Don’t worry; your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. In this month’s department, you won’t find any home specifications or comments by our Green Home Experts Board. And, yes, it’s on purpose. For our special Green Home issue, we wanted to give you a special Green Home Showcase! This month, you’ll find the story of do-it-yourself green builders who are building a not-your-average playhouse. Maybe you won’t choose to build a big cob structure in your own backyard after reading, but we hope the Oakhurst Community Garden’s story below will inspire you to at least get your hands a little dirty during your next green building project.

Do you remember the bliss of making mud pies as a child? Do you remember being called in for dinner while your fingers were still caked in soggy earth? I sure do. But, these days, it seems kids are too busy being shipped from one activity to the next to enjoy the simple pleasure of playing in the mud.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise for me to learn about the Oakhurst Community Garden’s Earthen Playhouse Project. Tucked in a quaint Atlanta neighborhood, the Oakhurst Community Garden (OCG) encourages area adults and children to do more than just a little mud dabbling. More than 500 volunteers recently began construction on a cob-style playhouse that will serve the children in the Oakhurst community. Cob structures are comprised of sand, straw, clay and water.

The project was the brainchild of their youth programs coordinator, Kyla Zaro-Moore. Members of the community garden, which provides children’s programming for more than 600 children each year, knew they wanted to build a playhouse for the kids. Kyla knew a bit about earthen and cob structures from her time spent living at an intentional community in Wales and then later at another intentional community in Oregon, so they decided to go for it and build it themselves.

“Here at the garden, we teach environmental awareness to children and young people through hands-on gardening and outdoor education programs. We teach them to be the next generation of environmental stewards by engaging them in projects that address real needs,” explains Kyla. “I just thought this was a great opportunity to build an earthen structure for our kids.”

The Garden’s board agreed, and they hired a project coordinator, Aviva, to get everything off the ground. According to Aviva, it’s not just the use of Earth-friendly materials for the structure that makes it an important project, but also the building process itself that adds to its beauty. “We’ve had more than 500 people (adults and children) help us with the construction of the playhouse. I call it low technology, high labor,” she says. “For me, building the playhouse was like a metaphor for relationships and communication. For the kids, here’s a project where kids were encouraged to get involved and actually take ownership of what they were doing. They learned teamwork and social skills. You could see self-esteem just grow in some of these kids. For others, it taught youth leadership development skills, and these are all things that this community is dedicated to.”

The playhouse is 44 feet in circumference, about seven feet in diameter, and stands about six feet high. “Almost all of the building materials were scavenged and salvaged from the area: river stones for the foundation were gathered by staff and volunteers, red clay was dug from the area, and sand and straw were donated,” Aviva shares. She beams when she talks about the process. “We found old tires that we used to create round windows!” Her favorite decorative feature is the use of old glass bottles to create a fun design and dancing light on the side of the structure. “We even found one old red bottle—that was our favorite little treasure.”

Christina Ott, who teaches earthen building throughout the Southeast with Barefoot Builders and helped the Oakhurst group with their project, explained the process for the playhouse. “We dug a trench and laid the harvested river rock for the foundation. Meanwhile, we mixed the cob with sand, straw, clay and water, and shaped the mixture into cobs (round balls). Essentially in cob structures, you layer the cob balls to build the walls and then pack in anything else that’s going into the walls, such as the tires for the window in this case.” She continues, “After the walls have dried, a plaster is applied. When all of that is done, the structure is sealed inside and out with a combination of linseed oil and beeswax.” Christina adds that most cob houses have earthen floors, “but because this playhouse has an open roof, they went with an earth and pea gravel floor that’s tamped down to keep it firm and level.”

The end result for the Oakhurst Community Garden Playhouse is a sturdy, whimsical structure that will surely provide a fun haven for children for many, many years to come. Sunup to sundown, the OCG is open to all, free of charge.

Online Resources for Cob and Earthen Building
www.cobworks.com
www.housealive.org
www.greenhomebuilding.com/cob.htm

A ribbon cutting for the Playhouse will take place in conjunction with Earth Day activities this month: April 13th at 4pm. To learn more about the Oakhurst Community Garden Playhouse, call 404-371-1920 or visit www.oakhurstgarden.org or www.myspace.com/mudbuildersofatlanta.com.
Michelle Keenan is a freelance writer, traveler and photographer for hire living in Asheville, NC. She can be reached at michellekeenan@yahoo.com.

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