Cob: size ain't everything...

[Joe Skeesick]

Just a note on some of the comments lately on cob buildings being small;
there is nothing inherent in cob construction that requires a small home be
built. Both historic and modern cob homes have been quite large. Everything
from Sir Walter Raleigh's home Hayes Barton to Kevin McCabe's new build
(coming in at about 3200 square feet) have been built with cob. It is a
fallacy to say that cob construction = small.
The "smallness" of modern cob construction comes from other philosophies
that these builders hold, not from the construction method itself. People
come to self-build construction for a variety of reasons. It is important to
separate these ideas from construction method limitations if you want others
to see cob construction as a valid building technique. To attach a
philosophy to a construction method is to exclude everyone that doesn't
share that vision. Furthermore, these self-imposed limitations create an
initial roadblock to utilizing the technique on utility buildings that by
definition must be large.
Cob buildings can be large, they can be made with large machinery and they
can be made relatively quickly. However, it is also a human scale technology
that can be made almost completely by hand with simple tools and hard graft.
The choice of how to approach the design and construction process of a cob
home is where your personal philosophies come into play. Just don't fetter
the technique itself with those ideas or you do everyone a disservice.

Joe