Cob: A model building

[Priscilla Stuckey]

Dear Michael,

Communicate, communicate, communicate! Everybody in a household needs 
to buy into a project, in my opinion, especially a big one like a 
house. So your biggest job may be winning your spouse to your 
cause--really paying attention to her reservations, being willing to 
let her (and her opinions) be part of the process. In families, 
anything but consensus can break hearts.

In my experience, this process can be so time consuming that I'm just 
as happy being single at the moment, making decisions about housing 
without having to work them out with anyone else.

Good luck. And I'm enjoying your photos and learnings. Where are you, 
BTW, that mud brick is an option? Can't be anywhere near earthquake 
country.

Priscilla




At 6:05 AM -0400 5/20/03, puppetman at ix.netcom.com wrote:
>Hi Charmaine:
>
>Yes the materials are right off the puppet bench. I will be making 
>the front arches, the monolithic desk and the fireplace, out of cob. 
>However what started this whole mud building business with me was 
>learning to make mud brick in Africa. I wanted to try that here. I 
>have ordered up my Cinva Ram and the straight walls will be made 
>from compressed earth block. For the model, I have actually been 
>making each of the bricks and laying them up in a wall. This process 
>takes a lot of time and fuss but already it has yielded a lot of 
>things this newbie hadn't considered.
>
>Thing 1. This building will take a buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunch of brick. 
>When I had happened on the project in Africa we made some brick but 
>most of it was done. Now I realize why. It will take me and my 
>nephew the better part of a month just to prepare the material. One 
>of the interesting things I saw in Cotonou (In Benin) were building 
>sites where 10 story high- rises where going up. About a year in 
>advance of actual construction there where crews of about 4 men (and 
>two boys) who made cement block from single metal molds. I am 
>beginning to appreciate the human energy that went into hand 
>crafting these western style buildings.
>
>Thing 2. The plastilene (modeling clay) in scale, seems to have 
>similar qualities to what I believe the earth mixture will have. So 
>I have been paying attention to how it behaves as I lay up my wall. 
>Walls taken too high too fast were wobbly and easily damaged until I 
>could tie it in with other parts of the structure. Suggesting that I 
>pay attention to construction process. The arches were wobbly and 
>would not hold their shape until I put a small buttress on the 
>outside of them. These observations bring up questions as to whether 
>a double course wall will be adequate without support. I dug out 
>some old masonry books and now have some examples of 3 and 4 course 
>walls. I now have to decide whether I need my walls to be 1, 1.5, or 
>2 feet thick. Decisions....decisions..
>
>Thing 3. Cultural resistance. I expected problems from the township 
>building inspector but he is in support. I am getting the most 
>resistance from my wife and some close friends. A couple of weekends 
>ago, I mixed up some earth and lime into a nice little plaster and 
>made a test patch on a teeny 2 ft section of unfinished drywall in 
>what is to be our new family room. When my wife saw that she went 
>ballistic. She wanted me to "Get that dirt out of her house!" and 
>she also wanted to know if I knew what kind of dead animals or bugs 
>were in that sh--t. She made it perfectly clear that she wants only 
>sterilized stuff that comes from a store in bags. Do you hear me 
>bring it here in bags. (Perhaps I share too much here... She really 
>is a wonderful college educated, heartfull, computer geek type 
>woman.) And soooooo I convinced her to let the plaster dry and see 
>if it would be ok. I also convinced her that nobody sterilizes 
>anything before they put it in bags(including your bread). And that 
>bugs, bones and cow feces are just an added bonus for which there is 
>no extra charge and no labeling requirements. The plaster got really 
>hard and is really smooth and is really stuck to the wall. And so it 
>is sort of OK. She says, "Kinda amazing really." What is important 
>in all this is that that the building in mud idea takes some getting 
>used to. "Normal" people have a hard time with it. The model seems 
>to be a concretization of the concept and a pretty clear indication 
>that there really is going to be a mud building around here. The 
>model has moved my wife from the "That's nice honey" stage to the 
>"Where are you going to put that thing? How big is it? What is it 
>going to cost us?" stage. The model has stimulated community input. 
>Everyone knows without community input there would be no building. 
>(Unless of course I put it behind the polebarn where we don't care 
>what mama don 'low.)
>
>I have gone on way too long about my little model. It has been a lot 
>of fun so far. I don't think I would try this project without one.
>
>Thanx for all your support;
>
>Michael Fitzgerald
>Anthropologist/Woodcarver/Puppetmaker
>


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