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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 693.22 EAN: 9781890132347 ISBN: 1890132349 Label: Chelsea Green Publishing Company Manufacturer: Chelsea Green Publishing Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 346 Publication Date: June 01, 2002 Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company Studio: Chelsea Green Publishing Company Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: Are you ready for the Cob Cottage? This is a building method so old and so simple that it has been all but forgotten in the rush to synthetics. A cob cottage,cobb, however, might be the ultimate expression of ecological design, a structure so attuned to its surroundings that its creators refer to it as "an ecstatic house." The authors build a house the way others create a natural garden. They use the oldest, most available materials imaginableearth, clay, sand, straw, and waterand blend them to redefine the future (and past) of building. Cob (the word comes from an Old English root, meaning "lump") is a mixture of non-toxic, recyclable, and often free materials. Building with cob requires no forms, no cement, and no machinery of any kind. Builders actually sculpt their structures by hand. Building with earth is nothing new to America; the oldest structures on the continent were built with adobe bricks. Adobe, however, has been geographically limited to the Southwest. The limits of cob are defined only by the builder's imagination. Cob offers answers regarding our role in Nature, family and society, about why we feel the ways that we do, about what's missing in our lives. Cob comes as a revelation, a key to a saner world. Cob has been a traditional building process for millennia in Europe, even in rainy and windy climates like the British Isles, where many cob buildings still serve as family homes after hundreds of years. The technique is newly arrived to the Americas, and, as with so many social trends, the early adopters are in the Pacific Northwest. Cob houses (or cottages, since they are always efficiently small by American construction standards) are not only compatible with their surroundings, they ARE their surroundings, literally rising up from the earth. They are full of light, energy-efficient, and cozy, with curved walls and built-in, whimsical touches. They are delightful. They are ecstatic. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Tree Hugging HumbuggeryI purchased this book based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews in Amazon.com. I was looking for a practical guide on Cob building - not on living according to the new age hippie ethos of the authors. I've read the first few chapters, and there are nuggets of practical advice, but the narration keeps getting bogged down by Ianto Evans digressions on how evil humans keep screwing up the environment. It is my hope that I can finish the book, collect some useful ... Read More Rating: - Core, must-have owner builder bookThere is no better book to curl up with than this one and none more useful. Read it and, if you love it, consider taking the 10-day class in Oregon. You will learn a whole new way of living, as well as building. My only criticisms of the book are minor and things that will likely be added in a later addition, if there is one. A chapter on bale cob and similar composite materials would be helpful. I think a separate book is in the works on bale cob. The book is a masterpiece! Rating: - Beautiful Book!I bought this book several years ago, when it first came out. I love it! I have yet to build anything out of cob, but hopefully that will change in the next five years. This is one of the few books I own that I would NEVER consider selling. It is chock full of information, and when I am feeling blue, I whip out the book, page through it, and fantasize about it. If you are thinking of building anything with cob, buy this book! Rating: - More than a bookIt's a guide. No matter if you will be building in cob or not, it' real pleasure to read this book. I recommend it heartfully. Rating: - Brilliant and much neededThis will sound like a strange thing to say about a book on building, but I've been moved to tears reading this. One might think that the authors of such a book would be Luddites proposing a return to savagery or some such, but this is not the case. What they propose, beautifully, is a return to sanity and perspective. The subtitle of this book, "A Practical and Philosophical Guide..." is dead on accurate. This book is eminently practical and the philosophy of it one of learning to really ... Read More 
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