Mt Vernon, KY
After recently attending a 4-day cob building workshop with my 62 year-old mom and 8-year-old daughter, I can officially say there are now 3 generations of fierce cob building women in my family! So I am personally excited to announce our featured member this quarter – Diane Jennings of Disputanta Cob in Mt. Vernon, KY. Much to my happy surprise, after living on the west coast for the last 5 years, I have come back home to Kentucky to find the natural building movement is alive and kicking in this neck of the woods too.
Diane is the mastermind behind Disputanta Cob, a group of tight-knit and big-hearted local community members who promote and teach natural building. Located in the gorgeous foothills of Central KY where spring water is plentiful, land is reasonably priced, and there are few building restrictions, the setting is perfect for natural building. Diane has a knack for drawing people of diverse ages and backgrounds to her workshops (ours included many kids from still in the womb to a gaggle of teenagers all the way through to elders). The community support network is thriving from amazing local chefs to tractor-cob mixing neighbors to near-by permaculture goddesses turning barren hilltop soil into lush gardens. Disputanta builds with lime mortars and plasters, cob and other earthen materials, and salvaged items. Through teaching, example and open-hearted invitations, their vision includes making natural building readily accessible to a population that has historically faced issues of deeply-rooted poverty. Diane’s mentor is Christina Ott of Artisan Builders Collective (formerly Barefoot Builders) based out of Tennessee.
If you would like to nominate a future featured member please contact us at office@nbnetwork.org.
Santa Barbara, California 93105
United States
Oasis Design is a family owned, home-based design consulting and publishing business. We’ve been developing original designs for living better, cheaper, & more ecologically since 1980. Find our books and services at www.oasisdesign.net
After an extraordinary year of working on a variety of sustainable and conventional building projects throughout Canada and the US, I’ve been back in Canada doing a bit of consulting and renovating, studying for LEED and looking for interesting projects near home and further afield to fill the next year.
There was a fair amount of time on the trip home to reflect on the statement that Jack Stephens made at the International Natural Building Colloquium 2008: “We need to build more GOOD buildings.” It reminded me of the first exam essay I had to write in Architecture 101, about the Vitruvian trilogy of Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas – the three essential traits of “good” buildings. In the vocabulary of sustainable building, these are roughly translated as durability, functionality, and beauty.
In terms of creating good, sustainable buildings, current guidelines and literature generally agree about the basics of design, material selection and installation. As I’ve traveled and worked since finishing the Sustainable Building Design and Construction program at Fleming College, I’ve found that detailing and durable building design practices vary widely. Some of these differences are characterized as matters of opinion or regional variation, while in other cases I’ve found many owner-builders and beginning builders are reluctant to dig for guidance about construction details in long narratives about alternative building.
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I have always loved building and making things. I went to architecture school in order to do that professionally, yet when it was over, I found myself spending 40+ hours a week behind a glowing screen instead. I worked in an office and became LEED certified, heavily involved with several ‘green’ buildings, but still, I knew the details that I was drawing weren’t truly sustainable. I felt the need to direct my energy in a more positive way.
I was considering grad school, but the cost was high and not necessarily going to bring the fruits I desired. Thus far I had built with Timberframe, Strawbale, Cordwood and Cob and was hungry for so much more. What I had learned through my natural building experiences really resonated with my beliefs, so I opted to focus on builder training instead. I decided to leave my architecture job and take a leap of faith into the world of natural building. How else would I ever reach my dreams of having a natural homestead to share with others one day?
As a designer, I really wanted to understand the larger implications of natural building. What wall systems are most appropriate in which climates? What types of business models really work and support the education process yet also provide a good living in today’s uncertain economy? In order to answer these questions, I felt the need to create an educational program for myself that involved traveling and experiencing many different sides of our community.
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Diane Jennings of Disputanta Cob,