The Ojai Foundation :: Sanctuary

SUSTAINABILITY :: EARTH BUILDING

Cob - Cob is an ancient building technique using soil, sand and straw kneaded together like dough. It is then built loaf by loaf into the shape desired. The County of Ventura does not yet recognize cob as a viable building material, so our explorations thus far have been with work sheds. It is also a great material for creating niches, decorative features and benches. The foundation of our Cob Shed was made with super-adobe.

Super-adobe - Super-adobe is a building technique developed by architect Nader Khalili, using soil cement and sand that is poured into tubular bags and then compressed and laid into coils. The coils are then covered with earthen plasters. One of the many advantages of using Super-adobe is that it is much less labor intensive than cob. It is also great for exterior earthen retaining walls, as it can be shaped to existing contours and can be made extremely durable.

Earthen Block - Earthen Block is hydraulically pressed local earth that is compressed into blocks and used as a building material similar to adobe bricks. We used earthen blocks formed from on-site materials to build both of our Earth Sheds. The machine is expensive, but provides quality bricks at incredible speeds (up to 500 per hour!) that can be laid wet.

Other explorations have been done with a variety of earthen plasters - some stabilized and some not, with natural sealers. All techniques have an option to use cementitious products to stabilize critical areas such as the foundation and finishing exterior surfaces. We often use up to 50% fly ash as a cementitious stabilizer with our earthen materials, as well as for our larger concrete projects.

Hundreds of volunteers and workshop participants have come here to learn about these techniques. They have found that touching the earth in the building process is enjoyable and rewarding and gives them a sense of warmth and connectedness. It is a similar feeling when one lives in or near an earth-built structure. Please see our Path of Service page for more information on how you can be involved in earth building here at the Ojai Foundation.

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