Natural Building Material Types
>Cob – “cobs” of moist earth and straw
>Straw Bale – infill in a post-and-beam structure, or as a load-bearing system, where the bales themselves support the weight of the roof
Adobe – sun-dried mud bricks stacked with a mud mortar
Bamboo – grows very quickly, providing renewable material for building
Compressed Earth Blocks – similar to adobes, with the main differences being they are not fully saturated with water,
Cordwood – small lengths of wood as a masonry unit mortared with a cement-based mortar
Earthbags – soil-filled fabric sacks or tubes
Earthen Floors – pouring or tamping one or several layers of an earth mixture over a substrate of gravel, pumice or sand, and hardening agents
>Hybrids – several techniques combined
>Straw-Clay – coating loose straw with a clay slip and tamping it into forms as an infill for timber-frame structures
Hemp and Other Fibrous Plants – create a pressed board product to replace plywood
Natural Plasters and Finishes – mud- or lime-based plasters
Paper Blocks or Fibrous Cement – re-pulp paper and mix it with cement, making blocks
Rammed Earth – a soil mixture with a clay content of 20% and a moisture content of 10% is then rammed in layers using mechanical or hand tampers
Thatch – reeds, grasses or palm fronds as a roofing material
Wattle and Daub – weaving branches (wattle) as a support for mud plaster (daub)
http://www.networkearth.org/naturalbuilding/overview.html
Traditional Wood Frame or Cob?
