Cob Pizza Oven Workshop

10–14 September · Ericeira, Portugal

5 days of hands-on natural building, earth, community and pizza — in a beautiful rustic setting near Praia de São Julião.

What does it actually take to create something from nothing?

In this 5-day hands-on workshop, we’ll build a functional cob pizza oven from scratch, taking the project through the different stages of turning an idea into a finished, usable structure.

🌿 What we’ll explore

Throughout the workshop, you’ll get practical experience with:

• Understanding what makes a good clay soil for cob building
• Testing and preparing natural building materials
• Learning how to mix cob and understand its proportions
• Working with clay, sand, straw and water
• Learning about insulation, heat flow and thermal mass
• Building and shaping the oven with your hands
• Making decisions about the design as the building progresses
• Understanding the logic behind each construction step
• sculpting with cob
• Learning how natural building principles can be applied to other cob structures and projects

You’ll experience the satisfying progression from raw materials → mixing → building → shaping → finishing → fire → pizza.

👐 Learn by doing

There is no substitute for getting your hands in the material.

Rather than sitting through a theoretical course, we’ll learn through the actual building process. You’ll be encouraged to participate in every stage, ask questions, experiment, make decisions and understand why we do things the way we do.

Building with natural materials is inherently responsive. The soil varies, the material behaves differently from one place to another, and the design sometimes needs to adapt as you go. Learning to work with these realities is one of the most valuable skills you can take home.

No previous building experience is needed.

🌎 More than an oven

A big part of the workshop is the community experience.

We’ll share meals, work together, stech, solve problems together and exchange practical knowledge. There is something special about learning real-life skills alongside other people — not just talking about sustainability, but actually spending five days making something tangible with your own hands.

You’ll leave not only knowing more about cob ovens, but with a better understanding of how to approach a natural building project from idea to finished structure.

🌊 The setting

The workshop takes place in a beautiful, rustic natural setting just a short distance from Praia de São Julião, one of the spectacular beaches near Ericeira.

After a day of building, you can head to the ocean, swim, surf, walk along the coast or simply relax in the landscape.

🍕 And we’ll make pizza!

By the end of the workshop, the oven will be ready to meet its true purpose.

There’s something particularly satisfying about building the oven yourself and then sitting around it with the people you built it with.

📅 Practical information

Dates: 10–14 September 2026
Location: Ericeira, Portugal
Duration: 5 days
Level: Beginner-friendly — no previous experience required
Group: Small and hands-on

€250 Early Bird
Register before 15th August

€300 Regular Price
From 15th August

Included

⛺ Camping
🍴 Food during the workshop
🧱 Building materials
👐 5 days of hands-on instruction and collaborative building

Spaces are limited.

contact via email: lea.zdarsky@gmail.com

ot whatsapp/telegram: +4915752448742