Ancient building material cob has been brought up to contemporary standards by a team of British and French researchers, who see it as an environmentally friendly option for homes. The team ...

Cob houses are usually curved with arches and organic shapes. This building technique is sustainable economically and environmentally. The materials required are low-cost, light, and easily ...

This retreat center’s storage building features an attached cob oven and natural paints. Learn modern cob house building for a mortgage-free home using low-cost and local materials by following ...

Additionally, many building codes allow "alternative" structures and materials, including cob houses. This route requires extra documentation and testing to prove that construction is safe.

One of the most popular natural building materials is called cob, which is created by taking the sand, water, clay and straw and mixing it -- often using your own two feet on a tarp -- until it is ...

Baking in the warmth of California’s Cumaya Valley stand three small structures made of an ancient building material: cob. The material is a mixture of clay-heavy soil, straw, sand and water that — ...

Tong hopes the guesthouse she is building will meet Berkeley’s alternate materials standards for an occupied dwelling. “We think it’s going be a nice flagship to help more cob designs go ...

we try and understand the landscape in which the building is situated and what materials can be cultivated or extracted and produced at close proximity to the site.” The team uses hemp ...

Researchers in the University's Building Research Group have spent ... and creating a new focus on the use of natural materials like cob." While the focus to date has been on using natural fibres ...

If the clay is wet, the internal crystallisation of ice expands the material, leaving it spongy. So autumn heralds the end of building. McCabe explains that cob always cracks and shrinks when ...