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Tables of Contents for The Hand-Sculpted House
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Acknowledgments
xiii
 
Introduction
xv
 
Ianto Evans
What This Book Offers You
xvi
 
About the Authors
xvii
 
Questions & Answers about Cob
xviii
 
PART I: PHILOSOPHY, BACKGROUND, AND DESIGN
1
274
Ianto Evans
Ianto's Story
3
1
Peasants and Farmers
4
1
The Importance of Housing Yourself
5
2
Natural Building
7
17
Learning from Nature
8
2
The Rise of Architects
8
1
Natural Laws
9
1
Learning from Conserver Cultures
10
4
What Are Natural Materials?
14
2
Unprocessed and Uncombined
14
1
Primary and Secondary Processing
15
1
Component Assemblies
16
1
Why Build With Earth and Other Natural Materials?
16
5
Health
16
1
Psychological Well-Being
16
1
Financial Empowerment
17
1
Comfort
18
1
Democracy and Empowerment
18
1
Tradition and Heritage
19
1
Durability
19
1
Environmental Impact
19
1
Steel Roofs in Kenya
20
1
The Natural Building Resurgence
21
3
Where's the Dumpster
22
2
Oregon Cob
24
16
A Brief History of Cob
25
3
Won't Burn Down, Bugs Can't Eat it, and it's Dirt Cheap
26
2
Kiko Denzer
The Birth of Oregon Cob
28
5
Cookstoves As Inspiration
29
1
Our First Cob House
30
3
Characteristics of Oregon Cob
33
4
What Cob Does Best
33
1
Mass Cooler
34
2
Where Oregon Cob May Be Inappropriate
36
1
Cob in Hybrid Natural Buildings
37
3
Cob and Straw Bale Comparison Chart
39
1
Creative Economics
40
14
Building for Yourself
40
5
Thoreau on Shelter
41
1
Trading Money, Skill, and Time
42
3
Cheap Housing for Those Who Need It Most
45
1
Getting Free from the Trap
46
3
Finding Inexpensive Places to Build
47
1
Edward's Almost Free House
47
1
Borrowing Money
48
1
Checklist: How to Keep Costs Down
49
2
Interview: Brigitte and Elyse's House
51
3
Tilt and Spin
54
6
Watching Earth Turn
55
1
Some Cosmic Fundamentals
56
1
A Cosmic Quiz
57
1
Let Your Home Reflect Cosmic Awareness
57
3
The Site You Build On
60
16
Choosing a Suitable Property
61
1
Consider the Local Bioregion
61
2
Spend Time on the Land
62
1
Selecting the Precise Site
63
1
Create a Master Plan
63
6
Minimize Ecological Disruption
64
1
Consider Soils and Drainage
65
1
Determine the Microclimate
65
1
Look for a Far Horizon
66
1
Look for a Dominant Permanent Feature in the Landscape
66
1
Build on Slopes If Possible
67
1
Respect Your Neighbors
68
1
Taking Time
68
1
Testing Your Choice
68
1
Dealing with Problem Situations
69
4
Short of Sun
69
1
No Trees on Site
70
1
Noise
70
1
Invisible Architecture
71
1
Not Enough Privacy
71
1
Not a Site for a Cob Building
72
1
Interview: Eric Hoel's House
73
3
Designing with Cob
76
17
The Box Police
76
3
When the Materials Design the Home
78
1
A Currency of Pennies
78
1
Cob's Natural Geometries
79
1
For Your Edification
80
1
Thermal Mass
80
1
Essentials of Passive Solar Design
81
6
Heating and Cooling Your Building
84
1
Be Stingy with Glass, Unless Your Climate Is Mild
85
1
Natural Lighting
86
1
Catnap Research in a Cob Greenhouse
86
1
The Heart House
87
6
Redefining ``House''
93
26
Intuitive Design
93
3
Dispense with Convention
94
1
Brainstorm a Lot
94
1
The Site Was There First!
95
1
Share Your Home with Nature
95
1
Keep It Small!
96
1
Places, Spaces, and Rooms
96
11
Curved Spaces Feel Bigger: The Case for Round Feet
97
3
Banish the Old Noun-Rooms
100
1
Act Out the Dance of Your Daily Life
101
2
Think Gloves Not Boxes
103
1
Your Workplace
104
1
Outdoor Rooms
104
2
Orient to Earth's Tilt and Spin
106
1
Make a Model
107
2
Make an Outline Plan
109
1
Adjusting the Time-Depth
109
4
``I Design Old Buildings''
111
2
PART II: BUILDING THE COB COTTAGE
Michael G. Smith
113
6
Michael's Story
115
1
Building a Cob Cottage Step-By-Step
116
3
Materials and Tools
119
22
Raw Materials and Where to Get Them
119
13
The Geological History of Your Site
120
1
Composition of Soils
120
2
Determining a Soil's Suitability
122
1
Sand
123
1
Clay
124
3
The Island Without Clay
127
1
Straw
128
2
How Much Raw Material Will I Need?
130
1
Numbers Are Not Sizes
131
1
Finding Other Building Materials
132
2
Scavenging in the City
133
1
Scavenging in the Country
134
1
Tools
134
3
A Cobber's Tool Kit
135
2
Hand Tool Reflections
137
4
Jan Sturmann
Site Respect and Preparation
141
14
Respect the Deep Ecology of the Site
142
5
Don't Clear Any Trees Yet
143
1
Work Slowly, Carefully, by Hand
143
2
Backhoe Madness in California
145
1
