Ten years ago I set on a journey to build my own artistic natural building, Elaman Puu, in Finland by hand. I never knew how special this place would turn out to be.
August 22, 2022
Apart from being an illustrator and surface pattern designer, I have embarked on various other art projects during my life; some smaller, some larger, but most of them equally interesting. One of them, however, is my most ambitious creative project and my article will give you a peek into this special accomplishment in my life.
In Summer 2012 I set on an epic journey in a personal sense - to build my own artistic natural building. The aim was for the house to be a homage to nature and creativity, both inside and outside of my imagination. The landscape I chose to build on, was the one I had spent my childhood at in Finland, finding fairies and hidey-holes, playing with twigs and flowers, my friends and my black cat, Maija. Next to my childhood home, by the edge of the forest, over the Summers that followed; I hand sculpted my artistic natural cottage mainly by using hands, and few power tools.
The project grew from a sweet idea in my head into a small community building project; which my parents also took active part in, and volunteers from around Europe came to help out and learn about building with natural materials. During the first Summer, my cottage, named Elaman Puu (Tree of Life) sprouted from the ground like a mushroom, with its earthy hat on. In the process, it taught me so much about life, the importance of creativity, community, self-belief and persistence.
I sincerely think that if every person built their own shelter, this world would be a very different place. After a person lives through the building process, the space is no longer just a building. When its walls are full of memories, when its floors are full of footsteps, when its roof is full of conversation, the space becomes a part of who the builder is. In my case, the landscape already knew me, the trees cut into the walls had already heard my playful cries in the woods, the soil had already felt me growing up on it. On top of that, there is always playfulness involved with building with natural materials - it is inviting an exchange, a dance almost. The organic nature of the materials; the fact that they are organic, living and cannot be fully controlled, makes natural building intuitive - one that makes you follow your heart, and creativity.
Building naturally is about considering the soil, the landscape and the climate, when choosing which natural materials to use; in my case, I used various materials and techniques, including cob, straw-bale and cord/cob-wood. I wanted this experimental and artistic house to be an educational journey into intuitive building, inner knowing, and personal empowerment: to be able to say I can do it, I will do it, rather than finding excuses why it won’t work. I also wanted to embody the biophilic principle in the building - not that I knew that word back then - but it is exactly what I wanted to convey: to promote and embody our inherent connection to nature in the use of light, materials and patterns inside a space.
The foundation for the cottage was made with compacted gravel and earth bags - the rest of it, including the floor and walls, were a mixture of clay, sand and straw - often called as cob but for me it was like magical sticky mud. Stuff children play with and make little figurines out of. Building my cottage was like child’s play: I was making big mud cakes all Summer long.
But it wasn’t child’s play in the physical sense -in fact was incredibly strenuous, back braking hard work. But I loved almost every minute of it, come rain or shine. Because I was free to do what I wanted with it, with nature as my guide.
My build could have easily failed; I had never built anything prior to this - yes, I had used a power drill and a saw, but that was about it. However, what kept me going over the building process was a dream. A real one, and a conceptual one. I had dreamt about the cottage already been built and standing. And I was certainly dedicated to making that into reality. I felt nothing was going to stand in my way and stop this from happening - the universe was going to help me. And it did. From having zero money in the bank to receiving royalties for one of my films one month prior to the build start date. Or the weather gods being merciful, so whenever I was over in Finland building (I live in UK), the weather as if by magic, turned sunny and clear. (Note: It is near impossible to build with cob in rainy weather as the mixture melts into a muddy slop).
Due to its compact size, I didn't need to follow any building regulations for the cottage. There was no one breathing in my neck, saying this is not how it should be built. Rulers and spirit levels were banned from the build. I would let the place look as organic as the forest it came out of. I would tolerate - no, embrace - wonky lines and curved edges.
I came up with an idea of a dragon oven, which I wanted to build into the wall of my cottage - one that would puff smoke when fired. No one told me it couldn't be done, and neither did I. So I started building it just to see what happens. If you can imagine it, perhaps there is a way to do it. Today, the dragon pizza oven is still there and has puffed and baked many delicious pizzas for us over the years.
A natural builder said to me prior to the building work starting (when I asked her advice on how to do it): 'It’s a bit strange to say, but once you start working with the (natural) materials, you will know what to do. It is all inside of you, intuitively, the knowledge.'
