A bathhouse conversion to a cob studio with a rocket mass heater.

This is Zebanah's cob studio in Eugene, OR, USA. It was originally built in the 90s but fell into despair. Some readers might recognise it when it was featured as a bathhouse in the natural builder's cob bible, 'The Hand-Sculpted House'.

As a building material cob (made from clay, sand and straw) is easy to remodel and extend.

Zebanah worked with a small crew led by Erica Ann to convert the bathhouse to a studio space. The original cedar shingle roof, which was too shallow to shed rain properly, was rebuilt and the cob walls remodelled with new windows. The original belly stove was replaced with a more efficient rocket mass heater. The cottage was finished with an earthen plaster and a stone tile floor. You can see more of the studio courtesy of Brian who also worked on the project.