Taz Loomans – Urban Pioneer Builds A Tiny Cob House And Shows How To Live Sustainably In Modern Times

Photo: Debbie West

*Join us for a tour of this amazing, one-of-a-kind cob structure on January 10, 2015 at 11am. See the end of the article for more information.*

Artist Dan Reed Miller built a tiny house before tiny houses were all the rage. Inspired by Thoreau, Dan wanted to see if he could live simply in the city without the clutter and extra things that come with modern living but just aren’t necessary. In 2006, he got a chance to experiment with the idea. His friend Debbieanne had just bought a house in the quiet north Portland neighborhood of Kenton and she wanted to build something like a yurt in the back yard. A light bulb went on in Dan’s head and he asked “what if I build a cob house?” Build it he did, with his own two hands and with the help of many people. And after eight years of living in it, he fulfilled his dream of carrying out a Thoreau-inspired experiment in simple living.

“I was just enamored of cob. It’s earthen, it’s literally made of the earth,” says Dan ecstatically. In 2006 he had taken a workshop on cob building at the Cob Cottage Company in Coquille, Oregon with the legendary ecologist, landscape architect and natural builder Ianto Evans and others including Kirk “Donkey” Mobert and Ernie Wisner. In the intense hands-on week long workshop with the man who reintroduced cob to the modern world, he learned the technical dos and don’ts of how to build a cob structure. Cob is a lot like adobe but with one major difference. Both are made of clay, sand, straw and water.