[Cob] cob in vancouver

[Ian Marcuse]

Hi Jonathon,

You make a good point. While I am an anarchist at heart, there is no 
way to build cob over 100 round feet in public spaces in Vancouver 
(nor in private space) without a permit or code. At this point the 
code folks are not getting too involved. They are just curious and 
our structure is under 100 round feet. They are also very supportive. 
What has happened on the Gulf Islands here in BC is that the permits 
folks are allowing cob buildings which is good but they have to be 
built with post and beam, thus non-loadbearing, which is perhaps bad. 
So it is kinda like a compromise. We are building a loadbearing cob 
structure and I am hoping that we can show/prove to the city 
engineers and code folks that it is solid, and with some testing 
behind us, perhaps we can get approval for a larger fully loadbearing 
and officially permitted cob building the following year in 
Vancouver. I feel confident that as long as we build well, engineers 
will be comfortable allowing cob. The problem on the Gulf Islands is 
that the permits people knew nothing about cob apart from a little 
they read, so they went with what they knew. It is likely that we 
will be beefing up our building a bit, particularly around seismic 
concerns, which are important here in Vancouver. This shouldn't take 
away from the spirit of cob building (its affordability, use of local 
materials, hand-built, etc.) but will go a long way to allieviating 
the fears of engineers and code people.

Does anyone know of any cob buildings in cities in North America that 
were built in public spaces (or private) that received permits? What 
are people's experiences with city officials?



>On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 09:12:42AM -0800, Ian Marcuse wrote:
>>Our city administration here in Vancouver is now ready to develop 
>>code for cob here in the city as we have engineers and code 
>>developers working with us. I have been putting together resources 
>>for them. Does anyone have experience developing cob code? I 
>>welcome any thoughts and ideas on developing a cob testing program 
>>that we may be able to undertake at the University.
>
>Please please please don't let them overload cob with so many
>restrictions that a young fellow wanting to build his house for $20k no
>longer has that chance.
>
>Otherwise, that is great news.  I've been wanting to build a cob house
>since I saw that little cob chapel being built on Cambie street.
>
>Jonathan
>