Cob speed
In the early Eighties I read a very interesting little book by a philosopher named Ivan Illich. The book was about driving cars and...
10 years of cob
It has been about 10 years since I took my first 1-week cob workshop. I sank my bare feet into the mud to mix the sand straw and clay...
Improving cob
During the first day of a cob workshop it doesn’t take long for someone (usually a man) to start making suggestions about how cob...
Homelessness in the house
What we call a “homelessness problem” is truly a “houselessness problem” mostly caused by disfunctionality in our social and economic...
Sustainability in the urban environment
Most natural building today occurs in rural areas, where there is plenty of land and little interference from code officials or...
Window talk
Windows are an essential part of all our houses. The shape, size, quality and placement of the windows in a house can greatly influence...
Housing on the Pine Ridge reservation
At the end of April I flew to Rapid City, South Dakota, rented a car and drove to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Lakota...
Clay
In natural building, we make an effort to build with materials that are found locally. Unless they are recycled materials, we also prefer...
Cob in Guatamala
In March of 2005, after finishing up work on our cob project in Mexico, I went to teach a cob workshop in Guatemala. The project took...
Earthen floors
In the architectural drawings for my house, the floor finish was described as “Earthen Floor on slab”. The plan reviewer at the county...