Below is an email from RaeGina regarding an upcoming film about cob building entitled “Don’t Bank on It! Earthing the American Dream.” If you are interested in cob building and/or are an expert in cob building, you may be able to help with the film and even be on camera. The director is looking for several things to help create the vision of this movie. Please read her email below for more details on how you can get involved.

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The film will chronicle a self-employed, single mother from Ohio who is in search of an alternative version of the American dream: home ownership. Renee, 40, and her 17-year old son, Hilton, will travel to California to participate in a cob house building workshop in order to educate themselves and to open up the possibilities of safe, low-cost sustainable housing. The film will also speak to average Americans and experts about the feasibility of implementing cob housing in mainstream America against the backdrop of conventional wisdom and the current economic crisis.

Moreover, the film will examine how Americans have already used this ancient technology for living, cooking and addressing social issues such as homelessness in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake. Finally, we will travel abroad to Europe/Middle East to discover cobwork edifices that have been lived in for centuries, generation after generation, and propose why socially, economically and culturally these dwellings, and other similar structures, have not penetrated the American psyche.

Currently I am in pre-production and will begin filming in late May and will start the road trip to Point Arena, California on June 22, 2010. Now I am searching for experts who would be willing to speak on camera about the possibilities of using cobwork in rural and urban environments. The specific points I would like to touch on are:

1. The integrity of cob structures in various climates/geographical regions
2. The cost and time comparison of cob building to average residential homes
3. The impact on communities who participate in large-group social activities (wine stomping in France, Amish farm building, etc.)
4. The impact of extracting, refining, shipping and building mainstream housing on the environment vs cob building
5. The main impediments in implementing cobwork: American consumerism, legal issues regarding housing/urban planning, lobbying groups, etc.
6. History of cob in Europe and Middle East (there known as tabya) and its slow migration to North America

If there is someone who you feel may be interested in speaking to these points, please feel free to forward my contact information to him/her. My phone number is 614.327.5484.

Thank you for time and consideration.

Sincerely,
RaeGina

About the Author

Andrew Morison is a specialist in straw bale and green construction. He has shown thousands of people how to build their own straw bale projects through his comprehensive series of instructional straw bale, concrete foundation, and plastering DVDs. You can check these out at www.LearnStrawBale.com..

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