Cordwood Construction

Cordwood construction (also known as cordwood masonry or stackwell building) is a traditional building technique that is ideal for using reclaimed materials and for getting creative in design. I have now built – with the help of friends and family – five cordwood building on our land. Each of them is charming in its own way; they are buildings with real personality and charm – humour, even!

Here is the beginning of a cordwood wall, made with reclaimed cedar fence rails. Because of the easy availability of abandoned cedar fence rails in our area (and because they’ve been drying for decades), I use them as the primary source of wood. The cordwood pieces are joined by mortar, and between the interior and exterior mortar layers, there is a layer of insulation made up of sawdust and lime.

Smokehouse (2008)

This is a relatively simple cordwood building which now serves as the smokehouse at Wintergreen Studios. Several people are working on it at once, some stacking cordwood, some pointing mortar, others mixing new batches of mortar and insulation. I first learned about cordwood building at a workshop hosted by Rob and Jaki Roy, at the Earthwood Building School in West Chazy, New York.

Cordwood Cabin (2010)

This cordwood building is nearly complete, and the roof assembly is well underway. All of our cordwood buildings feature living roofs, with “volunteer” plants from the meadows and forests surrounding them.

Sauna (2009)

One of the joys of working in cordwood is that the techniques are accessible – children are particularly good at cordwood construction because they’re well experienced in shaping globs of mud! And many times they offer fine ideas for adding “treasures” to the buildings, such as broken bits of mirror or marbles or abandoned pocket watches.

Sauna (2009)

Pictured here is the back side of the sauna, which was built with cordwood along the bottom and cedar walls the rest of the way up. Cordwood can easily be combined with other forms of building. It can be used as infill for post-and-beam, and, because it is load-bearing, entire buildings can be formed with cordwood alone.

The next series of photographs show the finished results of the buildings featured above.

Cordwood detail (2007)

Hobbit House (2007)

Here we see what has become the most well-loved building on the property, the Hobbit House. It is a five-sided building, with cordwood infill and post-and-beam construction and a living roof.

Hobbit House Interior (2007)

Hobbit House in Summer

The Hobbit House is pictured here in “full bloom” with volunteer plants from the nearby glade and forest. Somehow (birds? the wind?) the Hobbit House boast beautiful 3 foot high coriopsis plants, as well as trailing strawberries across the front door.

Hobbit House in Winter

Just as beguiling in the winter months, the Hobbit House keeps guests warm with the thermal mass of the slate floor and mortar, as well as the considerable insulation provided by the cordwood construction and the living roof.

Root Cellar (2008)

Using a piece of road culvert as the base, this cordwood wall forms the front entrance to the root cellar (looks like the door could use a coat of paint!). Pictured here are a group of students who have come to Wintergreen to learn about sustainable building practices and traditional gardening techniques.

Sauna (2009)

Cordwood Cabin (2010)