Anne and Gord Baird are building a Cob Dreamhome in Victoria. It’s the first code approved, high occupancy seismically engineered load bearing cob building in Canada. It’s a 1550 round feet building with solar PV and wind power, grid intertie, solar thermal heating, rain water harvesting from a living roof, composting toilet, grey water re-use, and passive solar design.

They have insulated their cob walls by adding pumice, a porous volcanic rock. So their cob mix was clay/sand, pumice and straw. I just love that they are running hydronic heating tubes through the earthen floors and benches. This is a great example of a cob demonstration home. I’m sure we will be hearing more about this project in times to come.

Here is a must see photo gallery of the building process.
For more information about this project and Eco-sense services visit eco-sense.ca.

Oliver at Natural Homes has created a pretty neato mashup of Google Maps and natural homes in the world.
Continue…

Here is a great short about Cob by dailyjohn2.
“The House as Living Sculpture; the True Green Revolution.”

The last month was a busy one. It started with a visit from David Sheen. We toured around New Mexico documenting natural buildings for his upcoming film. We shot photos and interviews at The Lama Foundation, The Taos Pueblo, The 2007 Adobe Conference, The Greater World Community and other various building wonders.

Check out the photos here:
Old Brick of Cob, New Mexico »
Earth Armada »
Goddess in the Details »
Adobe USA 2007 »

This natural building cob teaser video is pretty neat! I don’t agree with the 3 parts clay to 1 part sand though… I think it should be the other way around.