A dry stone wall forms the stem of the house that
the cob walls are built from [3]. As the walls get higher the
windows and door frame are placed and built around with cob [4].
The cob walls are scratched [5] to provide an anchor for the later
plasters. The roof timbers are placed and anchored into the cob
walls [6] and dressed with an edge board to retain the green roof
[7]. Adding decoration to the doors and windows [8] provide a welcome
to the home. It's one of the patterns in
A Pattern Language,
No.249 'Ornament'. Now after a few years the house has settled
into it's environment [9] with flowers growing around it providing
the family with a very low cost holiday hideaway.
Oops, we broke a window!
When you set a window in cob it's prudent to plan
for accidents as Ivan has. Setting a window deep into the wall can
mean extensive rebuilding if the window is broken. In the pictures
below you can see Ivan created windows just smaller than the size
of the glass. This has made replacing the window a relatively easy
task. |