[Cob] Cob dome roof?

[orange_green_peace at hotmail.com]

Hello Damon,

you mentioned "a 10 foot circular  mud hut with a dome roof (also mud)".
I am curious. How would that work? I always thought mud roofs only work
in desert climates or similar. Or is there a possibility to make it
waterproof? Where I live (northern germany) it rains a lot and it is
maritime climate. But there are also very few trees here, so my dream is
a small hut that uses earth, straw, probably thatch (it's just a
dream... reed thatch is expensive...), other natural materials and a
little wood, but as little as possible. This is all theoretical at this
time. But I like to think about possibilities and I'd very much like to
try something like this as soon as possible.

I hope this doesn't sound too stupid, it's just an idea I had. I have no
building experience yet, so it might be a very stupid idea. But I find
it fascinating, so here it is: A cob dome roof with straw/thatch worked
in so that the straw/thatch works like a fur. It is embedded in the cob,
but the long ends stick out in many layers (as on a normal thatch roof),
making rain water run off and hopefully keeping the cob dry. I hope it's
understandable what I mean with this description.
Or a slightly different idea would be to fasten the straw/thatch to the
cob dome with pieces of wood in about the same way one would normally
fasten it to roof timbers.

I wonder if anyone has tried/experimented with something like this before?

Leona

On 23.07.2010 21:33, Damon Howell wrote:
[snip] I read this "book" of 105 pages written by Hasan
> Fathy named Architecture for the Poor where he writes how unwilling
> building officials are to accept that mud can be used to build
> beautiful buildings that just isn't possible with conventional
> materials. He presents it from the viewpoint of the poor; they are
> suffering because they can't afford the type of home the building
> forces them to build; concrete. Build a 10 foot circular  mud hut with
> a dome roof (also mud), he says.[snip]