We are halfway into what looks like a 30-year project. The goals are simple without humility: to transform the building industry, to make houses accessible to everyone and to put meaning and integrity into people's lives.
We have created in Oregon Cob an almost free building material almost anyone can manufacture for themselves. It has fluidity of form; it is healthy, non-polluting and local. The buildings it inspires are sculptural, snug and permanent. Our work with roundwood carpentry could reduce lumber wastage and add strength to roofs and woodwork, and the rockwork renaissance offers substantial foundations, floors and features.
Now we know how to build natural, non-toxic, beautiful houses at very low cost. We can train most people to build with cob in a week; in a month, they have the confidence to create their own house, with their own hands and feet. Building sites are available aplenty with no need to borrow money or amass huge savings. Public demand constantly increases.
Next we need to overcome the last entrenched bottleneck: the greed of corporate commerce and the vigilance of its bodyguards, the governmental regulators of how we supply our own shelter.
Working or living in earth is healthy in the healthiest way. It builds physical strength and self-confidence as people realize they can build most parts of their own home, without expensive and intimidating tools, without lots of money, with minimal training. We have trained 3 year olds, people in their 70s, a man with one leg, a woman with an "incurable" heart condition; all are now able to build their own homes. For the first time many people see a way out of the 30-year mortgage trap. They can get out of jobs they hate, be at home more, play with their kids. They can escape from mindless consumerism.
This past few years we have founded the North American School for Natural Building in Coquille, Oregon where we now host workshops. We have ventured into very cold climates, Northern Denmark and Central Ontario, experimenting with cob/strawbale sandwich walls. Our work with cob courtyard walls has expanded; our home and office now has 150 feet of completed walls 4-7 feet high with three cob buildings attached. Research continues into the beneficial effects of living in curvilinear space.
http://www.cobcottage.com/
