Eugene!?! Too funny that is 'home' for me but I am allergic to all grasses, evergreens, and more, so relocated to the "Texas Tropics" near Brownsville at the southern most tip of Texas.
What is your 'regular' occupation? Eugene is a tough place to make a living. We have been hoping to get some winter workshops/projects happening, since it is infinitely nicer here in January than during the summer, which the last couple of years has been most of the year with our temps being 10-20 deg above normal.
I understand the importance of solid footings. It was more common to dig into the ground in the mid west where humidity and rain weren't an issue like here. It has been very interesting to learn and account for the differences in climate, soil, and vermin that this area has. I've lived all over the US including New Mexico so am quite familiar with adobe. This building is definitely experimental and an attempt to push the boundaries as much as possible, I'm not attached to it lasting for decades, more just to see what can be done. I'm expecting it to go up fairly quickly thanks to the bottles. I did a little 3' high 'cord' and cob walls that were never enclosed at the top and lasted over 3 years including Hurricane Dolly!?! I didn't even use real 'wood' but rather yucca trunks, which are semi hollow, I was quite surprised, at how well it lasted, no footings or anything, it was all experiment, just testing the cob mix and materials at hand