come visit! (building retreats)
Scroll down for invitations to a Sauna Building retreat, and then further down for forest Den Building Retreat. Just reply directly to this email if you are interested in either.
hey hey !
Iv been busy building cabins. Here are some photos of the cabins. (In the first one you see the channel 4 tv show dudes filming for the episode on my build! they keep asking me really technical questions and I keep answering them… seems you learn fast when very deep in the deepest end of the deep end.)
Yes, nice. thank you for looking at those.
Otherwise, I have been doing a lot of planning and plotting… now that I’m self employed I’m planning pretty far ahead… I’m booked up for some rad and remote building projects for most of 2025 already… which is mad.
INVITATIONS!
But first (after finishing this current build) I’m running a community sauna build in the spring time for the Sauna Baths CIC (the folks who run the Hackney Wick Saunas, Stratford Sauna and Peckham sauna).
We will use natural (and historic) building techniques, such as straw bale and cob construction make the Sauna… these are both really engaging, fun and hands on techniques… the build will basically involve making a building size sculpture out of materials mostly found on the ground… we will shape the sauna with our hands will end up with a really organic and unique structure… as far as I know only straw bale/cob sauna in the UK? I know of one in the states…
The build is on a little farm & cooperative just outside London… my friend Maria Sanchez is teaching it and acting as the main architect, she’s a natural building expert and travels around the world doing workshops etc.
If you want to be involved in the central group and be across the design, planning and building of this sauna, just reply to this email and let me know. No specific experience required, after a mixed group. We have our first planning meeting (and weekend camping trip) on the last weekend of August. We will design and do drawings of the structure, build little clay models and then dig down to see what the soil is made up of, and how much we can use. Also we will eat delicious food.
Otherwise the main group build will happen in March, and I will advertise it more then. It will also be advertised at the hackney saunas. We will gather a big and constantly changing group of people that will come whenever they can probably over a month or two.
NEXT
I'd like to invite you to the weekend forest den building retreat in Monmouth, South Wales, on 20th-22nd September.
My friend Hugo Jobst (Inverness based doctor) and I would like for you to join us for the weekend. We will spend it deep in the seemingly endless - 20,000 acre! - Forest of Dean (which borders the farm and is visible in the above photo), building a great big den all together, and sharing big feasts, woodworking, making art, playing music, meeting new people, and just playing around for a couple days in the lush, wild forest. There will be roughly 20 people coming on this retreat, and staying from Friday afternoon to Sunday.
We will each contribute 120 pounds for the retreat (including me) to cover accommodation costs, and food for the weekend. Nobody is making money out of this - just covering costs. (Let me know if this is not possible and can try n figure something out!)
We have a couple spots left on this retreat. Reply here and let me know if you are interested.
All my love, and lots more retreats/events/building workshops to come!
Sebastian
