From the travels through rural India and Mexico, we have found several communities engaging in the construction of wattle and daub homes. While our explorations of different types of wattle are just beginning, we have designed and built several interior partition walls and walling systems in several of our projects.
Cob encofrada (as talked about in Spain), is a universal walling technique where cob is molded/poured in a set of forms. This takes the cob closer to rammed earth and still maintains the inheritance of the original hand molding technique.
Here is a list of topics that we are continually exploring through our travels and projects
History of Monolithic construction, aspects of design | History of cob | Types and forms of Cob | Soil selection and stabilization methods | Selection of size, form, method | Design of plastic mixes | Use of additives and fibers | Control & use of shrinkage | Structural design | Details of joints with various materials and components | Thermal properties, density and thickness selection | Hygroscopic properties and humidity buffering potential | Structural design and calculations | The behavior of Cob under seismic forces | Costs and time | Codes of practice and normativity | Care, maintenance, and repair
History of Wattle and Daub | Types of structures | Variations of Wattle | Variations of Daub | Wattle – Stone masonry | Daub in sacrificial formwork | Use of additives and fibers | Control & use of shrinkage | Structural design | Details of joints with various materials and components | Design guidelines | Flexibility and modularity in design | Prefabrication | Thermal properties, density and thickness selection | Hygroscopic properties and humidity buffering potential | Costs and time | Care, maintenance, and repair
List of Reading materials we’ve covered so far
How to sign up for a workshop?
See images of previous workshops here
If interested in organizing one, please contact Varun Thautam