residential weekend course earth bag building

venue: Redfield Community, Bucks

Earth-bag is a build technique which is simple, quick and cheap. It can be used in different ways to construct buildings from ‘bee-hives’, domes and hobbit-holes (see picture) to more conventional buildings. It is effectively building with sand bags. These are filled with road scalpings (old stripped off road surface) or sub soil, through to grit and Type 1 (MOT). In a dome the bags are laid like a coil pot, each course tamped into place and barbed-wire used to grip each layer to the previous one. The outside is then covered in cob to protect the structure. The inside can be limed, cobbed or papercreted. Openings can be made with timber frames or tyres. We sometimes use bottles to form skylights and windows.

As structures they are extremely strong (used in refugee camps in earthquake zones)  and the density of the walls make them highly insulating. They require few if any foundations, can be built straight off gravel, paving or tarmac. Several domes can be added together to form homes, clinics, schools. We have built them as garden studio/offices, summer houses and are talking to a client about a 'granny-flat' for their teen-age son.

On this course you will be shown the basics of building a curved wall, a tyre opening, cob render and bottle windows. We won't have the time to complete a whole structure, but all the techniques you will learn will enable you to build your own.

dates: see 'book online' below

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