Transition Culture

Best Books on… Cob Building (2000)

The Walnut Books Reviews Page By Rob Hopkins. (2000). This was one of a series of Best Books On… which appeared in Earthwatch Magazine. This was pre-The Hand Sculpted House, which really took over from all of these.

In this issues Walnut Books page, Rob Hopkins reviews some of the books available from Walnut Books on the subject of cob building (clay wall construction). The books reviewed are; ‘The Cob Builders Handbook’ by Becky Bee, ‘The Cobbers Companion’ by Michael G. Smith, ‘The Natural Home’ by Daniel D. Chiras, ‘Building with Earth’ by John Norton.

America is an odd place. Such extraordinary extremes. On the one hand it is home to probably the most conservative thinkers in the world and the most resource hungry population on the planet. On the other hand it is also home to the most extraordinarily vibrant and inventive groups of people seeking practical solutions to the problems of our times. Organic gardeners, permaculturalists, home birthers, eco-villagers and natural builders. The whole natural building thing in the States is growing at a pace. Strawbale building has become pretty widespread and has begun to make inroads into the mainstream. Cob building, that is building with earth, is strawbale building’s younger brother, and is also starting to grow.

Cob building is the tradition of building with earth that began in the south-west of England hundreds of years ago, as distinct from the other techniques for building with earth found in other parts of the world; pisé in France, adobe in southern America and South America and rammed earth in Africa and the Middle East. Devon and Cornwall still contain over 50,000 earthen buildings which are still inhabited and are very sought after. Ireland also had a strong tradition of earth building, ‘clay wall’ building it was called here, many buildings still exist, mainly in the midlands, around Dublin and up into Monaghan. It is often seen as a relic from poorer times, when people had to live in ‘mud-huts’. However, earth construction is going through a revival, it is becoming seen as probably the most sustainable building material available, with a stability and strength which allow it to be used to build a 13 storey hotel in Australia! The new solar study centre building at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, one of the ‘greenest’ buildings built so far, features rammed earth walls.

Cob building had all but died out in the UK when a Welshman living in Oregon in the USA decided to use it to build his own house. Using a mixture of traditional techniques and new practices of his own devising he created a beautiful building, and was so enthused by the results that he went on to fine tune the techniques and set up The Cob Cottage Company, which then began training others and building more buildings.

Two of the people trained by the Cob Cottage Company were Becky Bee and Michael Smith, both of whom have gone on to become teacher/builders in their own right. Their books, ‘The Cobber’s Companion’ (Smith) and ‘The Cob Builders Handbook’ (Bee) are, in many ways, very similar. After all, a book about cob building has certain ground to cover and they both cover it. The history of the material, designing the house, site preparation, mixing cob, building with cob and so on, there’s not much scope for anything radically different. Both books stress the practical, how cob ‘feels’, how to deal with problems that arise, basically passing on the wealth of their knowledge. If you want to start building, both books will bring you up to speed and both books have the same strong foundation in the experience of their authors.

If there is a difference between them it is in the writing styles. Bee teaches many women-only workshops and ‘The Cob Builders Handbook’ was initially written as a manual for these workshops, and as such avoids much of the know-all ‘no-actually-it-IS-a-bit-more-complicated-than-you-think’ tone which makes many self build books completely useless to anyone other than professional builders. Bee’s book inspires, it encourages, it nurtures, it constantly assures you to trust what you are doing, “you will soon get a feel for the consistency you’re after�, she says. “Remember this ancient knowledge is imprinted in your cells. Trust yourself. Experiment�.

Smith’s book on the other hand, although it avoids the boffin syndrome outlined above, does contain more detailed practical information and advice. At a pinch it has the better chapter on renders and plasters and has the better illustrations. On balance however, if you are looking for a book which you can have on the building site with you to dip into with muddy hands, then on balance I think Becky Bee’s book is the better of the two. In the ideal scenario you would read them both and anything else you can get you hands on about cob building before you embark on such a building project.

The more recently published ‘The Natural House - a complete guide to healthy, energy-efficient, environmental homes’ by Daniel D. Chiras (not to be confused with David Pearson’s ‘The Natural House Book’) is more of a tour around 14 different natural building techniques, straw bale, cob, adobe, cordwood, earthships, earthbags, rammed earth and so on, well illustrated and based on the author’s tours of America visiting many building projects. Each section looks at a specific material in considerable detail (not quite enough details for you to head out and start building but very nearly) and is an excellent primer in the range of materials available. However, if you have already decided what material you want to use the book could be a bit disappointing. For example, if you have already read Smith and Bee’s books you will gain no new information from Chiras’s cob section. If you are like me and are already sold on cob and are heading in that direction, the book is very useful for giving you lots of ideas for other techniques and media to add to your ‘pallette’. Cordwood (using logs mortared together with the ends visible like a big woodpile) is something I hadn’t thought of before and is very interesting.

Although some of the techniques included are not relevant to the Irish climate (try setting out hundreds of lovingly-made mudbricks for three days to dry in Ireland and chances are there’ll be little left to show for them by days three!), enough of them are to make the book worthwhile, and many of those are new to these shores.

The last title worth a mention is ‘Building with Earth’ by John Norton, an Intermediate Technology publication. Although not especially useful as a practical manual (it is designed for those working in developing countries and is more focused on rammed earth), it is useful for its excellent chapter on soil testing and assessment. Until the arrival of the new wave of cob books and the whole natural building resurgence this chapter was the standard text on soil testing, and is still excellent.

At a time in our history when we are importing so much of our cultural identity from America, it seems that the time is right for looking to what is the cutting edge in building materials emerging from there. If a building technique which has all but vanished on these islands due to its association with poverty has to travel across the Atlantic to reinvent itself before returning home as ‘progress’, then so be it. The need for a new way of building which means we can house ourselves in a way which doesn’t require a back-breaking mortgage, doesn’t add to the despoliation of the planet and which doesn’t make us sick to live in is stronger than ever. The main difference with a cob house is how it feels when you walk into it. Spend some time among cob walls, their texture, their touch, their atmosphere, and then visit a concrete house. No contest.