These architects' primary concern was its availability for restoration and conservation but soon after its reintroduction several far-sighted engineers began to realise application for new builds. The Center is a source of earth building technical information for architects, builders and planners. The word cob comes from an old English root meaning a lump or rounded mass. Cob building uses hands and feet to form lumps of earth mixed with sand and straw, a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to sculpting with clay. Cob is easy to learn and inexpensive to build.
Earth homes are cool in summer, warm in winter.
Cob's resistance to rain and cold makes it ideally suited to cold climates like the Pacific Northwest, and to desert conditions. At the University of Abertay, Dundee. Though methods of treating dry rot are well established these often rely on the removal of large amounts of timber, which may or may not be infected by the causative organism Serpula lacrymans , together with the use of fungitoxic chemicals.