Cob (building)

Encyclopedia : C : CO : COB : Cob (building)

Cob is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth. Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive. It can be used to create artistic, sculptural forms and has been revived in recent years by the natural building and sustainability movements. Contents 1 History and usage 2 Modern cob buildings 3 See also 4 References 5 External links History and usage Cob-building is a traditional technique that has been used for thousands of years and in all kind of climates. In the UK it is most strongly associated with counties of Devon and Cornwall, where many cob cottages have survived and are still lived in. Many old cob buildings can be found in Africa, the Middle East, Wales, and some parts of the eastern United States. The walls of a cob house are necessarily thick, and windows are correspondingly deepset, giving the houses a characteristic internal appearance. The thick walls also provide excellent thermal mass, so that, depending on the climate, cob cottages are relatively easy to keep warm in winter, and tend to be cool in summer. Surprisingly, the material is entirely suitable for rainy climates, and so long as a cob house is reasonably cared for, the structure will not deteriorate; many cob cottages in Devon (one of the wetter counties in England) have been inhabited for hundreds of years. Cob has many similarities to the adobe associated with Mexico and the southwestern United States, but whereas adobe is formed into bricks which are then stacked into a wall system, cob is sculpted from the foundation up. Where sand is not readily available paper pulp may be added to the clay to minimize cracking when the cob dries. Modern cob buildings In 2006, a modern, four-bedroom cob house in Worcestershire, UK, sold for £745 000. Cobtun House was built in 2001 and won the Royal Institute of British Architect's Sustainable Building of the Year award in 2005. The total construction cost was £300 000, but the metre-thick cob outer wall cost only £20 000.[1] In the Pacific Northwest of North America there has been a resurgence of cob building both as an alternative building practice and one desired for its form, function and cost effectiveness. There are over ten cob houses in the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia built by Pat Hennebery and the Cobworks workshops. Go [here] for examples of modern cobing. See also Rammed earth Adobe Mudbrick Chirpici (a variant of cob used in Southern Romania) Sod Straw-bale construction Rice-hull bagwall construction Appropriate technology References 1 The Hand-Sculpted House: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage (The Real Goods Solar Living Book) by Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith, Linda Smiley, Deanne Bednar (Illustrator), Chelsea Green Publishing Company; (June 2002), ISBN 1890132349. External links [The Cob Cottage Company] [Cob in Cornwall]- Ecologically conscious builders [Cobworks]- Instruction and courses on building with cob [The Cob Builders Handbook] [Build Something Beautiful] - construction photo galleries [COB Bench process Step by step], Arcata, CA Humboldt state student project (large slow file) [COB Info] student web project [EARTHA : Earth Architecture and Conservation in East Anglia]- British organisation that focuses on the proper maintenance and conservation of earth buildings in a region of the UK that has a long history of building with mud. Very experienced experts are contactable and there are regular demonstrations in the area.

Cob building dated 1539 in Devon, England. Inside of a modern cob house.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.