Dates for the diary

March 2012

Fri 9 Mar - volunteer day
Sat 10 Mar  - cob walls & windows, arches
Fri 16 Mar - volunteer day  
Sat 17 Mar  cob walls & windows, arches
Fri 23 Mar - volunteer day  
Sun 25 Mar – mud and mindfulness   
Sat 31 Mar - mud and mindfulness   
 
Sneak preview for April 
 
Sun 1 Apr – mud music and family day – all ages and abilities welcome, learn to make cob and sing in London’s first cob choir

 

Venue - Meadow Orchard Project, 151 Park Road, London N8 8JD 
From Finsbury Park, a short bus ride ‎on the W7 to Hornsey Central Neighbourhood Health Centre 

To book a space Email Kate meadoworchard@virginmedia.com

 

April events   

African Hut - brief - to make  walls from locally sourced clay, sand and straw

4-5 April - Foundation and stem wall - using recycled car tires

11,12,13,14 April - Wall build - form work and cob

Cob oven build Wk 23 April 

Location - St Josephs Primary School Archway

Email cobinthecommunity@me.com 

21 budding earth build designers braved the cold  to take part in our kick off design day at the Meadow Orchard. Aided by cups of tea and fine views, the session, lead by What is Architecture / Cob in the Community was a huge success. We have many more ideas to draw from, clarity and understanding as we embark on the next phases of our build. 

Still building and still smiling right into December 2011

We have been working since June on a training centre in Crouch End, London. Each weekend we have seen a series of lovely people come through the meadow to try their hand at natural building. The structure is hand made - we only used two pieces of machinery to help us at the foundation stage.

The shot above is from a group of youth volunteers who came and made cob, tossed it across the meadow (as pictured) and then used this to build the wall for our earth training centre. We are both making our own materials using the clay on the site and building with it. Does it get any more low impact?  

 

To those that have come and come back again and again, our season's best wishes and thanks -  we loved having you. To those yet to have tried this ancient building craft - this is a unique experience to try working with London clay and stray, in London and in a beautiful meadow, please get in touch.   

We hope to get the structure as close to ready before spring; walls build and clay and lime rendered, and a reciprocal roof in place. We have been SO lucky with the weather and just the right number of people coming to support our community build. Come spring we will be working on eathern floors, renders and the cob oven. 

For details of volunteer and course days drop us an email 

Cob in the Community is an environmental consultancy that brings community together using natural building techniques. Our work is exclusively London based.

Cob in the Community works to realize organizational values and aspirations through a range of creative and artistic endeavours.

Cob in the Community  is made up of a network of earth specialists and volunteers. We work with all sorts of community based groups and   funders. We are a community interest company.

Traditional Recipe

To make cob take a mixture of soil, water, sand and straw and add loads of people.  Stomp away to your heart’s content to get the right consistency  and then sculpt - benches, walls, stoves, earth kitchens, animals and trees to entire  buildings.  

No machinery, no noise, easy to learn and a lot of fun. 

 

Videos

Making Cob   Modern architecture - cob and straw bale house

Rustic style - more building with Cob  The History of Cob - a great UK building heritage! 

 Earth Building UK Conference and AGM 2012, January 13^th, York.

 UK Earth Conference to be held in historic city of York. Unique opportunity to hear some of the industry international leading names speak on Straw Bale - Barbara Jones, Clay - Kate Bryce and meet with the world of earth builders. Come support and meet the community. We have two free tickets to give away to this amazon networking and learning opportunity. Email your answer to 'who wrote the book Earth Construction A comprehensive Guide. Email cobinthecommunity@me.com 

                                        

Training in natural building  - from foundation, to walls to roof! 

Starting 3 February 2012

Current build - volunteer days to complete cob walls and straw bale renders Friday & Saturdays 10.30 - 4pm - weather permitting! Call / email to let us know you are coming.

Email cobinthecommunity@me.com

Where:  Meadow Orchard Project     Behind Hornsey Health Centre       Web http://shepherdscothealinggarden.ning.com 

151 Park Road, Crouch End London N8 8JD

This is an early shot of a foundation stage being prepared at the live build at the Meadow Orchard Project. Here we are using a water level to check the height of our floors. The next stage was to drag recycled crushed concrete in several layers, and tamper this down. In all we used about 12 tonnes of 'urbanite' or crushed concrete. This gives the structure stability and acts as a great drainage system (aided by a "French skirt" drain trench).

Progress at the latest build - Meadow Orchard Eco Build, Crouch End. Sept 2011September 2011

The Cober's Thumb being used - this helps sew the straw in the mix, increases surface area (great for keying in more cob) and increases the drying time. The Cober's Thumb is a made by stripping the bark off a good sturdy, straight stick and saves using your hands - well your thumb. 

 

The air was filled with mischief in London, the week that kicked off the riots (sept 2011) and the Eco Build at the Meadow orchard did not escape. Our soakaway was used as a giant bonfire. All the wood, pallets and straw on site was thrown into our great pit and set alight. The flames must have reached the tops of the tallest oak branches above, judging by the scorched leaves. Nothing more was damaged, we were just a bit miffed that they burnt our stuff.

(A soak away is where water is carried away from the building via the French drainage system - a gravel filled drench - into this especially dug pit). The walls after the fire were terracota red. The clay is London clay and has a slow percolation rate - i.e it takes a wee while to drain away. The firing of the walls as a result of a night's bonfire seems to have slowed the rate that the soakaway soaks away the water. 

Capping the rammed earth tires. We will be building our cob walls onto these rammed earth tires. 

A 'cob chain' at The Hollies  - a great - no awesome place to learn about natural building in Ireland!