ders Collective

In order to commemorate April’s Earth Day, I set about looking for beautiful objects that celebrated the bounty of Mother Earth. I found lots of incredible objects created using green materials, bits and bobs featuring globes, trees and natural subject matter galore; but in the end, I was completely enamored with something that appealed to my Inner Earth Child - basically, a hobbit house. After soaking up pictures of organic nooks and crannies, winding, twisting wood and stone, I signed deeply and then went off to find the facts about this fairy tale environment. I contacted, via their website, The Artisan Builders Collective, an eclectic group of skilled builders and landscape designers, based in Asheville, North Carolina. While certainly, in the recesses of my mind, I have always noted the existence of adobe buildings and English cottages, I hadn’t really equated the materials behind those buildings with anything modern or approachable. It was really refreshing to find this current day troupe not only molding mud with true panache, but also teaching others how to do it as well.

Cob

My first few questions to the collective were what I imagined to be “typical” real estate questions - as a buyer, what could I expect if I simply commissioned a home (as opposed to wanting participation in a larger experience)? What went into these kinds of projects? What were costs like and what would be the final results before it was handed over to me? Of course, the answers depended on a

story & interview by Cindy Marks