The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book

by Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith, Linda Smiley

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 imaginable?earth, clay, sand, straw, and water?and 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. The Hand-Sculpted House is theoretical and philosophical, but intensely practical as well. You will get all the how-to information to undertake a cob building project. As the modern world rediscovers the importance of living in sustainable harmony with the environment, this book is a bible of radical simplicity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Construction, Architecture, How To, Reference, Sustainability, Nature

371 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seem to give a lot of high ratings. Well, I don't see the point of reading books I obviously don't want. If I can't stand a book, I don't finish it. What's the point.

I love this book but it'll take me forever to read it, it's just so detailed. Like a textbook. Another book I borrowed from the library but I'm going to have to buy it for myself and money well spent in my opinion.

These are the most beautiful houses you'll ever see in your life. They are like something out of fantasy stories, something you'd expect fairies and kitchen witches and Druids and all manner of magical things to live in. But they're REAL and you can make your own, how amazing is that? I have to learn how to do this.

This was the only book on cob houses that was available in my library system, on loan from the Plainfield library. But it seems pretty perfect to me. Of course I'll read other ones too, but this book starts out with the reasons, the idea, the oneness of it all.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine, for a moment, that you could build your own home for less than $10,000 (plus the land to build on). Imagine how much money would be saved compared to the cost of a typical home, which might sell for $100,000 and, with 30-year mortgage, will end up costing over $200,000. Imagine further that, once this home is built, it will be more energy-efficient than a traditional home, thus reducing your heating and cooling costs over the life of the house (a life expectancy which is several times that of a conventional home). This, at least in part, is the promise of The Hand-Sculpted House. More than these material claims, though, its back cover describes the book as "a bible of radical simplicity," which gives a sense of what the book is really aiming for: this is not just how to build a house--though it certainly is that--but also a philosophical meditation on how we design and build, why we make the decisions we do, and the benefits that can come from stepping outside our usual boxes (so to speak) and choosing to build differently.

Specifically, though, these three authors are writing about building with cob. Now, most people's first reaction when I talk to them about cob construction is "Corn cobs?!" No. Cob refers to construction with a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. "So you're building a mud hut?" Well, sort of, but that doesn't really capture the sense of what's going on here.

If you look around the web, you'll find a variety of pictures of cob homes, most built by the people living in them--often with little prior building experience--and most quite attractive. It's cheap, durable even in rainy climates, and has great thermal mass which, when combined with passive solar principles and a "rocket stove," can easily be heated and stays relatively cool in the summer. The writers also discuss the psychological/spiritual benefits of building one's own house with cob, which evidently are abundant.

The book gives a great overview of how to build with cob, including all aspects from siting to design, foundations, floors, walls, windows and doors, roofing options, and the plasters that finish it. There really is a lot of valuable information in this book, from justifications of why building with cob is a good idea (including all sorts of testimonials and personal experiences) to the nuts and bolts (also including a lot of personal experience) and recommendations for further reading. Highly recommended.

[Adam Shand · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book full of stories, philosophy and practical and artistic ideas for building your own home. This is the only book I've ever read which made the idea of building my own home (something I've vaguely fantasised about since I was a kid) seem like a practical reality.

My ideology is quite similar to the authors so I had no problem with his philosophy (though other reviews I've read do) and actually found it quite refreshing to hear somebody being even more extreme then me in my views. If you have more time than money, are interested having a lovely place to live and don't mind small houses ... this is a book of inspiration and beauty.

If you just like reading stories and seeing the pretty pictures, it's a nice browse as well. :-)

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book fueled one of my great spouts of enthusiasm for various possible projects that I could do given enough time and leisure. The books title is aptly descriptive of the contents and is very inspiring. The examples of cob (a building material made of sand, straw, and clay) houses are, to me, wonderfully evocative of . . . well a hobbit house. So if you like Bag End in The Lord of the Rings you might enjoy this book and the though of building a hand sculpted house.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has well-earned it's nickname "The Bible of Simplicity".
My copy is splotched with mud and torn in multiple places... if you shake it copious amounts of sand will fall out... all signs that it has been used and loved (the authors would be proud to see the sorry state of my copy).
It is far and away the most valuable resource in print for creative builders looking for low-cost, environmentally friendly, old fashioned labor-intensive building methods. It's no substitute for experience and experimentation on your own land, with your own soil, but it's as close as you can get to capturing that hands-on wisdom on paper.

LOVE it.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is sort of at the center of the natural building world. an essential read if you are interested in natural building, simplicity or sustainability.

[Jack Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of working side by side with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley for several years and could not more highly recommend their expertise, or that of Michael Smith. It is the best book published to date about cob construction, and there is a healthy dose of practical wisdom as well. One of my very favorite books and subjects.

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally was too excited to sleep after reading this book. Amazing, and very accessible. I ended up attending two cob workshops by the author - life-changing. We plan on building our house out of cob.

[Aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. Radical new ways of thinking of practical, very personal spaces and how to create them yourself using natural materials. I took this out of the library by mistake, but am glad to have had my eyes opened to some surprising ideas.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far it's a good well thought out book, I'm really enjoying it and it's getting me psyched up to build my own cob house.

[TRE · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10

Only knocking a star off my rating because of Ianto's incessant need to let his politics seep through (anarcho-primitivist with Marxist leanings...even though the former were purged by the latter lol) and his wife/partner's psycho-babble ramblings for half a chapter (albeit less annoying and more condensed so it's easily skipped).

Otherwise...great introduction and explanation of cob building.

"Essential Cob Construction" by Anthony Dente is the next one to read as it's more up to date and builds on Ianto's knowledge.

To give the commie credit, he opens with a howler as he dedicates the book to Adolf Hitler lol you'll have to read it to learn how and why.

[Emrys Csato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the best book to get a general idea of building with cob as an alternative building material. But it’s missing a lot of practical stuff, it doesn’t go in depth on how to attach a roof to a cob wall, for example. Or maybe it’s my lack of building knowledge. So while it is a good first step, it’s not the complete guide, if you know what I mean. I’d love to build a cob house one day and when I do I will definitely consult this book. But I will need other resources as well

[Daniel Rolnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is epic! It gives you everything you need to run out in the middle of the forest and build yourself a shelter. My wife and I went to visit the Cob Cottage Company that Ianto and Linda started and its incredible. In person, everything in the book comes to life in such a magical way.

[Robert Coogan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not recommended if you want to learn how to build a cob house. Much of the book is spent learning either the history of cob, or what makes it so "amazing." I was really disappointed with this book, and consider it a waste of money on my part.

[Kab · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are white moments even excluding quoting Thoreau. Overall anticapitalist and the opposite of gatekeeping. I especially appreciated the chapters on hand tools and the introduction to codes and permits.

[Alexei · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most entertaining book on home construction! It makes one dreaming about making one of those.

[Andy Triggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful warm book, written from the heart by folk with a passion for natural building. Inspiring, it will give you what you need to get started.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it one time through and I'm sure it'll be read several times. Vital if you are planning on working with Oregon cob.

[Filip Sekkelsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, though it could do without some of the philosophical musings and anecdotes.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book my partner and I decided to read as we pursue cob building.

We found it a great all-around reference book with an invaluable third of the book devoted to sighting advice. Of all the problems likely to arise in natural building, the book tells us, the worst are almost all a result of mistakes in the planning and sighting phase.

There are also particularly well informed sections on the practical building of foundations, raising of walls, pouring of floors, and application of plasters and stuccos. The roofing section was slightly less fleshed-out which is understandable because roofing natural buildings remain one of the more difficult to prescribe processes, with much research and many discoveries still needed.

The authors also make some solid points about the benefits of natural building, however I have taken a workshop at Cottage Grove with Ianto Evans and would advise the same to anybody who is more curious about natural building as part of a permaculture system and our links to ecology and geology in general. While a lot of this information is in Evans' section of this book, a lot of it only scratches the surface of what can be learned in a week of discussions with Ianto about tools, geological and anthropological histories of building sites, finer choices of detail in building, etc.

As someone who is thinking of finding and moving to a building site for a cob cottage within the next two years, I would have liked a section or at least a couple pages devoted to discussion of the practicalities of finance and essentials (for me) like health care. How does one find money for paying taxes on the land without a job? What happens when a builder without health care falls off of a ladder while roofing and breaks a few bones? How are other people who have chosen to build dealt with this? A full section featuring experiences of people in all income brackets who had attempted to build in the way explained in this book would have been enormously helpful. What sort of personal and financial difficulties are encountered during this process and how have other people dealt with them?

There is a teeming appendix with information on some other practical questions, such as building permits and codes, frequent mistakes and how not to make them, etc. in the rear and the explanations there answered several questions that had been lodged in my mind.

The Hand-Sculpted House is a perfect starting places for considering natural building, especially cob building, and its practical sections are detailed enough that I plan to use it as a building handbook once we begin the process of construction. Perhaps it's a good thing that the book leaves us with questions and in search of companion literature, acknowledging its own limits instead of trying to be the be-all-end-all of cob building.

[Elisabeth M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is divided in three sections, each by a different author. Ianto gives you the philosophical design considerations. Michael provides some technical nuts and bolts. Linda offers some finishing points on aesthetics and so on.

I found Ianto annoying by the end of section one. His ideas are worth thinking about, and I'm sure the man's got more experience than you can shake a stick at, but I found his fervor and radicalism a bit grating in the end, so I was happy to move on to Author Number Two... only to find, lo and behold! that Ianto has all kinds of sidebars and insets throughout the other authors' sections too.

My annoyance is purely personal. Salt it well.

Anyway, I enjoy Michael's section best, as it's the most straightforward and technical, which is what I wanted from the book. Bear in mind, I read this book after having already worked through nearly the whole current canon of natural-building-revival books, so I was already familiar with the (really important) points about site selection, design of interior space, how to live smaller, etc.

