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The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
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Cob: Re: Japanese Earthen BuildingKeven Naphtali napher at hotmail.comThu Dec 6 10:31:16 CST 2001
For those of you on the list who don't understand Japanese which I'm sure is most, you can go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and type in darel's links to get a loosely translated version of these web sites. Darel, Just wondering how you tracked down these wonderful resources in Japan, have you been to Japan? I am currently living in Osaka and would love to visit some construction sites if you know of any in the Kansai area. Let me know. Cheers, Keven ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darel Henman" <henman at it.to-be.co.jp> To: "dtebb" <dtebb at alternatives.com> Cc: <coblist at deatech.com> Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 4:42 PM Subject: Re: Cob: code cob > In response to your mention of using wood posts and beams. I recalled > the Japanese mud wall and post and frame houses they built up to a > hundred years or so ago. Only wealthy people or important buildings, > temples and what not use it anymore. > > Typical wall thicknesses go from about 7 to 10 inches. For the storage > buildings of important food, books and treasure the walls are thicker. > It is like the wattle and daub method. It is reported to work well in > earthqauke prone areas, such as Japan. > > Rice straw cut and fermented with the clay-soil for three months or so > is the proper way, but a code says that in the summer at least a week is > needed to ferment the straw. I can't find out any scientific reason for > this, but...... they do say that doing this oxydixes the metals in the > soil, it turns a darker color, the straws ferments and gets softer for > easily application and workability as well as produces a kind of glue to > help keep the mixed mud from cracking as much. I've read that the > fermenting straw will smell, and after application for about a week > while it dries. > > Anyway here's some pictures about using the bamboo latice, ####, between > post and beams. > > Sliced bamboo is also used for. Full round bamboo is stuck into drilled > holes in the posts and beams as the intial framework, then sliced strips > of bamboo are woven in and attached with hemp rope. > > Here's the bamboo latice between posts: > http://www.hatukari.co.jp/kabe/pages/01.htm > > Here's applying the mud/straw mix to the bamboo latice. > http://www.hatukari.co.jp/kabe/pages/06.htm > > Here's an interesting lime finish with some kind of natural ink in it. > http://www.kokuchosha.co.jp/sakan/sback/0105sh.html > > Another good example shot: > http://www.mirai.ne.jp/~esnishie/area/waju/sansen/tutikabe.html > > Darel > > dtebb wrote: > > > > Here in parts of British Columbia, cob is now permitted but with a post and > > beam structure. There was 1 fully load bearing house built by Cobworks > > (Cobworks.com) that has a permit, but due to the huge amount of interest by > > others to build, the local permits people came up with the post and beam > > compromise, I guess it is what they are comfortable with. > > > > Ian > > > >
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