Editing Cob (material) (section)

==Modern cob buildings==
[[File:Home at Hollyhock.jpg|thumb|250px|An example of a modern cob building in the Pacific Northwest style. The exterior cob wall is limewashed for an attractive, uniform appearance.]]
[[File:Sota Construction Office Building.jpg|thumb|left|alt=The Sota Construction Services Corporate Headquarters in [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States]], constructed of cob walls|The Sota Construction Services Corporate Headquarters in [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States]], constructed of cob walls]]
[[File:Beautifying cob oven.jpg|thumb|250px|Decorating a cob oven]]When Kevin McCabe constructed a two-story, four bedroom cob house in [[England]], [[UK]] in 1994, it was reputedly the first cob residence built in the country in 70 years. His techniques remained very traditional; the only innovations he made were using a [[tractor]] to mix the cob and adding sand or shillet, a gravel of crushed [[shale]], to reduce shrinkage.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}

[[File:The Cob House - Cadhay.jpg|thumb|left|A modern cob house near [[Ottery St Mary]], [[United Kingdom]]]] From 2002 to 2004, sustainability enthusiast [[Rob Hopkins]] initiated the construction of a cob house for his family, the first new one in [[Ireland]] in circa one hundred years. It was a community project, but an unidentified [[arsonist]] destroyed it shortly before completion.<ref>[http://transitionculture.org/about/ Practical Sustainability: About]</ref> The house, located at The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability in [[County Cork]], was being rebuilt as of 2010. There are a number of other completed modern cob houses and more are planned, including a public education centre.<ref>{{cite web |author=Welcome to The Hollies |url=http://thehollies.ie |title=The Hollies |publisher=thehollies.ie |date=2010-08-03 |access-date=2010-12-04}}</ref>

In 2000-01, a modern, four bedroom cob house in [[Worcestershire]], [[England]], [[UK]], designed by [[Associated Architects]], was sold for £999,000. Cobtun House was erected in 2001 and won the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]]' Sustainable Building of the Year award in 2005. The total construction cost was £300,000, but the metre (yard) thick outer cob wall cost only £20,000.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}

In the Pacific Northwest of the [[United States]] there has been a resurgence of cob construction, both as an alternative building practice and one desired for its form, function, and cost effectiveness. Pat Hennebery, Tracy Calvert, Elke Cole, and the Cobworks workshops erected more than ten cob houses in the Southern [[Gulf Islands]] of [[British Columbia]], [[Canada]].{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}

In 2010, Sota Construction Services in [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States]], completed construction on its new 7,500 square foot corporate headquarters,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sotaconstruction.com/project_details.asp?id=42 |title=Sota Construction Services, Inc. - Sota Construction Corporate Offices |access-date=2013-11-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017204416/http://www.sotaconstruction.com/project_details.asp?id=42 |archive-date=2013-10-17 }}</ref> which featured exterior cob walls along with other energy saving features like [[radiant heat]] flooring, a rooftop [[solar panel]] array, and [[Daylighting (architecture)|daylighting]]. The cob walls, in conjunction with the other sustainable features, enabled the edifice to earn a [[Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design|LEED]] Platinum rating in 2012, and it also received one of the highest scores by percentage of total points earned in any LEED category.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.usgbc.org/projects/sota-construction-office-expansion|title = Sota Construction Office Expansion &#124; U.S. Green Building Council}}</ref>

In 2007, Ann and Gord Baird began constructing a two-storey cob house in [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]], [[British Columbia]], [[Canada]], for an estimated $210,000 CDN.  The home of 2,150 square feet includes heated floors, solar panels, and a southern exposure to enable [[passive solar heating]].<ref name="Indy2">{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/a-dream-home-made-of-mud/article1079750/|title=A Dream Home Made of Mud|last=Barton|first=Adriana|date=3 August 2007|newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]]|access-date=2008-09-26}}</ref>

Welsh architect [[Ianto Evans]] and researcher Linda Smiley refined the construction technique known as "Oregon Cob" in the 1980s and 1990s. Oregon Cob integrates the variation of wall layup technique which uses loaves of mud mixed with sand and straw with a rounded architectural stylism.<ref>[http://www.networkearth.org/naturalbuilding/history.html The History of Cob]</ref><ref>[http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/17/kemery.html Building with Oregon Cob]</ref> They are experimenting with a mixture of cob and straw bale denominated "[[balecob]]".