[Cob] rebar

[Anthony Novelli]

Precisely! Couldn't agree more, and the core motivation for the work David Eisenberg and myself have been doing for about 15 years, at DCAT (www.dcat.net).  (and the same struggle we face at my second job with Vital Systems)

I think what gets interesting and complicated are the paired interests and responsibilities from the personal to the planetary... The "tragedy of the commons" occurred with a purely self-interested approach that became "common" - to the more altruistic approach often being more and more a reaction than an informed, ethical, systematic approach to wresting the future of the planet from narrower interests. 

In other words, while we need "alpha builders" as we're described before, we need to collectively understand and collectively respond to the industrialization of building systems AND the slowly evolving bureaucracy of the regulatory systems designed mostly to keep bad things from happening. 

David and I have led this systemic change work for a very long time, and while the effects haven't trickled down to every official or with every system, the cultural shift in the leadership has been tremendous. 

It certainly is more work than it should be, and it's more than frustrating to pay them good money to do what can sometimes be hurting the projects structurally as well as environmentally. But is it not the battle for raising consciousness that we face on all sides, every day?

There is a lot of good stuff if you dig around on our site, though it is very long in the tooth and badly needs an update. I'm open to any questions off list as well. There's a great checklist we developed on how best to engage with the codes dept. here: http://www.dcat.net/about_dcat/current/checklist.php

And many more resources here: http://www.dcat.net/resources/index.php
(this work is shoestring... Donations always welcome)

Mostly I am just trying to recast the conversation in the light that while difficult, the opportunity to change the world on multiple levels is present in every project, and the more that we devote those resources we borrow from nature to serve the next, and recognize ourselves as ambassadors to and of future generations, the more we open ourselves to the support and guidance we need to build - and live - in a good way. 

May we take that into our hearts, minds, and bodies in a way that our work heals everyone it touches. 

Tony Novelli
www.dcat.net
www.vitalsystems.net

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 26, 2012, at 6:23 AM, "dhowell at pickensprogressonline.com" <dhowell at pickensprogressonline.com> wrote:

> I agree. It's wrong of me to assume that everyone who wants to build their own home puts in the time to study what makes a home stand up. Although I believe we should be able to build our homes out of materials that may not be common, I also believe they should be "inspected" and checked by others. Janet and others are doing a fine job at getting approval of cob, but at a tremendous expense to them individually. What's odd is the way the so called "experts" in the cobbing community build in much the same manner as it always has been done. These are the people we would all benefit from to inspect our plans and oversee our job sites, not building inspectors from the county office who don't know a thing about natural building.
> 
> On Jun 25, 2012, at 5:17 PM, Anthony Novelli wrote:
> 
>> One more... a permacutlure teacher of mine that had permitted several straw bale structures showed an example of his work in Latin America, where the straw bale walls were left unpinned, had no bond beam, a serious bamboo truss system, and a TILE ROOF. Each of these systems on their own may be fine, but not understanding the shortcomings as well as the strengths of each creates seriously out of balance structural equations when combining them. Cob would have been a superior choice for this kind of roof system, though long unbuttressed or unreinforced cob walls can be problematic as well.
>