Cob & shakes...

This place kind of stunned me.

http://naturalhomes.org/goatlings.htm

It made me realise I'd really have to raise the bar if I wanted to make something amasing out of cob & shingles...

The bulgy walls don't really do it for me, and I although I love shingle roofs and the shakes are very neat, to me they look too straight, like they're cut out of sheets of plywood rather than split out of cedar. I also don't like that they're aligned to go to the bottom edge of the roof, ignoring the fact that it waves up and down. I think this would be a problem, because it means when you're going up a slope you've got shakes side by side up instead of overlapping to shed the rain.

I love the up-and-down-ness of the roof, but I think that the lines of the shingles should follow around the contours almost horizontally, not try and stay parallel with the edge of the roof.

I much prefer Sun Ray's for character: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Q2MuDl8oyaFrYzDC21_DeZhyphenhyphenCs1vUOpZenB3IAmeoEIAZSC68pHWRUEyy_59bTWscujLi_LYcRv0VAWXcvCiSvU6Oqvh0R9vA0v7oJ0xQyvsgkrBu1ZHMZRwgYZiLAQpmAsmkPcMNX0/s1600/P1060301.RW2

They don't have to be quite so wild (these ones are old and weathered) but at least they lie in a natural direction

http://streetsofsalem.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/witchs-house-wolffystle-pan.jpg