Natural Building Project
By Robert Morgan
Open Meadow HS
Course Description: Students who participate in this elective class
Will have an opportunity to explore the world of natural building and structures as well
as what it means to do constructing using cob clay and found materials.
Course Objectives:
1. Students will be able to:
2. Identify and compare natural building structures and materials
3. Describe 5 current and /or historical cultures and their natural building techniques
4. Evaluate the sustainability of conventional construction products and processes
5. Compare the sustainability of natural building to conventional building practices
6. Identify where natural building techniques would be preferred, substituted, and/or
incorporated into building projects
7. Create a brick out of cob or clay.
8. Work as part of a team to design and build their own natural structures
Suggested class size: 10- 14
Class will meet 2 hours a week for 12 weeks. Time may be extended for building.
Activities:
Introduction quick write activity:
Have pictures of cob/clay structures and or natural building materials set up around the
class room. Label the artifacts if possible.
Have students write responses to the following questions and then discuss
1. What does natural building mean?
2. Why would you use natural building?
3. Who benefits from natural building?
4. What are natural building materials?
Show building in action:
Show a video of people learning to build with cob/clay and showing more of what is
involved to expand their concept of natural building. Have students reflect on what they
watched.
Display video “Cob Building/ earth building course with Edwards Eco Building”
9 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E03Z8Jn2vw
1. What did you learn about cob building?
2. What are your positive feelings?
3. What are you concerns?
4. Why is cob building green?
5. How does it compare to traditional building?
6. What surprised you about cob building?
Bring in an expert:
Invite a guest speaker come and present on natural building and ask questions that
students may have about natural building. Student should have a short list of questions
before the speaker comes. I had Bernhard Masterson in mind although there are many
other suitable potential speakers.
Research:
(Requires research materials, computers or a library)
1. As a class create a list of different current and historical cultures that used natural
building.
2. Create a list of essential questions for research (i.e.. where did they live, what materials
did they use etc..)
3. Break students into five groups and have them gather information on the five cultures.
4. Groups report back to the class and share information and images.
5. Have individual students create a poster or presentation that describes 5 current and /or
historical cultures and their natural building techniques.
Field Trip:
Visit Tryon Life Community farm
Contact www.tryonfarm.org to arrange visit
Students will travel to the farm as an opportunity to see natural building in practice and
see how these natural buildings can enhance local natural resources, aesthetics and
sustainability while being functional. It is my hope that we may be able to arrange lunch
cooked in the wood fire oven on site. Students will write a one page reflection on the
natural building after the visit.
1. What stood out the most about the farm community and why?
2. If you had to live on the community farm for one year, what do you think the
biggest struggle would be?
3. If you had to live on the community farm for one year, what do you think the best
part would be?
Building:
Students in the class will be asked to decide on the “what?” and then the “how?” for our
building project here at the school. Lead the students in a 20 minute brainstorming
session.
Use the following ground rules for brainstorming keep the session productive and
positive.
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Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas
Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
Build on the ideas put forward by others
Every person and every idea has equal worth
It is helpful to have a list of positive comments that students listed on the drawing board.
Once a project is decided upon the class will likely need some consultation and
material resources to achieve the last objectives:
Using found or order materials each student should practice and show that they can
create a brick out of cob or clay.
Teams of students should research and produce designs for the agreed upon project.
Each team will get credit for submitting a design and the class will choose which
design to follow. The class will work together to build the natural structure over the
remainder of the course.