Cob: size ain't everything...

[phil]

I've kept quite about size on the list. I'm not one to follow conventional wisdom and I assume that I will find a way to make things work. I have to fit a family of 3 into anything that I build so it needs to be at least 1000 square feet. Fortunately I'm not under any time constraint and can build at my own pace. Also, local cade doesn't yet allow for a structure like we would build. Not yet. It will though, as soon as our coalition gets some momentum and we educate the local building inspectors.

Phil




 --- On Thu 07/03, Joe Skeesick < joe at skeesick.com > wrote:
From: Joe Skeesick [mailto: joe at skeesick.com]
To: coblist at deatech.com
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 10:01:40 +0100
Subject: Cob: size ain't everything...

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

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