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Phase: Concepting

Natural Building Community

Cob, a mixture of sand, clay, and straw is a natural building material that can be hand-sculpted and is ideal for natural building community projects like benches, ovens, bus-stops and playgrounds.

Photo of Avi Solomon
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cob-bench
cob-oven-1
Cob, a mixture of sand, clay, and straw is a natural building material that can be hand-sculpted and is ideal for natural building community projects like benches, ovens, bus-stops and playgrounds.

Cob is inexpensive and does not require any industrial tools or degreed expertise. Why not build a Cob oven with your neighbors to build local community?

What resources (money, time, people, technology, etc) will your concept need to be successful?

Cob (Clay, Sand & Straw), Volunteers

What steps could you take to implement this idea today?

Build a Cob Oven or Bench in your neighborhood.

How can your idea be scaled so that it's implemented in cities around the world?

Anyone can build with Cob with locally available natural materials.
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Photo of Meena Kadri

Thanks for bringing up Cob, Avi. To transform it from an inspiration to a concept – it would be great to develop thoughts around how folks might be engaged to use it to benefit their local communities. Looking forward to hearing more.

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