We are Growing, a company right at the beginning of its journey, whose aim is to build cob homes that nurture the human spirit.



Our objective is to build homes that serve a practical purpose in terms of efficient running and maintenance, and planning for the future. But we also want to create places of beauty that take into account the changing climate and state of oil resources, using natural materials that look, smell and feel as pleasing as the process of building them.

We want our homes to grow out of their surroundings and to fit snugly and attractively, where possible building with materials that we have close at hand. This means acknowledging the importance of gardens and open space, where people can connect with nature and potentially grow their own food. We hope to bring this element of nature into cities.

So it seems fitting for our flagship project to take place in the Adair family garden, Stoke Newington. This cob studio is helping us to build knowledge and experience whilst also producing a sample of the sort of work that we plan to carry out in the future. Through this project we are also redefining the concept of the building site. By minimising the use of machinery, we are testing out the feasibility of creating quieter, more pleasant construction sites, which allow us to observe the natural world around.

We hope eventually to build groups of homes, using cob and other natural materials in this way and are particularly interested in community building projects, with schools and housing estates. We also plan to integrate the running of training courses into our building projects. Under certain circumstances, we may work on private commissions.

A turf roof, London cob house. Autumn 2007