[Cob] COB: Long, long list of earthen building links.

[Mark Piepkorn]

At 12:48 PM 12/13/2003, Amanda Peck wrote:
>http://www.naturalbuilder.com
>no names available on who they are.  They do swear that they will be 
>offering workshops in 2004.  Anybody know anything about their books?


         That's Steve Berlant, who goes back quite a ways in this stuff. I 
have the books (plastic-spiral-bound affairs), and like them a great deal. 
They're almost the antithesis of The Hand-Sculpted House (and they predate 
it by a longish stretch). They're not how-to manuals; rather, they're like 
a thoroughly catalogued collection of citations and notes compiled over the 
years of his research and experience. Much of the info is well advanced of 
what's in the "common" 'Murrican literature.

         For my birthday, the Dearest One found a copy of the proceedings 
from the 1990 Conference on Earthen Architecture that was held in New 
Mexico. Some wonderful hardcore stuff on historic cob. Papers in English, 
Spanish, German - totally recommended, that one, but good luck finding 
copies. Much content like the paper referenced at IHBC - 
http://www.ihbc.org.uk/Cob_Paper/Introduction.html