In 2003, Brandy Gallagher and a handful of eco-minded friends approached the British Columbia government with a proposal. Little did they know it would lead to two and a half years of legal hoop-jumping and political wrangling. Their green dream? They wanted to build a house from cob — essentially, clay, sand, straw and water.

“There was nowhere in the building code that would describe anything like that,” Gallagher recalls with a laugh. “There was acknowledgement for straw bale construction, but no one previously had ever dealt with cob construction.”

Not that building with earth is a new practice. Cob, an old English word meaning lump or rounded mass, has been used in construction as far back as 11,000 years. Traditionally, hands and feet are used to work the mixture into a thick consistency, which can be shaped when wet and then hardens in the sun.

Nor is the practice uncommon, at least outside of North America. According to estimates from the Earth Building Association of Australia, one-third of the world’s population lives in earthen homes. In Devon, England, where clay-rich subsoils can be found, the world’s oldest remaining cob house dates back to 1539. And therein lies the magic of this hardy building material: its longevity, a fundamental principle of sustainable living. “There are so many materials nowadays in a conventional home that are guaranteed for only 10 years,” says Gallagher. “There’s a completely different paradigm to use disposable materials that usually have toxicity levels, versus natural materials that can last generations and generations.”

The North American cob revival got afloat in the early 1990s, prompted by the rise of both housing costs and the sustainable building movement. But in 2003 the regulatory process was still relatively untouched territory. Into the picture stepped O.U.R. Ecovillage, a 25-acre sustainable community and demonstration village near Shawnigan Lake, B.C. Established in 1999 by a group of sustainability advocates, including Gallagher, it was their proposal to the provincial government that laid down the first set of documentation for cob construction in Canada.

Led by resident ecological designer Elke Cole, O.U.R. convinced an engineering firm to take on the project — and finally, construction of their cob house got underway. Since its completion, the building, which is being monitored for its first 10 years by the regulatory authorities, has been a go-to source for other cob projects across the country. Gallagher estimates there are around 30 cob homes in Canada now, with easily half of those in B.C. and others in Ontario and the east coast.

Even those who are conventional builders will want to do some major learning before embarking on a cob house project, she cautions. “We have a cliché in cob construction where we say you need good boots and a good hat. So you need really high foundation and a good overhang.” But fear not — O.U.R. Ecovillage is there to help. As part of its operations, the community offers a sustainability school, the biggest part of which is their natural building education program. The community has welcomed everyone from university classes to the Girl Guides, who participate in hands-on learning projects. Nearly 90 community groups, businesses and other organizations have used the space in the last 10 years, says Gallagher. “Our first building, we realized that over 500 people have had their hands in building [it].”

This direct participation is just one of the joys of cob construction. “You actually have a relationship with your building when you build it yourself,” says Gallagher. “Most people take care of their space in a very different way when they’ve created their own space.” And what a space — in lieu of rectangular bricks and neatly trimmed edges, cob creates curved walls, niches and openings. “There is something artistic and aesthetic about these buildings that enliven people,” says Gallagher. “They’re so visually captivating and there’s something about a round and sculpted space that’s very different than living in a box.”

Since O.U.R. Ecovillage’s first cob building project in 2003, the community has built three more cob houses. Two of those are cob hybrids, which incorporate straw bale for better energy efficiency. “We’ve learned that you want to build for your immediate setting… When you’re dealing with passive solar design, you often want to have cob on the south face and something much more insulative on the north perimeter wall,” says Gallagher. The spaces are multi-purpose, serving as anything from art studio and healing practice centre in the summer to homes for the community’s 21 residents in the winter (many of them live in yurts or caravans during the warmer months). Stroll through the village and you’ll also see a number of cob installation garden walls, benches, sitting areas — even a cob oven — which Gallagher calls “incredible eye candy.”

The community is set to tackle another precedent-setting project this spring. The O.U.R. “Educational Bistro” is a cob commercial space that its creators hope will be the first cob structure in Canada to demonstrate all the B.C. Building Code commercial building aspects. “This will be another challenging regulatory process advocacy and educational journey — can you imagine trying to negotiate how to not put water sprinklers inside a cob building? But we will propose demonstrating the same health and safety aspects, but through a variety of means,” says Gallagher. Another project is a cluster of 10 cob houses that will feature alternative wastewater treatment and renewable energy sources. The development permit has been fully signed off, allowing full-on construction to move forward for the next few years. The majority of these structures are designed as “affordable housing units” for individuals and families who are committed to stewardship of projects and education programs onsite.

Cob has continued to crop up across the continent, from the Butterfly Social Club in Chicago, where the walls, tables and seating are all au natural, to the cob courtyard in Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto. Gallagher hopes it’s a trend that continues to grow. “Every single person that walks into our buildings on a tour goes, ‘Oh I have to live in one of these.’ There’s something that happens on a really deeply intrinsic level.” It’s no wonder, then, that cob structures are commonly called “living buildings.” As Gallagher says, “The buildings, you feel alive in them.” •

For more information on the workshops offered by O.U.R. Ecovillage visit ourecovillage.org.

Photos courtesy of Elke Cole