(from left) New Roots Sarah Smith, Seaver Williams and Travis Robb, with Mollie Curry (pink hat). The plaster dries to the lightest shade.

If you feel the call of the earthen textures, Mollie will be offering a Cob Workshop and introduction to Natural Building at Earthaven on July 4thweekend.

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Well, well, well! It’s been many a year since Culture’s Edge at Earthaven hosted a natural building camp. But this August (24-29), we once again are offering a full six-day adventure into the world of cob and its sophisticated cousin, compressed earth block.

Both cob and the blocks are started with the same basic ingredients—a good, clay-y soil, and sand. Cob, however, also has a significant amount of straw crushed into it and is put on quite wet in cobs, or loaves. Compressed earth blocks are made without additional water or straw, and often a small amount (ten percent) of Portland cement is used in the mix.

The other big difference is that the neat rectangular blocks are made by a big machine requiring mechanical power, and are set in place with an earthen mortar, whereas cob can be made by a pair of folks and a tarp (although it can also be mixed several other ways) and requires no mortar at all.

Since cob is a basically seamless material, the way the molecules adhere to each other depends especially on the water and the straw in the mix. Ideally, the soil is soaked in water ahead of time to allow the molecules to fully absorb the water and become as sticky as possible. The straw acts like a crisscross of fibrous “nails” that interweave the cob mix and make it the most solid of natural building materials. Another similar earthen material is adobe brick, which is a hand-made version that is pressed wet into forms. Adobe brick thus takes significant drying time to use and is probably in its best setting in dry climates.

At this year’s Natural Building Camp, participants will be working on a cob and block tower for the new Village Arts Building at Earthaven. The recently built rubble trench foundation with its two-foot stacked stone base wall will take a couple of rounds of cob and then be continued with the earth blocks.

The Camp will begin with a comprehensive tour of natural and green buildings at Earthaven, featuring a wide variety of traditional and experimental techniques. Our experienced staff and natural building interns will be on hand to demonstrate, teach and guide participants through the basics of hands-on natural building. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion, plus all the good things about summer camp—group meals, walks in the woods, dips in the creek, and starry nights around the campfire.

As the famous cob builder, Becky Bee, explains in the documentary First Earth, there’s nothing like natural building to bring people of all skill levels together, creating the very sense of community we seek by the process we use to do it. We’re very excited to be reintroducing this delightful approach to housing ourselves and our activities to the public. Folks are welcome to sign up for the entire six day camp or to come just for the weekend. More information is available at www.culturesedge.net.

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An exciting development on Another Way this year has been the slow but steady progress on the Village Arts Building (VAB). Located right before the entrance to Useful Plants Nursery and the Third Creek Crossing, the VAB is the brainchild of Earthaven co-founder Paul Caron, known around Asheville as The Furniture Magician. Expanding his fully equipped woodshop to incorporate a working wood-products cooperative and an art and craft studio co-op on his leasehold has been Paul’s dream since before Earthaven was established.

Projects involving natural building become the hub of learning opportunities for amateurs and professionals alike. The Village Arts Building is now providing long-term interns and short-term students with a variety of opportunities to build naturally and take those lessons on with them. This year’s Natural Building School internship program, which includes folks from California, Alabama, New York and jolly old England, has to date included directional tree-felling, round peeled pole timber framing, basic rubble foundation work and dry-stack stone wall building.

Natural Building School Interns, Paul Caron (right), and friends.

Next up as the stone wall sets is a Natural Building Camp, a 6-day adventure in building with cob and compressed earth blocks that adds to the progress at the VAB. Combining the pre-made blocks with cob will allow more progress than cob alone, and will give participants an opportunity to seriously consider the pros and cons for privately and professionally building masonry walls.

Additional opportunities in natural building this year include workshops in other earth-and-straw wall techniques, cordwood and earthen plasters. Visit www.naturalbuildingschool.com for updated information and registration assistance.

The Natural Building Camp begins on Tuesday, August 24^th. Registrations are being accepted for the entire 6-day camp and for the weekend only. Cost is $100 per day or $425 for all six. You can also check in with Arjuna by phone for more information at 828 669-0114.

Arjuna da Silva is an Earthaven founder, Culture’s Edge president, and former Airspinner. She is coordinating the Natural Building School  workshops at Earthaven this summer.

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In February of this year, Farmer, Brian, and Mike finished the first phase of a small, two-story house (18′ x 20′) in the Lower Rosy Branch neighborhood for long-time Earthaven member Ivy Lynn. The dwelling has a foundation, floor, walls, roof, windows, and doors, and covered with a coat of earth-plaster, which means it’s closed-in and weather-tight. Ivy and the builders will finish the second and third phases of the building over the next several years.

And in May, Arjuna da Silva will get more help building her two-story natural-built home in Benchmark neighborhood. The roughly 900 “round foot” house-in-progress has a timber-framed structure, rubble-trench foundation, walls of adobe brick, cob, clay straw, and strawbale, and a brick- red metal roof. Most walls on the first floor are built, with openings for windows and doors. Arjuna will host 4-5 interns over the 18-22 week natural building season, helping build as they learn natural building techniques from Steve Brodmerkel, Mollie Curry, and others. For more information: www.thenaturalbuildingschool.org. All buildings at Earthaven are south-facing passive solar buildings, heated by the sun. They’re off the grid, either powered by individually owned photovoltaic systems or Earthaven’s micro-hydro system, and most have metal roofs for roof-water catchment. See Natural Buildings.

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