Home › News ›

Earthen Homes Could Offer Sustainable Alternative To Stick-Built Houses

Posted by: Christian Madera

6 August 2007 - 1:00pm

Cob houses -- some of which have lasted half a millennium in Europe -- are gaining interest among homeowners looking for a sustainable, inexpensive, and long-lasting structure.

"Ann and Gord Baird's dream house has in-floor heating, solar and wind power to run appliances, a plug-in for an electric car and a wall of windows to capture the sun's heat from the south.

It's all very contemporary - except the house is made of mud.

Ann, a former financial manager, and Gord, an auto body shop owner, both quit their jobs to construct their 2,150-square-foot home of cob, a centuries-old construction technique using dirt, clay and straw."

"When completed, it will be the first code-approved, load-bearing, high-occupancy two-storey cob house in North America."

Full Story: A dream home made of mud
Source: The Globe & Mail, August 6, 2007
»
Bookmark and Share
“
This is in fact the kind of self-sufficient, self-sustaining 'village' community that Mahatma Gandhi -- the Father of the Nation -- dreamt of and wrote about in his books on India’s path to development.
”