[Cob] tree poles for cold climate insulation

[Ryan Thornton]

I am looking into possible alternative homes for a house I want to build for 
myself in south central Alasak. Cob intriugues me, but as I have read it 
isn't great for places with a lot of constant cold weather, whcih we 
certainly get. While straw bale insulation has been mentioned I am leary of 
it since becuase of it's extreme bulk when including the cob walls, and 
because it would seem to eaken the structure of a cob house with it's 
discontinuity between the two walls. This is a worry in to me because we get 
earthquakes up here. it would seem to me that two seperate wals would not 
flex together during a quake, and be morelikely to shear.  I was wondering 
if tree " poles" placed vertically could be used as insulation? That is 
trees of 8 or so inches in diameter placed vertical in the foundation with 
cob surrounding the pole walls both inside and out. The poles placed 
vertically would allow the flexibility of design that cob offers, but would 
this give the buffer needed to prevent heat from being drawn out of the 
house and/or cold drawn into the house? If so should the poles be places  
touching each other or can there be some space between the poles to allow 
the cob to connect from one side to the next? My thought were that as close 
together as possible, or slightly overlapping. and to give contiunous 
support throughout the wall, from one side to the next to put some type of 
"rebar" through the wood connecting to each side pointing in various 
directions with bends in the bar so that it doesn't move in the cob should 
the wall move. Shoudl the rebar be the metal type we all know or could it be 
something else such as small branches. If you think of anything else for 
rebar that would be great.
thanks.
Ryan

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