this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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:::spoiler To find the Holy Grail!
That is, if the Holy Grail were an urban commune composed of either cob houses or townhouses or both, on land put in collective ownership, in close association with a workers' cooperative that funnels money into expanding the commune.
Cob doesn't get enough love. I'm not going to yuck anyone's yum but miss me with the earthships and all of that.
Where I live it would probably be necessary to have strawbale wattle and daub, at least on the wall that receives the afternoon sun, but cob is so slept on for a natural building material.
Takes too long to make cob? Get a cement mixer.
Cob doesn't resist water enough? Get a decent roof and some nice limestone slipform.
I almost said "earthships" at first so I was wondering if I missed taking it out. They were my gateway drug.
Honestly the biggest problem with earthships is the context they exist in: each one is a single-family house out in the country with a quarter-mile-long driveway for the car(s) that they all inevitably have. You could never have a population density of more than 30 people per hectare like that. It took me extensive searching just to find one multiple-storey earthship.
But you could use recycled materials and (partial) earth berms and passive solar design and greenhouse vestibules to make something cheap for the masses.
I'm not sure that modern building codes would permit this but historically cob has been used to create high density housing, with Yemen being the best example:
Cob city
Stomped-Cob City
7 years ago I toured a 2-story strawbale construction with solar and wind and geothermal, that used to be a doctor's office. I was already on a natural building kick but this cemented* it as lifelong.
*lime plaster