The Three Little Pigs have nothing on these digs. Ancient technique and modern groove set these structures apart from the little hillside boxes filling our neighborhoods. There are no cookie-cutter house plans here. Just clean, green, natural buildings smoothed from dirt, straw, clay, and loads of ingenuity. No Big Bad Wolf will blow these down.
Hollyhock house mimicks Devon UK
styles, on Cortes Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Cob, as this style of construction is known, has been used by crafty home-builders as far back as the 11th century. Evidence of these ultra-stable, fire-resistant structures has been found in North Africa, the Middle East, and, most commonly, Devon, Wales, and Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Earthen home-building gained resurgence in the late 1990’s, in England and Ireland, and has become all the rage in Canada’s British Columbia, displayed in exhibitions and neighborhood streets alike.
Won’t have to worry about tracking dirt into this Baja Mexico
lounge. It’s there on purpose.
A 2007 family home, measuring 2,150 ft2, fitted with solar power and sub-floor heating ran a mere $210,000 CAD (112,000 GBP), making cob construction one of the most economical means of home-building, in addition to being among the most ethical. Impressive stats in these wild economic times, and positioning this rustic style of design at the forefront of charitable efforts to house the poor.Smooth and groovy, a micro-house on display at Stanley Park, British Columbia.
Perhaps these Hobbit-esque homes are the wave of the future. Customizable and conservation-minded, earthen materials are the few things this planet has, in spades. Natural minimalism at it’s best in a green-built family home.
Mayne Island Cob House
1 comments:
Wow, those houses are great! Who is the builder? Can we have a picture of him or her?
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