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A Way of Caring Get Cultured with the land, and the diversity of what and I went ahead and just booked it,” he PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM can be grown around the world. says. “I just really got into it because I’m Next to the fence, a smaller hole mechanically inclined and I love working LABOR OF LOVE Although cob building is than you would expect is evidence of with my hands.” labor intensive, Franco said there’s something the clay soil that was incorporated into During the 12-day workshop, Franco about working with your hands from found materials that makes it all worth it. the structure. Depending on how much and 10 other students built an outdoor clay the dirt holds, the cob mixture of sauna. At the end of that workshop, his soil, sand, and straw is unique to each teacher was running another workshop in building site. It has to be the perfect Portugal, so he followed her again. They consistency. After making some test built an outdoor kitchen with an oven bricks, Franco says, they dropped them attached to it. Then, there was a month- to see which ones held up the best. In this long workshop in Texas, where they built case, the mixture was 25 percent clay soil a 150-square-foot studio with a loft in it. He’s now attempting PHOTO BY BRANDI LOPEZ PHOTOGRAPHY to start a cob building 11 business on the Central Coast called Cobblers Delight. “I wanted to learn as much as I could to build a big enough structure that someone could live in,” Franco says. “If I can build my house for a fraction of the cost with PHOTOS BY JAYSON MELLOM good merit and good principles, then I would be happy.” Cob is similar to ARTISTIC LICENSE Chad Franco, who recently started a adobe, except it’s not cob building business called Cobber’s Delight, uses iron oxides crafted into bricks. The mixed with lime wash to paint the lime plaster covering a cob pizza oven he built in a client’s backyard. Find more of his work structures are designed on Instagram @CobbersDelight. as monolithic pieces, a continuous piece built and 75 percent decomposed granite before as one solid structure without seams the water and straw were added. or edges. Starting out at 12 inches or And it was all mixed by feet. Some of thicker at the bottom, the walls taper by those feet belonged to kids who attended 5 percent as they get taller. Those walls two weekends of cob workshops at City soak up the sun’s energy during the day, Farm SLO in November. Franco says, and that heat radiates into the house at night—and vice versa. Plus, “It’s been a long journey. In the future, I the walls can be sculpted. Cob structures probably won’t start a project in November,” often have rounded edges or designs built Franco says, referring to all of the rain San into them. Luis Obispo weathered over the winter. “When it really comes down to it, the The structure has spent a lot of time materials are dirt cheap, and all you under the cover of a blue tarp, waiting for really need is labor,” Franco says. “Cob is dry days—not just for the cob itself, which so diverse, and if you want to add onto it, needs dry weather to cure, but to schedule you can just chip off and add onto it.” READY FOR ANOTHER LAYER Trimming the latest layer so that it’s flush, Chad Franco workshops. Building cob, because it’s so with the Cobber’s Delight gets the playhouse ready for the next application of cob, which is partially made from the clay soil found on City Farm SLO’s property. labor intensive, is really a team activity. A way of caring This project is a labor of love for Franco, Quail Springs has beautiful buildings though, who has been cobbing since he into the light. The point of this experiment particular environment. ... If we were in on its property, seemingly woven into the took a six-month permaculture workshop is to figure out what works, Setser says, Alaska, we would be building something land from which they were built. Soft, but it’s also to give others the ability to do different.” at UC Santa Cruz a couple of years ago. rounded edges have suns and butterflies something similar if they choose. Because Quail Springs is in the high “I worked in a warehouse for 10 years sculpted into them. Blue, green, and clear Quail Springs is in the process of desert, there is only a minimal amount and realized how much waste we have, bottles are built into window spaces. Red getting its structures permitted by of things that can be grown. They try and I just wanted to break away from branches of manzanita float in and out of Ventura County, which is the county most to grow as much food as possible with that lifestyle,” Franco says. “I started the walls. of its property happens to be on. She says surface water. But, of course, they can’t thinking about how can I find another “The thing that I love about the career that I could be proud of.” the 450 acres also touch San Luis Obispo grow everything there, so Setser says material is that you just sculpt with it,” and Santa Barbara counties. they try to purchase as much from local The teacher who taught the portion Executive Director Setser says as she of the permaculture course on natural “The point isn’t just that we get our farmers as walks along one of the paths. buildings permitted. The goal is so that possible, and building caught his attention, and she was She points out the Magdalena, a space other people who want to build out of they work with Get teaching another workshop in Portugal. built by interns. Setser sits at a window earth can do so,” Setser says. “Living the Isla Vista “I was ready to go on a big journey ... seat coming out of the wall and leans back cultured light on the earth. ... Food Co-op in Quail Springs teaches PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHAD FRANCO The right to live in Santa Barbara. a 14-day immersive non-toxic buildings is Eggs, milk, permaculture design course fundamental.” and meat are from Nov. 3 through 17, 2019. Tuition is between People tend to think generated on- $1,480 and $1,850 on a about permaculture as site. Goat and sliding scale. To learn more, a farming technique, rabbit manure is visit quailsprings.org. Rubin, who’s in charge of composted with Quail Springs’ natural food waste and building, said. But really, used in the garden. it’s a design system. Vegetable beds are sunken instead of You could take those raised and filled with compost to protect principles and apply them them from the wind. Poplar and locust to a business, Rubin said. trees regulate the nitrogen in the soil and “A lot of it has to do block the wind and sun. with looking around your Permaculture is about earth care, people environment and how to care, and fair share, Setser says, and Quail grow something in that Springs is attempting to live by that mantra. environment. ... And so It’s not always easy. But it’s worth it. natural building systems “We need places like this,” she says. fit really smoothly into “There’s a truth contained within it ... that,” Rubin said. “We that touches people.” ∆ ALL HANDS ON DECK During workshops in November, Chad Franco taught kids the art of cob, a form really design things of natural building. It’s labor intensive and workshop participants jumped right in, mixing clay, sand, straw, really appropriate for a Reach Editor Camillia Lanham at and water with their hands and feet to get the right consistency. particular climate and a [email protected]. www.newtimesslo.com • April 11 - April 18, 2019 • New Times • 11.
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