Just like Moominhouse! Niila turned a feed silo into a tower with hidden compartments, zipline, and aerial yoga

An old feed silo had stood unused for years in Niila Tamminen’s yard. Niila had spent three years renovating his old log house to make it livable. As that project neared completion, he started thinking about what to do next.

“I had to come up with something crazy again—like we didn’t already have enough going on with this house.”

Niila decided to make the feed silo inhabitable. With his background in fine arts, he created a 3D model of the structure, but he didn’t want the plan to be too detailed.

“I always leave room for the universe and chance to interfere with my plans.”

Niila posted a photo of the tower on Facebook and received plenty of praise. Some people even asked how they could visit.

Originally, the old feed silo lacked essential amenities for living, such as water lines, electricity, drainage, and heating. The biggest challenges for Niila, however, were building multiple floors in the round tower and installing new exterior cladding.

“A round house is a massive undertaking. Everything is ten times more complicated than in a square house.”

Vertical siding posed its own challenges, because the horizontal support beams had to be bent into place for the curved walls. The cone-shaped roof also presented its share of difficulties.

“It’s really tricky to install a roof at 12 m (39 ft) up.”

Niila didn’t choose the easiest solutions for the house in other areas either. He wanted to highlight the tower’s shape inside, so he built a spiral staircase between the floors.

“There are hooks in the ceiling that can be used for aerial yoga or even a hammock.”

The tower now has three floors, plus an attic and a cellar. The ground floor has a shower, toilet, and kitchen. The two upper floors are still empty because the tower’s role isn’t set in stone. While building, Niila prepared for all sorts of possibilities.

From the top floor, Niila dreams of constructing a rope slide to the sea. The framework has been designed to be strong enough, and the tower already has mounting points for it.

“We have the shoreline right there, and I thought it would be fun to build a zipline going into the sea.”

Niila considered that the tower could someday host escape room games. Because of this, the outlets are hidden in secret compartments, and the power for each floor can be switched on and off individually. There are also extra switches that let you cut power to a room from outside.

“Someone else probably would have made the bathroom walls or the stairs between floors straight, but I insisted on matching them to the rest of the house,” Niila says.

The finished tower doesn’t yet have a definitive use. Many have suggested renting it out as an Airbnb, but since the tower is on his home property, Niila doesn’t want just anyone showing up. Instead, he’s considered hosting silent retreats or digital detox events.

When planning the tower’s electrical system, Niila kept in mind the possibility of hosting escape room games.

“On top of everything, the tower is full of hidden compartments, just like the main house.”

Niila posted a photo of the tower on Facebook and got plenty of comments asking when people could come stay the night. Right now, the tower awaits its finishing touches before it’s ready for guests.

The interior is still a bit unfinished. On the ground floor, for example, there is a fireplace.

Niila says the tower’s similarity to Moominhouse was unintentional. He chose blue paint because his main house is also blue, and he wanted them to match: “I also use plastic-free linseed oil paints, which come in a limited color range.”