Here is a new natural building design code-named GardenFire Pod. This is a cob garden shed, wall, bench, gate with rumford fireplace, and a cob oven on top.

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Toby Hemenway is the author of ‘Gaia’s Garden, A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture‘ and is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Portland State University. He offers his experience in ecological design through workshops and writing.
Find out more about Toby and read his articles at patternliteracy.com.

This slideshow was filmed during the Natural Building Convergence in May of 2002 by Colin Brown.

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http://www.ilovecob.com/video/tobyhemenway/tobyhemenway_18mb.mov

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Eugenie Frerichs and Mike O’Brien presented “Ecoroofs: reintegrating water in buildings” at the Natural Capital Center. This slideshow was filmed during the Natural Building Convergence in May of 2002.

Movie File:
http://www.ilovecob.com/video/ecotrust/ecotrust56.mov

Photo by Monica Proulx

Recently on the Coblist, Ray requested to see more photos of the North American School of Natural Building in Coquille, Oregon. Cob Cottage workshop alumni work on wonderful cob buildings… then leave never to see how the place evolves!
I worked on a small cottage in the 2001 Cob Cottage workshop. Monica Proulx sent some images of the ‘complex’ from her 2006 workshop experience. If any one else has photos of the Natural Building School, please send them along and I’ll post em to the gallery.

On my trip to the american southwest I came across a mud dwelling that is, ever so gracefully, returning to the earth. In Northern New Mexico, on the way to Christ in the Desert, this old building caught my attention. I don’t know if it was an ancient building from yesteryear or an abandon project from recent times. Either way I was taken by the splendor of melting cob.

The site sits comfortably in the rolling and jagged hills of the SW desert. Quiet, except the trickling river below. The building had two rooms, neither larger than maybe 9 x 9 feet. The walls had been melting for a while. Upon closer inspection of the 1 foot thick walls I could see grasses and mud were used. It seemed to me to be cobbed together instead of adobe brick, but I could be wrong.

There was something very peaceful about the place… very right about this dwelling and how it’s disintegrating back into the earth from which it came. You can hardly tell the difference between the landscape and the building, maybe it’s because there isn’t any…

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