In a suburb of outer Helsinki called Pirkkola, there are many free standing houses that generally have a tasty little yard with plenty of room for chicken coups, external saunas and so forth. It’s here that Samuli resides with his wife and two kids. As is the case in these kinds of houses, there is generally a downstairs cellar space with multiple rooms (see where I’m going with this?) and Samuli has managed to transform what was once his cold car shed into a very cosy space that he has injected with his own flavor. Former bus driver to the rock stars but now a budding watchmaker, Samuli was initially using the car shed for his passion of doing up cars and he had a number of projects going over the years. He was cleaning up the space one day and decided to paint the back walls white and it was here that he had a eureka moment. “Of course this would make a fantastic Mancave” he thought to himself. From this point on, with his “Batcave” on the go, the car projects withered away (for the time being at least….). He started collecting the equipment needed to transform his vision into reality but not without some bumps along the way. There was a tense moment at one point when he realized that the hot water pipe that was running directly under the T.V. (exposed pipes are quite common in the cellars) might cause a heating problem for his beloved newly acquired 60” TV. Samuli and his extensive knowledge of car maintenance overcame this potentially problematic problem with the idea of wrapping heat absorbing tape that he used for car exhausts around the water pipe. Boom!!
Samuli greeted me at the front door and the moment I stepped in to the house I noticed his two boys doing 360 burnouts with their bare feet in the loungeroom, clearly they were having a great time and I noticed a palpable energy of fun in the house which was great for them but draining for adults. Before long, Samuli led me downstairs to his haven. “ The Batcave “ was painted on the door, yeah baby!! The Batcave has a lusciously warm lighting, not too bright and not too dim which suited me as bright lights stress me the hell out. Genial host that he is, Samuli offered me the main seat to park my ass. I melted into it, reclined and launched the leg rest, not before being offered an ice cold Sandels beer. We proceeded to watch Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise and I was still reeling from watching HBO’s Going Clear a couple of days prior which is a scientology doc featuring Tom as a class A nutcase. This is a shame because he’s a top notch actor in a great many things including this stormer of a movie. At the end of the flick Samuli was happy to answer some questions I had.
What is the definition of mancave to you?
”A place to hide”
Ok moving on..
“Also it doesn’t matter if you have a TV or movie theater or a bar with darts but for me I wanted to have this kind of thing. It was initially my “Race Cave” where I could race cars with my friends online , I used to go to my friends place to race cars in the games and the whole reason this came about was that I wanted to race my friends online but from here. As it turned out I started watching more movies and so it became more of a movie theatre.
So what is the ratio between racing games and watching movies?
50/60 and not necessarily fixed in favour of one or the other. It depends from week to week. (it should be noted that 50/60 is the Finnish way of saying 50/50). Now since I got GTA V I have been playing that a lot but before that I was watching a lot of T.V. series.
Feel the warm glow
But it doesn’t overpower the TV
So how often do you come down here?
Again it depends, sometimes it has been over a week that I don’t come here but now that I got this good game (GTA V), I have been coming every night. My friends are always going to me “ You have this great place and you don’t use it every night?!” but of course when I first set it up, I was here all the time but then the novelty wears off and then it’s just part of your life.
Why do you think Mancaves are so important to men?
I think it has something to do with the last corner of manhood. I think what happens, and not so much in this home is that when you move in with your significant other, they mainly think about what the place is going to look like, they buy the stuff and basically design the man out of the house so that’s why it’s nice to have your own place where you can have it how you like and no-one can say anything. If its shitty for weeks then that’s your problem.
Uhoh, the fridge is getting low on cans
But first Franklin needs to get the schematics for the robbery
In realistic terms, how would you change or improve your space?
I would like to improve the acoustics, the roof is quite low and the sound isn’t as good as it could be. I would also like to have bass traps to process the bass frequencies better. One in every corner would be great but this room is very small so it’s only possible for one. Maybe also a PS4 console but that will come in time..
So what is your dream Mancave where money, physics, nothing is limited?
I would like to have an aircraft hangar and have everything in there. I could have a car workshop again and bigger and better kit.
Anywhere in the world in particular?
If I would win the lottery I would buy the Gas station across the road and set up over there, maybe keep the workshop side but get rid of the bar side (A karaoke bar no less that the old pissed up locals go to practice their cat dying in agony sounds that pass for singing) and I would just make it more of a space to have my friends.
Specs List
- LG 60” HDTV
- Genelec 6010 studio monitors x5
- Genelec 5040 sub woofer
- Harmon Kardon amplifier
- Xbox 360 console
- PS3 console
- Fanatec driving console (compatible with both consoles)
- Mazda mx5 leather car seats x 2
- Lazy boy reclinable armchair with extendable leg rest (I can confirm its very comfortable)
- Old school fridge made in Pori
Manisphere 