How A Natural Building Style From The Past May Be A Solution For The Future

The feeling of spending in a cob home versus a “modern” structure is hard to put into words. How do you translate the deep, bone-warming heat that only a wood stove can bring, or the feeling being submerged in nature without ever stepping foot outside your home? A few years into living in a cob house I realized that I’m not sure if many people can say the following statement in modern day United States: The home that I currently live in gives me hope. How could a one-room home, made from mud and rocks, inspire these feelings of light and optimism inside someone?

About The Cob Cottage Company

Before we get into the logistics of my own home, let’s rewind in time to the winter of 2021. After creeping up a long path taking us deeper into the moist forest, my partner and I got out of our well-traveled van, closed our eyes, and breathed in the fresh sent of the dense forest in Oregon. With ferns decorating the landscape and a hand-made bridge of lumber and sticks guiding the way forward, we crossed the threshold of the chaotic outside world and one that was consciously made with care, attention to beauty and whimsical detail, and old-fashioned sweat.

A Living Legend: The Work Of Ianto Evans And Linda Smiley

We had finally made it to the Cob Cottage Company in Coquille, Oregon. The Cob Cottage Company is home to Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, in addition to other work traders, artists, and natural builders. Composed of cob homes and cob walls that enclose gardens and outdoor spaces, the Cob Cottage Company hosts workshops throughout the year teaching folks how to build with natural, “alternative” materials.

Our Stay At The Cob Cottage Company

During our visit we stayed in a sweet one-room cob house that had been built for around $600 USD. The large open windows were enclosed by cozy neutral earth colors, with a cob-made frog by the front door welcoming visitors in from the chill. Not only did the rocket stove heat food or water for tea, but its warmth was funneled into a cob bench that wrapped around half of the house, making it hard to ever leave.

A Cob Cottage Company Tour

We also had the privilege of touring the property and studying the design other cob homes, walls, structures, and buildings. While we were used to off-grid living, we were not accustomed to seeing so many cob homes in one place. An entire village of cob buildings feels less like an intentional community and more like a magical world that we are told can only be found in fairytales.

Why We Need Natural Buildings And Cob

With the climate crisis looming over us, threatening an even dimmer and chaotic future for planet Earth, many folks have been forced and inspired to look at why we’re living the way we are and what parts need changing. There are many ways to make a difference, with the largest being consuming a plant-based diet, proving that our everyday actions and choices do hold power.

Listen Now: Ready to learn about natural building from someone who dropped everything to build a natural building (with no previous building experience) and live off-grid for the first time ever in her 40’s? Immerse yourself in this life-giving conversation on the Unruly Podcast about earth magic, earth whispering, natural building, and oh so much more with Atulya Bingham.

Unruly Podcast · #48 We Are Nature. We Are Creativity. We Are Power | Natural Building Lessons From A Dirt Witch

If we take that mentality into our building practices we can make can make more sustainable choices for our health, the beyond-human world, and our wallets. If you’re thinking of building a new home, building, or even room, you can choose local materials that belong to your immediate ecosystem and work to preserve the integrity of the land as much as possible.

What Is A Cob House?

Let’s dive in by exploring what a cob house is and why they present a building style that should be embraced, generally changing our attitude towards consumption and operation. A cob building is usually made of soil, sand, and straw.

How Long Do Cob Houses Last?

Although they are not particularly popular in the USA, the practice of cob building is a more familiar concept in other counties and the building techniques have been used for 10,000 years. The Cob Cottage Company says: “A new house costs $100,000 or more and takes a lifetime to pay for. As real earnings decline, housing costs continue to rise, trapping people into 30-year mortgages. Homeowners take jobs they can’t stand to pay for houses that don’t suit them. We research and teach how to build very low cost, personalized houses that an owner can pay for in a year.”

The Benefits Of Cob Houses And Buildings

There are incredible benefits when building with cob because you can often use soil from the land around you, trees from the forest, and natural resources to decorate the inside. This saves you money and lessens the environmental impact of buying new materials that are harvested unsustainably and the expense of the planet. Some other pros to living in a cob building come from the natural abilities of the home. Cob houses provide thermal regulation and will keep you cooler in the summer while staying warmer in the winter. In addition, they are fairly fire-resistance and healthy to live in as the walls don’t contain toxic chemicals. They are very durable and earthquake resistant. The oldest documented cob building that still stands today is 10,000 years old.

Are Natural Buildings Expensive?

The benefits to living in a natural building are immense. Although this can seem like just a pipe dream for the average person, many cobs homes are built only using a few thousand dollars plus manual labor. Cob homes don’t need to be tiny, one room buildings that are minimal by design. Cob homes can be large, multi-leveled buildings with captivating designs and contain some of the same luxuries that many are accustomed to today such as running water, heating and cooling systems, and room for entertainment.

Natural Buildings Inspire Us To Reconnect With Nature

The Cob Cottage Company says: “Most houses are designed to alienate people from Nature, but ours reveal the solar and lunar cycles and emphasize the character and climate of their site. Through careful placement of openings, focus on views, integrating outdoor spaces and encouraging wildlife, the residents of our buildings become more aware of the natural world.” They then go on to state, “The construction industry is a major contributor to deforestation, mining and pollution. We help people build gracefully with much less lumber, metal, or manufactured products.”

Learn More About Cob Homes And Natural Buildings

If you are interested in building home that is kinder to the earth, your wallet, and your health, cob may be the thing for you. A respectable source of knowledge and information on building with cob is the Cob Cottage Company, as mentioned throughout the article, that has been around for decades. The founders have written The Hand-Sculpted House, Cobber’s Companion, Rocket Mass Heaters, and Earth Building and the Cob Revival. In addition to that, The Mud Home, a blog created by author and natural builder Atulya Bingham provides fresh inspiration as well as solid information how to begin creating your own cob sanctuary.