katehodges April 3, 2025 4 minutes read

Our Children are Growing up with Nature as their Living Room

This family live in their self-built home in the middle of a community they've set up in the Black Forest. Here they talk about the benefits of communal living

Tags: natural home, wellbeing, lifestyle

family cabin living natur — Nature helps to regulate our nervous systems, which can quickly become frazzled as a family of four with two little wildlings

Manuk (34) lives with Marcel (34), Vayu (4) and Tara (2) in a tiny house in the Black Forest in Germany

When our youngest was born, we decided to build a tiny home to live in. Neither of us had built a house before. Marcel tore down an old wagon, completely primed the frame and built a 2.6m home on top. We had the old round roof lifted off with a tractor and reused it on the new house.

The walls are made of chestnut, and so are the shingles that Marcel made himself. "Shingling" is a traditional craft here in the German Black Forest.

Open Hearted Living

I originally come from the Polish border in eastern Germany and Marcel from the northern lowlands. But the Black Forest with its lush meadows, deep forests, narrow valleys and magical nature simply appealed to us. There are also many like-minded people around Freiburg who go through life with an open heart and a smile on their face.

We have visited many communities in Germany and on our travels and decided to found one ourselves. Four years ago, the time had come and we moved to a small farm with a wild stream, five hectares of land, woods and meadows. Sweat lodges and tipi ceremonies had been held here for 20 years. The place was literally jubilant when we arrived and lit the fire for the first sweat lodge. As a community, we invite everyone to nature rituals, breathwork seminars, singing circles, shamanic retreats, original crafts, men's and women's circles.

Thirteen people live in the large farmhouse and many also live in their mobile structures, such as tiny homes or vans. So do we as a family. From April to October we are completely in our tiny home and in the cold season we use it as a room for working, doing yoga, meditating and sleeping.