Cob Methods and ChiCobCo

One can find a deep shade of "green" (in terms of the environmental consciousness and connectedness) to be pervasive in architecture’s history from the passive solar solutions of Ancient Greece (I found links 1, 2, and 3 helpful for more information on this) to the long history at Taos Pueblo. These and other examples can provide wonderful models, and should be looked at to inform the contemporary push for eco-friendly city/community planning. Building practices in ancient societies necessarily used 'green technologies’ such as passive solar space heating, local materials, etc. which were neglected or undervalued in the last few centuries, and are now being re-discovered and utilized; established vernacular forms and materials are reappearing in a modern and even urban context. Cob building is one prime example of this phenomenon.

Cob building is a traditionally based method of construction is uses earth (dirt/mud) and straw. Historically the technique comes primarily from the United Kingdom area, but ancient Cob buildings can also be found in Africa and the Middle East. This method is still being used today, and it is being exported to South America and Asia as a grassroots-inspired alternative building strategy.

"It is quite similar to adobe in that the basic mix of clay and sand is the same, but it usually has a higher percentage of long straw fibers mixed in. Instead of creating uniform blocks to build with, cob is normally applied by hand in large gobs (or cobs) which can be tossed from one person to another during the building process. The traditional way of mixing the clay/sand/straw is with the bare feet; for this reason, it is fairly labor intensive" (Green Home Building).

It is the epitome of local, sustainable material. Cob also lends itself to sculptural forms. It is a cost-effective and sustainable building method: it utilizes local materials and elements such as passive solar heating can be incorporated. It is fireproof and can be used in a variety of climates.

Here is a polaroid of a friend and I at a cob bench/gazebo site in Portland, OR (March 2008).

The ChiCobCo group has created buildings and benches out of this time-tested method of Cob building. In the Chicago neighborhood of Edgewater they were commissioned to create a bench outside a health foods store (at 1034 N. Broadway St.). This bench includes a tri-partite seating arrangement, orange and yellow coloring, a whimsical-looking owl’s face, wings, and feet, and white mosaic tiles atop. Its curving back and use of tiles are remarkably similar to Antoni Gaudi’s serpentine seating in Park Guell.

Miguel Eliot, founder of ChiCobCo, has also built a merged oven/bench structure in Cabrini Green. A leap beyond constructing benches, however, is the Butterfly Social Club (at 722 W. Grand Ave. in Chicago). This all-organic nightclub has a Mayan theme created with benches, trees, tables, a DJ booth, and bar; with all these, the club features the world’s largest cob sculpture. The aesthetic is not within the mainstream nightclub vocabulary, but the fact that such a large space has incorporated cob is indicative of a readiness in the zeitgeist for eco-friendly spaces that push the aesthetic envelope.