Story highlights
Turf homes became popular in Iceland in the 9th century.
Vikings brought the grass and mud home design with them from Norway.
CNN
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A land of vast open spaces, steaming blue lagoons, geysers, and powerful volcanoes, Iceland is beautifully raw and remote, but not exactly hospitable to humans.
When the Norse and British settlers emigrated there in the 9th century, the island’s harsh climate and limited resources proved challenging.
The Vikings, however, had brought with them a solution: turf homes, something already popular in Norway.
For the next millennium or so, these grass-roofed dwellings protected Icelanders from blistering winds, rains, and even earthquakes.
While today they are a rare find on the Icelandic fjords, a UNESCO nomination in 2011 highlighted a renaissance in the appreciation of this style of building.
“Turf farms and homes were in every part of Iceland and have been the prevailing building method for generations,” Hannes Lárusson, founder of the Islenski Baerinn (Turf House Museum) in southwestern Iceland, tells CNN.
“In my opinion, they are without a doubt one of the most important contributions of the north to vernacular architecture of the world.”
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Thingvellir National Park -- This
Iceland highlight appeals to both geology buffs and history enthusiasts. It's home to the rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as well as the site where Iceland's first parliament, the Althing, gathered in 930 AD. It's part of Iceland's Golden Circle tourist route along with Gullfoss waterfall and Haukadalur geothermal area. Click on to see more of Iceland's most spectacular places.
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Haukadalur geysers -- The Great Geysir erupts only sporadically but nearby Strokkur geyser shoots steam and boiling water up to 30 meters every 10 minutes or so. The natural phenomenon is a reminder of the geothermal energy that powers this island.
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Gullfoss waterfall -- These spectacular falls lie on the Hvítá river, which is fed by the Langjökull glacier in southwest Iceland. It's a powerful reminder of the force and beauty of nature.
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Gullfoss -- The towering waterfall cascades 32 meters in two stages with whitewater tumbling over basalt rocks amid a lush green backdrop in the summer, or stark white snow in the winter months.
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The Krýsuvík geothermal area -- This stunning region features gurgling mud pools amid the yellow, red and orange clay-like earth. The dancing steam and hot springs are intertwined with many hiking paths allowing you to feel lost in the moon-like atmosphere.
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Blue Lagoon - A major attraction, the Blue Lagoon is located in a lava field in Grindavík in southwest Iceland. It draws visitors from around the world looking to soak in the warm, mineral-rich waters amid a dreamlike atmosphere.
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The Thórsmörk region -- This area offers a spectacular view of the landscape ranging from towering mountains to scores of glacial streams and miles of black sand. This interior region is a favorite among hikers in the summer months.
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Skógafoss -- This is an epic waterfall on the Skóga River in the south of Iceland, dropping 60 meters off cliffs which once formed part of the coastline. It's common to see single or even double rainbows over the falls.
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Reynisdrangar -- These striking basalt sea stacks jut out from a stunning black-sand beach at the foot of the Reynisfjall mountain in southern Iceland.
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Reynisdrangar -- The nearby village of Vik sits on a flat coastal plain and is the southernmost settlement in Iceland.
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Hallgrímskirkja -- This Lutheran church is one of the most prominent landmarks in Reykjavík. Standing 74.5 meters tall, it took 41 years to build and was finished in 1986. It's made out of concrete and the design was inspired by the shapes of lava cooling into columns.
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Tjörnin -- Tjörnin is a small lake rich with bird life, situated next to Reykjavík City Hall. It borders a scenic strip of Reykjavík, with colorful houses that beg to be photographed.
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Hraunfossar -- This natural feature in western Iceland is a series of waterfalls streaming more than 900 meters out of the Hallmundarhraun lava field.
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Hraunfossar -- The lava flowed from an eruption from a volcano lying under the Langjökull glacier. The water drains into the Hvítá river.
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Snæfellsjökull -- A huge glacier caps the summit of a volcano on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in the far west of Iceland. The peak soars to 1,446 meters and can be seen across the sea from Reykjavik on a clear day.
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Djúpalónssandur -- This beach at the foot of Snæfellsjökull is covered by small black pebbles that were smoothed and shaped by the force of the tides and whipping of the wind. Visitors love to wander among the frozen lava landscapes and curious rock formations.
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The Vatnshellir lava cave -- This 8,000-year-old lava tube takes visitors deep under the Snæfellsjökull National Park to view spectacular lava formations and stunning colors.
