Sustainably sourced greenhouse rises in Warwick

To the casual observer, resident Jamie Manza’s developing structure resembles a Native American teepee more than anything else, but only for the time being.

“It won’t look like a teepee when I’m done,” he said.

According to Manza, what it will look like is a winter greenhouse turned springtime farm stand with the arrival of warmer weather.

“My father and I will be growing some vegetables in this field,” he said, gesturing to the area behind him, “and we need a place to sell them.”

Rising by the side of Route 94, Manza, 40, began framing his sustainably sourced building after he put his dog to sleep at the beginning of August.

“I had all this time that I usually dedicate to taking my dog on hikes and the daily loop around the farm,” he said. “I needed something to do.”

Cob: 'Irregularly shaped lump'

That something turned into practicing the imperfect art of sustainable construction, specifically cob building.

“Cob building is a heritage construction technique that uses sand, clay and straw,” Manza said. “(Cob) is an old British term that means an irregularly shaped lump.”

The straw aspect of the cob creates a flexible reinforcement within the material that allows it to withstand strong winds and even earthquakes, according to Manza.

“It’s really reinforced masonry, being that it’s mostly sand,” he said.

Uniquely, in the age of homogenized building, all of the project’s materials, including the framework wood and the clay for the cob mixture, have been foraged from the property.

“I like the imperfection of this craft,” Manza said. “It’s almost impossible to be perfect, but this perfection in our society that we expect from our conventional construction makes it very difficult for anybody to do it themselves.”

An apprenticeship at Ashevillage Institute

A carpenter and farm-to-table restaurant worker some days, Manza said he tries to keep himself underemployed so he has time to work on personal projects, such as the greenhouse.

He learned the construction technique during a five-month apprenticeship at Ashevillage Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2013, he said, and has been a cob builder for five-six years now.

There is something of a green awakening going on in the general consciousness, according to Manza, and it’s leading people to seek out more ecologically-friendly ways of doing things.

“People are starting to realize the health hazards of toxic materials,” he said. “These materials come from China, they come from India – from far off places – when we could have a vernacularly sourced building system that would encourage us to appreciate our materials.”

Conventional building methods expose workers to health hazards in ways that natural building techniques do not, Manza said.

“Nobody wants to install pink fiberglass insulation,” he said. “You breathe that crap in.”

Embracing the simplicity of 'Wow'

Working a varied schedule, and primarily on his own, Manza said his goal is to have the project completed by Thanksgiving.

“I think there’s a renaissance of appreciation for handmade things,” he said. “The more machine-made things you see, the more you see the masonry of a church, or Machu Picchu, and say ‘Wow!’”