stadin uuni

The “Stadin uuni” aka Archie was built in a communal effort during a workshop that I organized together with Salla Kuuluvainen from the dodo City gardeners, facilitated and hosted by Tanja Korvenmaa from the HUB Helsinki. We found themselves on social networking platforms on the internet (Public School Helsinki in this case), after I had been struggling alone with authorities and professionals who did not believe in the dream of building an urban oven without huge financial resources. Quickly, we set up the workshop (to catch the last sunrays of summer), which took place during the first week of August of 2010. Both Salla and Tanja had some cob oven experience from workshops in England and Germany, and had also been dreaming about building such an oven in Finland.

An international group of about +- 15 enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds (Sarah Alden, environmental artist from Canada, Gaye Amus, kindergarten teacher from Turkey, Berndt, our beloved taxi driver, DJ, and coffee provider from Norway, Elissa Erikson, textile designer from Finland, Anna Haukka, environmentalist from Finland, Tanja Korvenmaa, secretary at the HUB from Finland, Salla Kuuluvainen, food activist from Finland, Valtteri Maja, whose axe has been indispensible, Matti, our indispensible mysterious second taxi driver, Daniel Milligan, biologist from Scotland/Egypt/Finland, my dear sister Rebekka Moebus, fashion designer from Germany/Finland, Joel Rosenberg, photographer and artist from Finland, Felix Rost, food technician from Germany, Vappu Kuuluvainen, providing us with drum music while “puddling” and building, and Hilla, Outi, Samuli, Päivikki, Anna, and all those who popped by to lay some bricks and help out for a while) experienced these incredible workshop days full of fun, work, discussions, surprises, and positive spirit together, and only with the help of a free pdf-manual from a blog (clayoven.wordpress.com) and many group discussions, we managed to build a working cob oven.

In the same spirit, the oven is supposed to be open to the public. People who want to organize events or simply bake some bread, pizza, or cake with friends can make a reservation via this blog (stadinuuni.blogspot.com). Just send an email with a description of your event to us, and we will publish it on the calendar.

saviuunihelsinkiin@gmail.com

Enjoy!

P.S.: Check out the pictures on this public gallery!

P.P.S: A big thank you to Johanna Hyrkäs (Part), Hilla Rudanko (Public School), the city of Helsinki, and especially my tutor Cathérine Kuebel, for all the support, faith, enthusiasm (and permissions). And, of course, to every helping hand!!!