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| The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book | 
 enlarge | Authors: Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith, Linda Smiley
Creator: Deanne Bednar
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $21.94
You Save: $13.06 (37%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $21.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  (22 reviews)
Sales Rank: 13645
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 346
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.9 x 1
ISBN: 1890132349
Dewey Decimal Number: 693.22
EAN: 9781890132347
ASIN: 1890132349
Publication Date: June 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Tree Hugging Humbuggery July 19, 2008
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
I purchased this book based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews in Amazon.com.
I was looking for a practical guide on Cob building - not on living according to the new age hippie ethos of the authors.
I've read the first few chapters, and there are nuggets of practical advice, but the narration keeps getting bogged down by Ianto Evans digressions on how evil humans keep screwing up the environment.
It is my hope that I can finish the book, collect some useful information, and in the end, be satisfied with my purchase. I'm just finding it difficult to wallow through the enlightened philosophy.
I will attempt to read it through to the end and perhaps revise my review. I've looked briefly at the sections written by the other two authors (Smith and Smiley) and they both seem, on the surface, to be a little more instructional in their writing, and less interested in teaching me about their new age voodoo.
Core, must-have owner builder book June 6, 2008
There is no better book to curl up with than this one and none more useful. Read it and, if you love it, consider taking the 10-day class in Oregon. You will learn a whole new way of living, as well as building. My only criticisms of the book are minor and things that will likely be added in a later addition, if there is one. A chapter on bale cob and similar composite materials would be helpful. I think a separate book is in the works on bale cob. The book is a masterpiece!
Beautiful Book! May 31, 2008
I bought this book several years ago, when it first came out. I love it! I have yet to build anything out of cob, but hopefully that will change in the next five years. This is one of the few books I own that I would NEVER consider selling. It is chock full of information, and when I am feeling blue, I whip out the book, page through it, and fantasize about it. If you are thinking of building anything with cob, buy this book!
More than a book February 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's a guide. No matter if you will be building in cob or not, it' real pleasure to read this book. I recommend it heartfully.
Brilliant and much needed February 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This will sound like a strange thing to say about a book on building, but I've been moved to tears reading this. One might think that the authors of such a book would be Luddites proposing a return to savagery or some such, but this is not the case. What they propose, beautifully, is a return to sanity and perspective.
The subtitle of this book, "A Practical and Philosophical Guide..." is dead on accurate. This book is eminently practical and the philosophy of it one of learning to really live and love life rather than struggling to overcome the multitude of unnecessary obstacles we impose on ourselves. It talks not only about building a house from cob, but deals at length with the sort of observation of the world around us that was common in preindustrial times that has, sadly, been largely lost.
Even if you have no plans at all for building your own house (from cob or any other material) read this book. If you are a teacher or parent, read this book with the children in your charge. This is a great way to help them develop an appreciation of the world around them and spark an interest in science. What could be more interesting to a child (and the child within us all) than learning from the beauty of what naturally occurs around us?
A beautiful and informative book.
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