Earthen Buildings
Cob Sr.
Cob Sr. is the very first earth building designed and built at Pine Manor. Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, well known cob builders from Oregon, were our teachers. Cob Sr. is an earthen room with a built in window bed and a fireplace. Michael Leach created an amazing earthen floor that looks like ancient stones. This cozy space can be used as a meeting room and for meditation and reflection.
It is also the favorite space for massage, especially in winter when the fireplace adds a cozy warmth. There is a certain calming magic about receiving a massage in an earthen building. It’s as if the clay walls hold layered presence of so many healing and restorative experiences.
Cob Jr.
Cob Jr. is a tiny earth building that Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley from Cob Cottage helped us build by facilitating a workshop in 1998. An additional workshop was held for women only, teaching them how to build their own Cob house. This was facilitated by Amber Wiggett, who had already built her own Cob house in her late twenties. One woman who attended the retreat at Pine Manor went on to build her own place. Cob Jr. has its own charm with a reclaimed barn wood ceiling, built by Preston Bell.
The interior plaster in this building was all done in “patty cake” style by just patting hands against the moist clay plaster, leaving hand prints as a texturized finish. Cob Jr. has been used as a writing studio and as a personal retreat space.
The Round House
The Round House was build a couple of weeks after 9/11. We almost cancelled the workshop because of 9/11 but then realized that it was actually the perfect thing to do: bring people together to build. It taught us an important reality about grief—that amazing things do eventually come from the ground of grief.
Our straw bale teacher, Bob Bolles, taught us all the important things to know about building a straw bale building. The tribe that worked on this building was impacted by the community working together, and many have stayed connected to Pine Manor all these years later.
The Hobbit Hut
The Hobbit Hut is a tiny earthen building built with cob and tree tunic beams with a metal roof. It is a hybrid building that demonstrates combining light clay, straw bale, and earth-filled bags all used in the creation of one space. The round door on this structure was designed and built by Michael Leach.
This building was built in 2003 in workshops led by Preston Bell and Michael Leach. Many helping hands crafted this little hut. It has served as massage room, a meditation space, and more recently it’s been a school room to some of the kids who live at Pine Manor.