Cob: Re: Re: Interesting proposal

[Gregori]

Diana,

This is a very interesting perspective and your discriptions is colorful and
vivid.  We are considering producing a documentary on cob, one from an
Environmental Artists perspective to give all of us who love organic
architecture some inspiration to proceed and do a project that is beyond our
wildest  imaginations.....  Would you like to help on this project?

Gregori Robinson
ArtNouveau Foundation


----- Original Message -----
From: drhelp <drhelp at shaw.ca>
To: Jeff S. <jlsmeed at yahoo.com>; <coblist at deatech.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 10:01 PM
Subject: Cob: Re: Interesting proposal


> This is Diana, in British Columbia. In Devon and Cornwall I saw a number
of
> lovely cob houses, barns, outbuildings that are hundreds of years old and
> look as good as new. One elderly couple saw me looking and looking at
their
> house, which was built right at the streetside, and invited me in, once
I'd
> answered their queries about what fascinated me. The inside of the house
was
> charming in all ways, and this couple had lived in it almost 70 years. The
> man's parents had lived in it as long before him. It had been in the
family
> some generations. Not a noticeable crack, and they seemed amused by my
many
> questions. I'd read about cob-built places quite a bit, but had no
> experience with them, until that British Isles trip some years ago.
>
> Since then I've seen many cob-built structures, all very fine and sturdy.
As
> well, I've made two trips throughout the three western provinces to
witness
> cob homes and other buildings and strawbale, cordwood, adobe, log, and
> variations of the themes, as well as questioned the owners of all. Every
> single family or person I visited raved or loved their
dwellings/buildings,
> and said that without exception the building of these had been a community
> affair. Community in the sense of small groups of friends and volunteers
had
> helped build. In several cases, where the homes were large, building
> contractors had supervised, and some crews had been hired on. In all the
> cases of so-called alternative dwellings/ buildings, costs were
> well-to-moderately below what one would expect from traditional building
in
> our provinces. For example, I was told the square foot costs ranged from
> about $8.00/sq. ft. to $85.00/sq. foot. The latter was for a noble
bungalow
> of the style one sees in upscale, middle class new subdivisions here. The
> former were humble dwellings and outbuildings, with all the perks of
modern
> living, including electricty (some off-grid), running water, heat, good
> windows and ventilation and so on.
>
> In cases where large houses and even more modest ones have been built
within
> acceptable time limits, each project had numbers of people working on them
> to completion. I think that in all cases of the newer buildings, as
opposed
> to ones in England where I couldn't interview the original builders (I'm
> old, but not old enough for that) the owners deliberately chose the
> "alternative" building methods for personal/philisophical and often
economic
> reasons, and knew from the get-go that they would have a cooperative
> building scheme with lots of helpers. So if one builds THAT into the
plans,
> and is able to meet that criterion, it becomes possible within a
manageable
> timeframe. Diana
>
>