Adobe on Clear Lake? by Elizabeth Montgomery

One wouldn’t expect to find adobe structures going up along the shores of Clear Lake just now. The area has been hard hit economically and even most conventional construction has come to a halt. However, an innovative building project using natural, local materials is in full swing as part of developing tiny Clarks Island in Clearlake Oaks. The current construction, dubbed “entrance art,” consists of a sign, a kiosk, and a roofed sitting area, all on shore. Plans are in the works for a 30-foot diameter pagoda—an open, gazebo-like building—on the one-acre island itself.

Local teenagers and grade-schoolers were among the volunteer construction workers at this past Saturday’s “adobe-making party.” They and their elders could be seen mashing straw into mud with their bare feet and forming large bricks out of the resulting mixture. Along with the useful work and educational opportunities of the event, creative and playful uses for the wet clay soil were inevitably discovered. Young mud-pie chefs pretended to peddle their confections and teen girls painted each others’ faces.

The foreman of this lively crew wasn’t hard to pick out, but wasn’t what one might expect either: a petite, mud-spattered woman named Massey Burke. She directed the proceedings with an infectious enthusiasm, while answering any questions on natural building with the polish of the instructor she is. A San Francisco Bay Area resident, she teaches classes through the Solar Living Institute in Hopland.

“I don’t think people realize how cutting edge [the Clarks Island project] is,” said Burke. She was speaking not just of the unconventional building materials and methods, but of the grassroots inception of the project and the community’s continuing involvement in it. Also, it is hoped that precedents for obtaining government building permits will be set not just locally, but nationally.

According to Holly Harris, a community leader, it was Lake County Supervisor Denise Rushing who initially planted the seed for the Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative. This is a larger effort toward wise resource use and environmental preservation that includes the building project. Her vision was embraced and expanded by the community and now is supported by a remarkable array of government agencies, local businesses, groups, and individuals. A quarter of the capital used for construction by the county’s Redevelopment Agency, which owns the land, was raised by the people and businesses of the Clear Lake Oaks area. They are also donating most of the labor and materials.

Burke says that in addition to being durable and beautiful, earth-based materials such as adobe have a number of particular advantages. First, they don’t deplete scare resources, such as wood, and are readily available locally. (Copper Cross Vineyard, just down the highway from Clarks Island, donated clay for its structures.) Further, adobe and straw-bale walls work well in buildings with “passive solar design,” architecture which allows direct heating by the sun. Adobe has a high thermal mass, only changing temperature slowly. It is often employed in conjunction with straw bale walls, which are especially insulating. Moreover, such materials have only 1% of the “embodied energy” of brick or cement, meaning that they deplete energy resources far less in their making, as well as being less expensive.

When asked about health issues and indoor air quality Burke said, “This is where I’m going to sound like a prophet for clay.” Clay minerals balance humidity and actually absorb toxins from the air. Burke said clay is “better for indoor air quality than almost any other material.”

A disadvantage of adobe can be high labor costs. However, if a community comes together to build, as at Clarks Island, it can be inexpensive. Burke said that community housing might eventually be constructed using the principles pioneered in the current project.

The kids who came to Clarks Island last weekend were participating in updated but ancient building techniques. Burke says that people usually have to go abroad to develop expertise in these lost arts. “You can’t go get a degree in natural building from any higher institution that I know of in this country,” she said. Things are changing, however, and the University of San Francisco’s Department of Architecture is hoping to bring students to Clarks Island soon for some exposure to methods not covered in its standard curriculum.

Burke advises do-it-yourselfers who want to experiment with small adobe projects to start with a garden wall or pizza oven. Larger projects include insulating or even replacing walls.

For more information visit KonoctiTrails.com/clarks-island or verticalclay.com.

First printed in Lake County Record Bee (Oct. 20, 2010)