Mud Roundies

Spencer sent me a link to an interesting article in Friday's Globe and Mail (A Dream Home Made of Mud) which I found in my mailbox this morning. It's about a couple in Victoria who are building a cob house. The article says that the design is more like a conventional house than other ones that have been built recently, and less like a hobbit sort of dwelling. I think it has nice gentle curves to it that take it a notch up from other conventional boxes.

The fact that there are now building codes for this type of building and that they are able to get building permits is encouraging to me. Spencer says he'd like to take a course on how to build a cob house and I agree with him. Not that I have the money to build a house but I'd love to see how it's done. It would be great to write an article about how one is being built - like these house shows on tv.

There was a kids book I used to read to the little people I babysat as a teenager about 'Roundies' and 'Squaries'. I'm definitely a 'Roundy'. That extends to houses and their walls too. Squaries like to follow rules and conventions. Roundies like to jump in puddles and Squaries don't like to get their feet wet. Well, you can see why I'm a Roundy! (Julie, I'm getting much better at getting my feet wet! Truly!)

At the Findhorn Foundation they have been doing some experimental building. Some was done before I got there and some during the time I lived htere, and still more afterwards. I really fell in love with a set of three whiskey barrel houses. They were made from the stays of whiskey barrels and when it was hot you could get drunk on the fumes! The buildings were round and had additions off the side (can you say that if they're round?) if they needed extra space. They were partially snuggled into the sand dunes and had rounded windows and interesting sky-lights.

There was a small, round, one-room sanctuary that was built into a hillock. It was built with stones and utilized used whiskey stays for window frames and a circle of bench seats inside. The roof was grass and had a sky light. It was an incredibly peaceful building with good temperature control through all seasons. This and the houses were my first experience with curved walls and windows and I liked the feeling. I can't even describe it. Some would say that the rounded form is the feminine and the linear is the masculine. I think we need a combination of the two in our lives and perhaps we don't yet have enough of the feminine to balance the masculine.

Cob walls are made from mud and straw and are one type of natural wall. You can also use straw bales. I saw a program on TV a little while ago that showed how to build a straw bale house. You cut the bales to shape, pack them and cover them with wire mesh, and then you cover them with cement on the outside and plaster on the inside. The walls end up thicker than conventional walls and the extra depth creates a lovely hush inside.

I also picked up a book from the library this year about yurts. The first time I saw a yurt was in a film about Mongolian nomads. The yurts are are collapsible, cloth or skin-covered, round dwellings. A very old design. I liked the feel of the interior space a lot. I'm not sure I could do a winter in one without making the walls a little more wind-proof and insulated, which they can do, but it's the round design that I like.

Spencer, who seems to share my interest in alternative ways to build houses, also found a structure on a web site that looks a bit like a geodesic dome and hangs in tall trees out in the woods. It didn't look all that weather-proof or permanent to me but it was very light inside - maybe a summer house.

Years ago I read a book called The Not So Big House, written by two women architects in the US. I really like the idea of living in less space but having it designed so that it's more flexible and more environmentally friendly. They suggested that you build personal touches into the house so that it really has character and soul. So far, they haven't designed in the round but hey, give them time!

Thanks Spencer for inspiring me to think about round spaces again.