Work Out the Best Routes for Deliveries
146
1
Protect Sensitive Areas
146
1
Walk-in Buildings
146
1
Site Preparation
147
5
Dig Test Holes
147
1
Transfer Your Design onto the Ground
148
2
Build a Full-Scale Mock-up
150
1
Drive in Foundation and Datum Stakes
151
1
Finally, Begin Clearing the Site
151
1
Erect a Temporary or Permanent Roof
152
1
Interview: Site as Sanctuary
152
3
Drainage and Foundations
155
11
Site Drainage
155
6
Rubble Trenches
156
1
Other Drainage Techniques
156
1
Digging Trenches
157
1
The Importance of Good Drainage
157
1
Filling Trenches
158
1
Foundations
159
2
Building a Stone Stemwall
161
5
Experimental Foundations
164
2
Making the Best Cob
166
14
How Cob Was Mixed Historically
166
1
Preparing Clay Soils for Mixing
167
1
Testing Your Mix
168
1
The Snowball Test
168
5
The Crunch Test
168
1
Test Batches and Test Bricks
169
1
Mixing Cob on Tarps
170
3
Notes on Tarps
173
2
The Pit Method
174
1
Using Machines for Mixing
175
2
Mud, Labor, Pleasure
176
1
Tips for Speed and Efficiency
177
1
Cob Mix Trouble-Shooting Guide
178
1
Custom Mixes
178
2
Building Cob Walls
180
17
Cobs, Gobs, and Blobs
180
4
Trodden Cob
182
1
Cob Loaves
182
1
Gaab-cob
183
1
Creating a Monolithic Structure
184
2
Connecting Two Cob Walls
185
1
Three Contagious Conditions
186
1
Wall Thickness
186
1
Drying
187
2
Settling
189
1
Getting It Straight
190
3
Tapering Walls
191
1
Trimming Off Excess
191
1
Tools for Trimming
192
1
Pipes and Wires
193
1
Incorporating Other Materials
193
1
Reaching Higher
194
1
Scaffolding
195
1
Second Stories and Up
195
1
How Fast Can I Build?
195
2
Sculpting with Cob
197
15
Sculpting a Whole House
198
1
Remodeling
199
1
Built-in Furniture
200
1
Corbelled Shelves, Arches, and Niches
200
3
Starter Projects: Garden Benches and Walls
203
3
Learning and Growing with Garden Walls
204
2
Earth and Fire: Cob Hearths
206
6
A Heated Cob Bench
206
1
Rumford Fireplaces
207
1
A Lorena Cooking Stove
208
1
An Earthen Bread Oven
209
2
Mass Heating Stoves
211
1
Windows and Doors
212
15
Keeping the Wall Strong above Openings
212
2
Connecting Cob to Door and Window Frames
214
2
Installing Nonopening Windows
216
3
Replacing Broken Windows
218
1
Window Placement
219
4
Windows for Magical Light
219
1
Windows for View
220
1
Windows and Solar Gain
221
1
Windows vs. Ventilators
222
1
Doors and Doorways
223
4
Half-Doors
225
2
Roofs for Cob
227
19
The Parts of a Roof
228
1
Roof Design
229
3
The Shape of a Roof
230
2
Building a Roof Structure
232
3
Ceilings
234
1
Roof Sheathing
235
1
Living Roofs
235
3
Thatch
238
2
Metal Roofing
240
1
Tiles, Shakes, and Shingles
240
2
Roof Insulation
242
4
Wool
243
1
Straw and Straw-Clay
244
2
Natural Floors
246
11
Mass Floors
247
7
Preparation for a Mass Floor
247
2
Poured Adobe Floors
249
3
Tamped Cob Floors
252
1
An Adobe Block Floor
252
1
Oil and Wax Finish
253
1
Other Materials
253
1
Hydronics and Hypocausts
254
1
Suspended Floors
255
2
Plasters and Finishes
257
18
Exterior Stuccos
258
2
Don't Use Cement Stucco
259
1
Interior Plaster
260
1
Materials for Stuccos and Plasters
260
2
Inner Light
261
1
Tools for Plastering and Mixing
262
1
Preparing a Wall for Stucco or Plaster
263
1
Earth Plasters
264
3
General Tips for Plastering
265
1
One-Coat Kaolin Plaster
266
1
Litema Clay-Dung Plasters
267
1
Gypsum
268
1
Lime-Sand Plasters
269
2
Washes and Paints
271
4
Limewash or Whitewash
271
1
Alis by Carole Crews
272
1
Other Natural Paints
272
2
Water-Resistant Finishes
274
1
ONWORD: BRIDGING THE INNER AND OUTER WORLDS
275
20
Linda Smiley
Linda's Story
277
2
Sculpting Sacred Spaces for Well-Being
279
1
Intuitive Design and Magic Spots
280
3
Intuitive Design Exercise
283
1
Writing in a Magic Spot
284
1
Make a Model
284
1
Cob and Health-They Belong Together
285
3
Mud Dancing
286
2
Cobber's Stories about Delight and Quality of Life
288
3
Joan
288
1
Mike
289
1
Elisheva
289
1
Tricia
290
1
Relationships and Cob Love Stories
291
4
A Match Made in Mud: Misha and Elisheva Rauchwerger
291
1
Earth, Ovens, Art
292
1
Kiko Denzer
A Mud Artist Soulmate
293
2
APPENDICES
295
35
Appendix 1: Common Errors in Cob Construction
295
3
Appendix 2: Codes and Permits
298
6
Appendix 3: Cob and Water
304
7
Appendix 4: Cob and Earthquakes
311
4
Appendix 5: Research Needed
315
4
Appendix 6: Wildlife in the Home
319
4
Ianto Evans
Appendix 7: Teaching and Learning
323
7
Glossary
330
4
Resources on Cob and Natural Building
334
3
Recommended Books
337
4
Index
341