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The Akranes Lighthouses -- The bigger of the two lighthouses is open to the public and is a delightful place to visit any time of year. Away from bright lights, tourists and townsfolk flock to the site in winter to catch a glimpse of the northern lights dancing in the sky.
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The Látrabjarg cliffs -- On the westernmost tip of Iceland is a 14-kilometer stretch of sea cliffs which are home to millions of birds including puffins, gannets, guillemots and razorbills. It's one of the world's most spectacular sea-bird cliffs and offers myriad photo opportunities.
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Rauðisandur beach -- This vast beach with golden-red sand lies in a remote area of the Westfjords and offers gorgeous views of the Látrabjarg area with the mighty Snæfellsjökull glacier looming in the background.
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The Hornstrandir peninsula -- This wild peninsula on the northern tip of the Westfjords is a remote, sparsely populated area of mountains, valleys, tundra and fjords. It offers stunning hiking with excellent opportunities for spotting wildlife.
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Jökulsárlón -- This is a large glacial lake in southeast Iceland at the head of Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. In summer ice blocks carve off the snout and float down to the lake's mouth or wash up on the black sand beaches.
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Jökulsárlón --The icebergs vary in color from milky white to bright blue depending on the amount of air trapped within the ice and the light conditions at the time.
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Jökulsárlón -- Seals can often be seen lolling on the icebergs of the glacial lagoon.
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Skaftafell -- Part of Vatnajökull National Park, this is one of southeast Iceland's most stunning places. It's got towering mountains, glaciers, woods and waterfalls, plus green fields and black sands.
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Skaftafell - It's particularly striking on clear days with the snow-capped mountains and blue skies in the background.
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Skagafjörður -- This deep fjord in the north of Iceland is the focus of an agriculture-rich region where horses outnumber humans. Horse tours, rafting and hiking are just some of the possibilities amid the majestic scenery of mountains, coastline and chunks of glacial ice dotting the fjord.
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Grimsey Island - A wind-swept and secluded island that is as striking in beauty as it is difficult to reach. It lies 40 kilometers off Iceland's north coast and is home to fewer than 100 people. It's a haven for birdwatchers and for those keen to say they have stood on the Arctic Circle, which crosses the tiny island.
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Godafoss -- The "waterfall of the Gods" is a spectacular semi-circular cataract in northeast Iceland. The water of the Skjálfandafljót River falls from a height of 12 meters over a width of 30 meters.
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The Mývatn Nature Baths -- The man-made lagoon in the Lake Mývatn geothermal area in northeast Iceland features hot, mineral-rich water perfect for bathing. Similar to the Blue Lagoon but with its own unique atmosphere.
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The Mývatn Nature Baths -- The milky-blue water, which stands at 96.8°F, comes from the National Power Company's borehole in Bjarnarflag.
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Dimmuborgir -- The aptly named "dark castles" are a region of weird and wonderful lava caves and rock formations, arguably resembling an ancient citadel, east of Lake Mývatn.
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Dimmuborgir -- The black lava pillars were born from a collapsed lava tube from a large volcanic eruption more than 2,000 years ago.
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Víti -- This crater lake, next to the bigger Öskjuvatn, occupy the giant Askja caldera in northeast Iceland. The whole crater measures 50 square kilometers. Víti was formed during an eruption in 1875.
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Dettifoss -- This waterfall in Vatnajökull National Park in northeast Iceland is reputed to be the most powerful in Europe.
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Dettifoss -- The water comes from the nearby Vatnajökull glacier and has a greyish color because of the sediment-rich glacial run-off.
Icelandic turf architecture has its roots in building techniques dating back to the Iron Age – indeed, the Romans used “turf bricks” to build fortresses and defensive walls.
Across Norway, the Faroe Islands and parts of Scotland, turf houses also proved popular.
But whereas in those countries, turf buildings were for the lower classes, in Iceland even the wealthy resided in “turf chateaux,” according to UNESCO.
Islenski Baerinn
The Icelandic Farmstead -- now an exhibition site and research center -- is one of the few original turf homes that's still standing today.
A typical Icelandic turf farm was actually a cluster of between 2 and 30 buildings connected by earthen corridors, a type of structure known as a baer, the general word for farm.
For support and protection, the back of such a building was dug into the hillside, while the front jutted out and had a pointed, mossy roof.
