Natural Building - ADOBE

Adobe is an ancient earth building technique using clay subsoil, water and some kind of fiber like prairie grass or dung...today, we use straw. The mixture is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. Adobe bricks are then mortared together with mud (clay subsoil and water) in a running bond pattern, just as any brick building technique.

Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest buildings on the planet. In hot climates, adobe (and cob) buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass.
The advantage of adobe is that the adobe bricks can be made and stored for later and the actual wall building can go up much faster. Cob is more sculptural, and is used for the refining touches to walls and niche openings.