Cob & Natural Building

Learn to build your own energy-efficient home from inexpensive, healthy natural materials. In this hands-on workshop, we will be building a family home from cob (sculpted earth) and slipstraw or light straw clay. We will also experiment with other natural wall systems including cordwood, as well as clay plasters and earthen floors. Daily lectures will cover materials selection and testing, passive solar principles, and other aspects of designing and building a hybrid natural house. Slide presentations and videos place these techniques in context of the global tradition of natural building. The spectacular site is on the banks of the Mattole River, just 3 miles from the beach and the Lost Coast trailhead.

Michael G Smith has eighteen years of experience in a wide range of Natural Building techniques, as well as ecological site design, sustainable materials harvesting, and passive solar design. He has helped design and build nearly 50 small homes and other structures using cob, straw bale, slipstraw, wattle-and-daub, timber framing, earthbags, cordwood masonry, stone, living roofs, adobe floors, natural plasters and finishes, and alternative foundations. He helped found the Cob
Cottage Company in 1993 and the Natural Builders Colloquium in 1994. Since then he has taught over 100 hands-on Natural Building workshops in the US and abroad. He is the
author-or co-author of four books, including The Art of Natural Building and The Hand-Sculpted House.

This post was submitted by Kristen Swanson.