Cob: adobe/cob

[Matthew HALL(SED)]

The definitions for adobe and cob appear to be as clear as mud (terrible pun...), this is apparent
from the recent discussions. In my humble opinion these names refer to 'techniques' of earth
building and not types of earth material. Obviously each technique requires a certain type of earth
to be used (eg clayey loam for adobe, sandy for RE etc). To my knowledge adobe i simply the Spanish
term for sun dried mud bricks, a method they took with them to various places in their colonial
glory days. In the east anglia region of the UK we also have 1000s of sun dried mud brick buildings
that we call 'clay lump'. No doubt if one of these clay lumps were extracted from a building here
in the UK and exported to the USA the same clay lump would then be christened an adobe, and visa
versa. However, cob is a monolithic wall composed of fibre-reinforced stacked mud that originated
in the UK. When transposed to Oregon the technique is duplicated and they still call it cob. Surely
if during the construction of a cob house 
you decide to take some of the wet mud and make sun-dried mud bricks these become adobes/clay lumps
(depending what country you are in).
Regards
Matthew
____________________________________________________________________
Matthew Hall BSc (Hons) GradBEng
Centre for the Built Environment
Unit 9 Science Park
Sheffield Hallam University
Pond Street
Sheffield S1 1WB
England

Tel: +44 (0) 114 225 3200
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E-mail: M.Hall at shu.ac.uk
Webpage: http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/sed/earth