Portland Public Library

The hand-sculpted house, a philosophical and practical guide to building a cob cottage, Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley, and Michael Smith ; illustrated by Deanne Bednar

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

The hand-sculpted house

bibliography

49493511

Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley, and Michael Smith ; illustrated by Deanne Bednar

A Real Goods solar living book

a philosophical and practical guide to building a cob cottage

Cob, a structural composite of earth, water, straw, clay, and sand, has been used for centuries, in virtually all parts of the world, to create homes ranging from mud huts in Africa to lavish adobe haciendas in Latin America. This practical and inspiring hands-on guide teaches anyone to build a cob dwelling

Philosophy, Background, and Design (What You Need to Consider Before You Start to Build) / Ianto Evans -- Ianto's Story -- Peasants and Farmers -- The Importance of Housing Yourself -- Natural Building -- Learning from Nature -- The Rise of Architects -- Natural Laws -- Learning from Conserver Cultures -- What Are Natural Materials? -- Unprocessed and Uncombined -- Primary and Secondary Processing -- Component Assemblies -- Why Build With Earth and Other Natural Materials? -- Health -- Psychological Well-Being -- Financial Empowerment -- Comfort -- Democracy and Empowerment -- Tradition and Heritage -- Durability -- Environmental Impact -- Steel Roofs in Kenya -- The Natural Building Resurgence -- Where's the Dumpster -- Oregon Cob -- A Brief History of Cob -- Won't Burn Down, Bugs Can't Eat it, and It's Dirt Cheap / Kiko Denzer -- The Birth of Oregon Cob -- Cookstoves As Inspiration -- Our First Cob House -- Characteristics of Oregon Cob -- What Cob Does Best -- Mass Cooler -- Where Oregon Cob May Be Inappropriate -- Cob in Hybrid Natural Buildings -- Cob and Straw Bale Comparison Chart -- Creative Economics -- Building for Yourself -- Thoreau on Shelter -- Trading Money, Skill, and Time -- Cheap Housing for Those Who Need It Most -- Getting Free from the Trap -- Finding Inexpensive Places to Build -- Edward's Almost Free House -- Borrowing Money -- Checklist: How to Keep Costs Down -- Interview: Brigitte and Elyse's House -- Tilt and Spin -- Watching Earth Turn -- Some Cosmic Fundamentals -- Let Your Home Reflect Cosmic Awareness -- The Site You Build On -- Choosing a Suitable Property -- Consider the Local Bioregion -- Spend Time on the Land -- Selecting the Precise Site -- Create a Master Plan -- Minimize Ecological Disruption -- Consider Soils and Drainage -- Determine the Microclimate -- Look for a Far Horizon -- Look for a Dominant Permanent Feature in the Landscape -- Build on Slopes If Possible -- Respect Your Neighbors -- Taking Time -- Testing Your Choice -- Dealing with Problem Situations -- Short of Sun -- No Trees on Site -- Noise -- Invisible Architecture -- Not Enough Privacy -- Not a Site for a Cob Building -- Interview: Eric Hoel's House -- Designing with Cob -- The Box Police -- When the Materials Design the Home -- A Currency of Pennies -- Cob's Natural Geometries -- For Your Edification -- Thermal Mass -- Essentials of Passive Solar Design -- Heating and Cooling Your Building -- Be Stingy with Glass, Unless Your Climate Is Mild -- Natural Lighting -- Catnap Research in a Cob Greenhouse -- The Heart House -- Redefining "House" -- Intuitive Design -- Dispense with Convention -- Brainstorm a Lot -- The Site Was There First! -- Share Your Home with Nature -- Keep It Small! -- Places, Spaces, and Rooms -- Curved Spaces Feel Bigger: The Case for Round Feet -- Banish the Old Noun-Rooms -- Act Out the Dance of Your Daily Life -- Think Gloves Not Boxes -- Your Workplace -- Outdoor Rooms -- Orient to Earth's Tilt and Spin -- Make a Model -- Make an Outline Plan -- Adjusting the Time-Depth -- "I Design Old Buildings" -- Building the Cob Cottage / Michael G. Smith -- Michael's Story -- Building a Cob Cottage Step-By-Step -- Materials and Tools -- Raw Materials and Where to Get Them -- The Geological History of Your Site -- Composition of Soils -- Determining a Soil's Suitability -- Sand -- Clay -- The Island Without Clay -- Straw -- How Much Raw Material Will I Need? -- Numbers are Not Sizes -- Finding Other Building Materials -- Scavenging in the City -- Scavenging in the Country -- Tools -- A Cobber's Tool Kit -- Hand Tool Reflections / Jan Sturmann -- Site Respect and Preparation -- Respect the Deep Ecology of the Site -- Don't Clear Any Trees Yet -- Work Slowly, Carefully, by Hand -- Backhoe Madness in California -- Work Out the Best Routes for Deliveries -- Protect Sensitive Areas -- Walk-in Buildings -- Site Preparation -- Dig Test Holes -- Transfer Your Design onto the Ground -- Build a Full-Scale Mock-up -- Drive in Foundation and Datum Stakes -- Finally, Begin Clearing the Site -- Erect a Temporary or Permanent Roof -- Interview: Site as Sanctuary -- Drainage and Foundations -- Site Drainage -- Rubble Trenches -- Other Drainage Techniques -- Digging Trenches -- The Importance of Good Drainage -- Filling Trenches -- Foundations -- Building a Stone Stemwall -- Experimental Foundations -- Making the Best Cob -- How Cob Was Mixed Historically -- Preparing Clay Soils for Mixing -- Testing Your Mix -- The Snowball Test -- The Crunch Test -- Test Batches and Test Bricks -- Mixing Cob on Tarps -- Notes on Tarps -- The Pit Method -- Using Machines for Mixing -- Mud, Labor, Pleasure -- Tips for Speed and Efficiency -- Cob Mix Trouble-Shooting Guide -- Custom Mixes -- Building Cob Walls -- Cobs, Gobs, and Blobs -- Trodden Cob -- Cob Loaves -- Gaab-cob -- Creating a Monolithic Structure -- Connecting Two Cob Walls -- Three Contagious Conditions -- Wall Thickness -- Drying -- Settling -- Getting It Straight -- Tapering Walls -- Trimming Off Excess -- Tools for Trimming -- Pipes and Wires -- Incorporating Other Materials -- Reaching Higher -- Scaffolding -- Second Stories and Up -- How Fast Can I Build? -- Sculpting with Cob -- Sculpting a Whole House -- Remodeling -- Built-in Furniture -- Corbelled Shelves, Arches, and Niches -- Starter Projects: Garden Benches and Walls -- Learning and Growing with Garden Walls -- Earth and Fire: Cob Hearths -- A Heated Cob Bench -- Rumford Fireplaces -- A Lorena Cooking Stove -- An Earthen Bread Oven -- Mass Heating Stoves -- Windows and Doors -- Keeping the Wall Strong above Openings -- Connecting Cob to Door and Window Frames -- Installing Nonopening Windows -- Replacing Broken Windows -- Window Placement -- Windows for Magical Light -- Windows for View -- Windows and Solar Gain -- Windows vs. Ventilators -- Doors and Doorways -- Half-Doors -- Roofs for Cob -- The Parts of a Roof -- Roof Design -- The Shape of a Roof -- Building a Roof Structure -- Ceilings -- Roof Sheathing -- Living Roofs -- Thatch -- Metal Roofing -- Tiles, Shakes, and Shingles -- Roof Insulation -- Wool -- Straw and Straw-Clay -- Natural Floors -- Mass Floors -- Preparation for a Mass Floor -- Poured Adobe Floors -- Tamped Cob Floors -- An Adobe Block Floor -- Oil and Wax Finish -- Other Materials -- Hydronics and Hypocausts -- Suspended Floors -- Plasters and Finishes -- Exterior Stuccos -- Don't Use Cement Stucco -- Interior Plaster -- Materials for Stuccos and Plasters -- Inner Light -- Tools for Plastering and Mixing -- Preparing a Wall for Stucco or Plaster -- Earth Plasters -- General Tips for Plastering -- One-Coat Kaolin Plaster -- Litema Clay-Dung Plasters -- Gypsum -- Lime-Sand Plasters -- Washes and Paints -- Limewash or Whitewash -- Alis / Carole Crews -- Other Natural Paints -- Water-Resistant Finishes -- Onword: Bridging the Inner and Outer Worlds / Linda Smiley -- Linda's Story -- Sculpting Sacred Spaces for Well-Being -- Intuitive Design and Magic Spots -- Intuitive Design Exercise -- Writing in a Magic Spot -- Make a Model -- Cob and Health--They Belong Together -- Mud Dancing -- Cobbers' Stories about Delight and Quality of Life -- Joan -- Mike -- Elisheva -- Tricia -- Relationships and Cob Love Stories -- A Match Made in Mud: Misha and Elisheva Rauchwerger -- Earth, Ovens, Art / Kiko Denzer -- A Mud Artist Soulmate -- Common Errors in Cob Construction -- Codes and Permits -- Cob and Water -- Cob and Earthquakes -- Research Needed -- Wildlife in the Home / Ianto Evans -- Teaching and Learning