“These buildings are a miracle,” Hildigunnur Sverrisdóttir, an Icelandic architect and scholar, tells CNN. “The ground in Iceland is like this crazy beast – it’s always shaking with earthquakes and eruptions.”
The sturdy walls were composed of stone sandwiched between turf bricks, while a wooden framework was added for extra support. For warmth, the rooms were usually situated below the frost line – about a half meter below ground level – where the earth doesn’t freeze.
Islenski Baerinn
The building methods behind turf homes can trace their origins back to the Iron Age.
In more affluent farmsteads, wooden paneling lined the main living room, but as wood was expensive, and scarce, the majority of families did without.
“Our winters are very dark and trees don’t grow as fast,” Sverrisdóttir says. “People had to rely on driftwood from Russia and Scandinavia.”
A turf home was an extreme experience in intimacy with nature.
“They are all-natural houses – a multi-species organism with moss growing on the stones and the grass, and mice and sometimes lice (could be found inside),” says Sverrisdóttir.
The farm would normally feature a small kitchen, washroom, storage spaces and an animal shelter, as well as the baðstofa: a communal room where families would sleep, dress and work, and which often had the home’s only window.
Rafael Pinho/PKdM
Vacation houses by PKdM Arkitektar present a modernized version of the traditional turf home.
“This is a multifunctional room, where all major tasks were performed, from giving birth to dying,” says Lárusson.
While generally, turf homes were cheap to maintain, so long as the roof and walls were trimmed regularly, about once in a generation, the structure would need to be rebuilt or repaired due to rot, dead roots, or dryness.
If they had the means, farmers could hire expert turf cutters for this who traveled around Iceland plying their trade.
By the turn of the 20th century, Lárusson estimates that Iceland had more than 100,000 turf structures.
Today, they’re nearly all demolished, following a wave of modernization that propelled Iceland from coal stoves to central heating in just a few decades in the early 20th century.
“The path to modernity that Europe took 200 to 300 years to achieve, we leaped through in 20 to 30 years,” says Sverrisdóttir. “We moved from the turf houses into modern houses in one jump.”
Lárusson is one of the last people in Iceland to have grown up in a turf home.
“I was brought up on the farm and was there for almost the first 10 years of my life,” says Lárusson.
Islenski Baerinn
Up until the 20th century, turf homes were lived in by the majority of Icelanders.
“My grandfather never modernized the farm. He kept to the old ways in farming – he never used a tractor – and maintained and used the old turf houses until he stopped farming and the family moved to Reykjavik (the capital).”
In 1986, Lárusson returned to the family baer, called Austur-Medalholt. It was still standing but in poor shape. Over the next six years, he disassembled each structure, piece by piece, and restored the houses completely.
The personal project evolved into Islenski Baerinn museum, which is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the turf house heritage.
In recent years, a handful of international architects have been inspired by the environmentally conscious qualities of turf homes.
“It’s really only recently that people are understanding the quality and sustainability of these homes – there’s been a paradigm shift about building in this style again,” says Sverrisdóttir.
Turf homes, after all, were well-ventilated, properly insulated to save energy, and built using local materials.
Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson
The Hof by Studio Granda sits some 100 kilometers from the Arctic Circle in the Skagafjörður fjord in Iceland. The structures, with cedar and concrete walls, sit atop tufted sites, and its roofs feature grass from the fields. Meanwhile, the walls also provide heavy insulation.
Iceland-based firms PKdM Arkitektar and Studio Granda Architects, as well as Australian modular home specialists ArchiBlox, Belgian architecture firm OYO Architects and Makiko Tsukada Architects in Japan, have all recently utilized such concepts.
PKdm Arkitektar, for example, modernized the concept of a traditional turf home with its 20 grass-roofed BHM vacation cottages in southwest Iceland, which have front-row seats to the aurora borealis on winter nights.
“These (BHM) houses follow the same pattern (as traditional turf houses) with rich architectural variations like the covered entrance porch and the emphasis on views of nearby mountains and lakes,” Palmar Kristmundsson, founder of PKdm Arkitektar, tells CNN.
“We used leftover earth from the excavation to form a wind-protecting bunker for the outdoor terraces and helped fuse the roofscapes of the cabins with the surrounding sloping landscape.”
For Lárusson, turf homes are an endless source of inspiration for green architecture.
“When an Icelandic turf house is abandoned and collapses the building material is returned back to nature completely intact, leaving only a green heap of turf,” he says.
“The houses and the environment somehow seem to blend together as one.”