[Cob] Building Plans for Cob/Natural buildings

[Amanda Peck]

Might be a little hard, particularly with cob. The Evans (et al) book does a 
pretty fair job, though.

a) many people have gone through the planning process, seen how slowly the 
work goes (although that may be changing) and said, "I've got to pare down 
to essentials."  And since essentials are likely to be different for each 
person, plans that are perfect for someone else--e.g. Ianto Evans in The 
Hand Sculpted House--may well strike you as perfectly frightful.  For 
instance, he's not very tall, so he things high ceilings are not cozy or 
intimate.  Somebody 6'5" walking into his house might be very uncomfortable. 
  Someone who tends towards claustrophobia might find his house designed 
well enough that they love it, might just think that out in the garden is a 
better place to be.

b) Most of the people doing cob have gone out of their way to be under the 
official radar for building.  One or two here are officially doing 
post-and-beam with cob infill or something of the sort.  So those under the 
radar may well be making it up as they go.  A lot of thought, some sketches 
to see if it feels strong, if it looks like everything they HAVE to have 
with them has a home, and go for it. The guy who was helping me build the 
summer before last, it would have flat out driven him crazy.

c) And part of the point is that people who are choosing to build this way 
really do want to be building in a site-specific manner.  This may be less 
true for the British sites I was looking at this morning, or anywhere "lot" 
instead of "land" is what you have.  A plan that would be perfect RIGHT here 
(trapezoids and wedge shapes are pretty necessary, also retaining walls and 
banging through rock ledges) would be stupid in the relatively level space 
up the hill, or on the wide ledges and deep soil down towards the bottom.

So you could go look at travel trailers, a lot of teensy house sites, talk 
to a lot of people.  And learn how to evaluate floor plans, if you don't 
know already.  Maybe even do the exercises--e.g., list every house you ever 
lived in, write down what you loved and hated about each.

I ran into a site this morning for a house just a bit over 12 x 12 (feet).  
Not for me, thank you.  The travel trailer is not that much bigger and a lot 
more comfortable, but it would be easy to build, has a lovely set of 
porches, etc.  No room for books, though.

http://www.livingarchitecturecentre.com/projects/econo.htm

And do work through this process as you look at the land you are buying.  
Alexander is big on not doing "plans," but laying rooms out on the ground 
(so is Evans), taking great pains with what your morning coffee sitting 
place view is, and so on:

http://www.patternlanguage.com/smallhouse/smallhouseframe.htm?/leveltwo/../smallhouse/smallhousetable.htm

Consider strength.  I put up the Gernot Minke booklet available free on .pdf 
frequently.  It's a lot about earthen building in seismic areas, AND a lot 
about how to make your walls strong, no matter where you are.  But I think 
I've posted it recently.
..............
Willy (Billy Baker) wrote (snipped of his compliments to all of us--thank 
you):

I would like to see some examples of formalized plans.  I would also like to 
see a guide or a checklist of considerations required before getting 
started.  I would like these to be compatible with engineers and inspectors, 
by being prepared to field all questions beforehand I believe the end 
results will be better.

How should I draw up my ideas so that they can make sense to other people?