NH NATURAL HOME Journal

Enlarge Image Image Gallery A cob ben­ch inside the co-op is a great place for a coffee break. People’s Food Co-op

Natural building techniques may not be so hard to come by in rural areas, but in urban settings green remains rare. That is, except in Portland, Oregon, where this past summer the People’s Food Co-op became the first urban retail space in the city (and quite possibly the country) to expand using cob construction.

The idea was born six years ago when talk of expansion first began. Back then, says project manager Miles Uchida, natural building techniques were just beginning to emerge and the concept of using cob as a building material was clearly pushing the envelope. “We’re trying to be a sustainable business,” says board vice president Pedro Ferbel. “We have a high commitment both in terms of product selection and business decisions. We wanted to be sure we used the most earth-friendly building techniques, materials, and labor practices available. Cob is a remarkable intersection of sustainable building materials, labor practices, and culture. It’s a community-building activity. I think that’s what really attracted us to it.”

It’s also guaranteed to turn a few heads. The city building inspector, for example, “came out for the first time, looked around, and was like, ‘What the...?’” says Uchida. Despite its generally progressive attitude, the city drew the line at using cob for load-bearing walls. “The city bureaucracy just doesn’t know what to do with it,” Ferbel notes. “Portland at this point does not have any building code for load-bearing cob, even though cob has been used in walls for centuries in Europe, the Southwest, and in Yemen.... They allowed us to use the cob, but in most areas it’s used as infill. We filled in with steel beams even though the steel beams are not necessary. It’s a bit of an irony, but we figure it’s a step we have to take to get cob into the public sphere and gain more public knowledge of it.”