Hearing this, the inner child in me leapt with joy - and slight dread. Because I didn't really know what I was doing, and the idea was just to let go and trust the process.... yes, exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
I sculpted the outside of the cottage to look like a tree has taken hold over it, like the whole building is part of nature. I used Angkor Wat temple, overtaken by nature, as my mental image and visual inspiration. I created a beautiful Mother Nature sculpture on the inside walls, with her hair as branches spiralling from the entrance to the other end of the building. I built the doorway to be lower than a standard door, because I wanted the person who enters to bow down and to feel they are entering somewhere a bit less formal and bit more playful. I added a hammock chair, instead of ‘real chairs’ to be able swing in it and to enjoy the different features and roundedness of it all.
Everything inside and outside the cottage is as environmentally friendly as possible, the two main windows are up-cycled sauna windows, some of the miniature windows in the walls is made with jars and wine bottles. Rest is handmade by me, like the ceramic door plaque, the upholstered antique sofa, or the sand blown glass panels.
Because most of the materials used in the build are so simple - sand and clay - they could just be excavated on site. The straw bales came from a farm in the next village. The wood was cut from the land the the cottage is part of, by my father. The only bigger things we brought in, were the green roof liner, the gravel for the foundations and some milled timber.
More than a box with doors and windows; my natural building is a circle, infused with life; memories, people, community and meaning. It has a soul, not just mine, but nature's soul.
In my life as an artist, I am always looking for ways to grow and interpret life creatively. Even though my natural cottage, at least in theory, is now complete, its story will never really end. By being a natural building, built with organic materials, it continues to live its own life. The earthen plasters need replacing, the clay paint needs refreshing, the wooden parts need oiling and staining. Earth lives, expands, shrinks, lifts, breathes. Like patterns in nature, my natural building is filled with them.
This Summer I replaced a crumbling part of earthen plaster at the back wall, fixed a torn EPDM liner on the roof and tidied the whole cottage internally from hundreds of cobwebs woven by spiders during Covid time when I was unable to visit. The Summer before, I fixed the lime plaster on the walls, and added solar electricity points inside, so the cottage now has off-grid power.
By talking to other natural builders when I started the building work, I knew that the work involved with natural building never really ends; but because the materials are so accessible and the work so meaningful, that doesn’t really matter. Like Khalil Gibran says: ‘Work is love made visible’. Or at least should be, if one loves her work! My blog for the build I started in 2012 has had over 155.000 visitors, and featured in various magazines and newspaper articles, so I know my artistic building work was of interest to other dreamers too.
About three Summers ago I finished a composting toilet behind the cottage by the woods. I used light clay straw technique when building it, which means I was intent on using the leftover materials and wood from my cottage build. (Light clay straw is a mixture of straw and clay slurry).
By thinking creatively, I managed to make a solid structure over few Summers, with minimal environmental impact but with maximum creative impact. I called the outhouse ‘Raven House’, because at the time of building, I witnessed two ravens circling the wood above me. I also painted Raven designs into the inner walls with iron oxides, and my daughter Pinja created some of her own birds too.
I am a dreamer by heart, and I want to honour my roots and nature in my work and personal life. I think as creatives, we possess the superpower of conjuring ideas that help to make the world a better and more connected place. I follow these principles in my design and surface pattern work.
If you want to check out my Youtube channel, you can see some of the making of videos whilst I was building my cottage.
I am Heidi, a Finnish born, UK based biophilic surface pattern designer. I combine a decade of design industry experience, an award-winning filmmaker's mindset, and my Roots To Bloom™ method to help heritage brands stand out with hand drawn design.
Your story is the design. Let’s tell it together.
If you are interested in natural building, here are some useful links to get you started:
My original Cobdreams blog (with the whole story)
Sigi Koko's page on natural building: https://buildnaturally.com
Oliver Swann's Natural Homes resource: http://naturalhomes.org
Talking Natural Homes group on Facebook
Books on natural building: The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book
Building with Cob: A Step-by-Step Guide by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce
Building with Straw Bales by Barbara Jones
The Straw Bale House (Real Goods Independent Living Book) by Athena Sventzell Steen
Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series, 8) by Kaki Hunter
Why Luxury Brands Are Moving from AI to Hand-Drawn Illustration
