Michael G. Smith

Michael G. Smith teaches practical workshops and consults on cob construction, natural building, and permaculture. He is the author of The Cobber's Companion: How to Build Your Own Earthen Home, co-editor of The Art of Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources and co-author of The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage and Essential Cob Construction: A Guide to Design, Engineering and Building. In 1993, he co-founded the Cob Cottage Company with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, reviving the ancient tradition of cob building. Starting in 1994, he organized several Natural Building Colloquia, gatherings of builders and innovators that helped coalesce the natural building movement. He is also a founding board member of the Cob Research Institute, where he helped write the first model building code for cob.

Over more than 30 years, Smith has led or been involved in over 100 natural building projects in North America and internationally. He has taught hundreds of hands-on workshops on cob, straw bale, light straw-clay and allied natural infill techniques, wattle-and-daub, natural plasters, earthen floors, and many other natural building systems. His teaching and consulting work emphasizes energy efficiency, empowerment of people through simple, accessible techniques, and the regenerative use of locally available materials.