreams wont look like a muddy nightmare. It all centers around "honesty".
I don't care why this article is here, why some people are going green, or what people think about how cob homes look. All I care about is that I'm building one.
My husband & I have decided to move back to his home state of Maine (I've spent a few years there myself) & will buy up a bunch of acres in the middle of the state. There, we will sculpt our dream home, complete with built in furniture, a garden room/attached greenhouse so I can monitor my fruits & veggies year-round without having to fight blizzards, & a little corner with all of our hand prints (even the kitty's) & the date of it's completion.
I can't wait! And I love telling anyone who will listen about it (yes, even strangers online, lol). I'm glad to see any kind of semi-positive mentionings of cob buildings, because it makes me look less crazy if my friends & family can see that I'm not the only one doing this. Ok, ok, you got me. You're right. I don't care what they think. There's actually a certain freedom obtained when everyone thinks you're a little 'out there' & I kinda like that no one is really surprised by our choice of building materials. Off track, sorry...
My point? Well, besides my wee bit of glee over reading an article on cob building... Stop grumbling over petty stuff! Go do a wheat grass shot, hug a tree, strike a yoga pose, & spread some positive energy rather than polluting the internet with negative vibes. If you don't like a site, no one's forcing you to stay:)
For thousands of years middle eastern nations have been building with cob. Much earlier than they ever thought about doing it in europe.
Scott