I don't remember much about Linda's section so I guess it wasn't that interesting. Except I do remember her description of the cob greenhouse they built, which was warm in winter without insulation, enough to make a perfect napping spot. THAT gave me something to think about.

Concluding remarks: I own this book (didn't buy it - it was a gift - one I appreciated) and I continue to return to it now and again when some question arises in my mind about rubble trench foundations, gutter design and drip control, site drainage, how cob has performed in one setting or another, and what's the exact title of that book about Earth Plaster... things like that. It doesn't provide encyclopedic coverage, but a great conceptual grasp of how these elements work, why they're important, and what to make sure you get right the first time. It also presents a handful of options for how to go about each step. Which is nice.

[Nathan Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introducción was horendous, Filled with all sorts of anti technology, at times Anti human retoric. Made me think the book was going to be absolutely excruciating to read. But actually the meat had Very little of that, and was instead packed full of super detalled practical How to do it información. I Believe that with this book in handle Someone with no experiance could make an excelent start on Building a cob house. Especially usefull for Someone líke myself who Learns by just doing things. This his would serve as a reference to consult while moving on to the next Step. i give it only only four stars because while the anti technology stuff retreated in favor of prácticality it Did run as a nasty undercurrent all through the text, ocasionally bubbling to the surface. Also a personal gripe: the book focases almost exclusively on Building in cold climates. It meantioned that some of the largest Most impresive cob exists in arid deserts but then had whole pages on How good cob is at staying warm. How about cool? Wouldnt something with so much thermal máss heat up all day and be unbearable to sleep in? And How about cob in the trópics?
Any One know where i can find this información?

[Dom · Rating 4 out of 5]

--The Hand-Sculpted House, A practical and Philosophical guide to building a cob cottage, Lauto Evans, Michael G. Smith, Linda Smiley, A real goods solar living book.

(This book is interesting and I may try building a cob for my secondary buildings, for rescued animals and/or WWOOFers, it looks however a lot less precise than earthbag building and a bit more trial and error, its a good refference if your interested in Cob building and the advantage of cob over Earthbag is that it requires no bags or wire just earth and a couple of boards, my friend made his whole community using cob houses for 40 families and he swears by them, deffinately worth a read just to open yourself to this option and method of building however I still prefer earthbag building.) --7/10--

[أحمد زبيدة · Rating 4 out of 5]

يقدم الكتاب مراحل عملية البناء بشكل جيد ولكن ليس أكثر من هذا، هناك أسئلة كثيرة ستظل تدور بخلد القارئ، إنه لا يسمن ولكنه يغني من جوع، مشكلة الكتاب بالنسبة للقارئ الشمال أفريقي هو أنه يركز بشكل أساسي على مناخ الشمال البعيد من الكرة الأرضية أوروبا وشمال أمريكا، لهذا يركز في كل تفاصيل البناء على عملية التدفئة الطبيعية وليس عملية التبريد، وعلى طرق امتصاص الحرارة وعزلها بالداخل وليس على طردها وعزلها بالخارج، وعلى البناء باستخدام المواد الموجودة في المناطق الخضراء وليس الصحراوية، هذه النقاط يمر عليها القارئ بطريقة مباشرة وغير مباشرة، وعليه أن يكون فطنًا لذلك، وألا تفوت عليه وإلا أدى ذلك لحصول نتائج عكسية .. من الناحية الفلسفية يعتبر الكتاب سطحي، ولكن يحسب له أنه يركز على نقطة مهمة وهي الأخطاء البدائية الفادحة التي قد يقع فيها المبتدئون والتي عادة ما تكتشف عندما يكون الأوان قد فات.

[Mara Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

No nice pictures like the other book on cob building I read, but lots of good information. I did not read all the sections as a lot was similar to the cob building chapter in the other book. This one talks more about the psychological and emotional benefits to building with and living in cob. Makes me want to reconsider maybe trying to build a little cottage....he talks about staging a project, and their first cottage was a little traditional wooden building with the cob part built as an addition. Possibilities, possibilities....

[Gwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

THe Hand- Sculpted House, a practical and philosophical guide to building a cob cottage, is a must read for anyone who wants to have the freedom to build a one of a kind creative and artistic home. For me, it might be a bit out of the box type of building. If I lived in an area where building codes were more lenient, I could see myself building a small cob guest house.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My life was changed by a $3 lecture they gave in Laguna beach. Even if you are not into earthen homes tpreserve ultimate quiet and last a thousand years. Changes paradigms of affordable home ownership

[Lily So-too · Rating 4 out of 5]

Themes include money, building, the human-scale and how it affects people to live at a non-human scale.

The people who wrote this did a service for humanity in offering us their words, experience and wisdom.

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a whole new understanding and view to the places people live in. A house should be something a person can design and build for him/herself so that it fits like a glove to the hand. This book made my world more round.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly inspirational and tons of good information. Some of the info is a little inflated and overstated. Some techniques are out of date but overall a must have for the environmentally friendly penny pincher looking to build.