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[Cob] natural building purism, practicality & appropriate technologyIvan ivan at communityearth.orgMon Mar 4 15:12:23 CST 2013
Hello everyone... I seldom stay on top of the coblist messages anymore but I happened to check lately and appreciate the philosophical discussion taking place here in the last few threads concerning purism and practicality. I feel that many of us deal with this issue on a daily basis and not just in building alternatively. I believe a happy medium can be struck but it concerns more our idea of what constitutes technology than a compromise of values. Let me explain...even cob uses some basic tools - the tarp, the shovel, buckets... however we never hear anyone condemning such technologies. We all draw our lines of purism differently but on the whole, from what I have experienced I would guess that the majority draw the line of purism when oil and gas machinery and/or chemical industry supplies come into use and some draw it at electricity. This is a complicated mix of technologies which has evolved over 300 years and thus is not as easily distinct as the difference between modern agriculture and organic foods which really has a pre-chemical divide to it - pre 1920's (only nearly 100 years ago!!). So, outside of this divide of modern supplies and techniques there is still an enormous experience for us to draw from pre-dating modernism. Just as important is our ingenuity and progress made since that time... and we can pick and choose tools, supplies and techniques which we feel fit our global sense of purism without having to build everything with our bare hands! Today, are we still not pioneers? Currently I am in no position nor have I the time to investigate further (surviving!) but I want us to remember that we can use man powered gadgets that will enable us to ease our backs and also build faster with only the smallest imprint on the web of life. Technologies such as the waterwheel and windmill have done this for us, it is what pulleys do (without harnessing the power of animals or dead plant matter in all its forms), horse drawn threshing machines etc... . There are many examples but one that I like that that gives greater perspective into the vision I am having are the cranes that the romans built 2000 years ago; cranes operated by 2 people (in a wheel not unlike a mouse wheel!) using counterwieghts to manouever supplies and build with. These are not technologies that harm us in the short or long term. They make our lives easier and sometimes even improve with finishing a project faster. This perhaps would be a happy medium that the masses could adopt? Anyone out there have experience with such technologies or techniques? It is evident that such technologies are more complicated than a shovel and tarp but definitely within our reach! The knowledge of use and how to build them are small obstacles we as an alternative building community should be able to master quickly...created and adapted for our needs (in this case cob mixing) and built locally with very cheap and accessible materials. Some years ago when planning on building a home I remember trying to find such existing alternatives (an appropriate mixer) but did not come across any and read (back then in a book) that cement mixers and rototillers did not come close to perfecting a mix such as is needed, so I started doodling a sketch for a new machine to do the job. Before I went much farther with it we had opted for hempcrete on 3 sides (for speed and insolation in the cold Quebec winters) and ended up doing cob with windows only on the South facing first floor (and second floor using strawbale), so building the machine would have helped us only a little and it would have taken more time overall for such a small portion of the house (as any new gadget does to iron out the bugs). So we did the cob portion the old fashioned way... with sweat, smiles and patience but for any larger project I would reconsider building a 'human assisted cob mixer'. I will build with cob again - this time in my new unfound home in the South... but although I am not ready now, if anyone has links to such trials or real human assisted technology please let me know. I will also share a bit about the plans I had in case it sparks ingenuity in any of you. The main principle I had went something like this... It had two different parts / purposes. The first was to mix the dry goods... the second to add the water and eventually the straw. The first was similar to a hand driven concrete mixer and there were several methods... the one I prefered was: A frame, hip high with a swivelled head plate attached and a container to take the dry materials attached to that - a metal drum from a dryer was the recycled material of choice, with 2 ropes wrapped around it - one pulled one way... the other the opposite... so one man could walk one way, then the other spinning and mixing the contents easily... This was then supposed to be dumped into the second contraption... either a shallow narrow pit dug into the ground or made with straw bales and a tarp. This had a frame above it with a pulley attached to wieghts (some medium sized rocks), that would be pulled by a rope and left to drop onto the narrow channel pounding the cob together. I pictured this more like the kneading of bread... the pounding weights would bind the clay, sand and straw tightly...I can't recall how I thought about scooping it out to turn over though? Perhaps it was just that the tarp could be flipped as in the common fashion of cob making...hmm. Another method for the second contraption (again better with two people) was a type of double rolling pin design... where the contents would be squeezed through them (not sure at this point about the straw?) - loaded from the top and reloaded until the perfect consistency. The idea to turn the pins was a bicycle frame... where if needed the the body of the rider could force weight on the gears... but I think that as long as there was someone filling and refilling (throwing globs with their hands) that the weight of the material would help force itself through the pins when turned. Of course... one could take all these ideas or other design and attach it to a waterwheel and you have mechanization! Well - just some food for thought. Have a wonderful week! In solidarity Ivan Tattoli
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