A somewhat unique characteristic of the turf houses in Iceland is the timber structure and interior panelling that serve as an armature for the insulating turf. Since timber was in short supply ...

A traditional turf roof blankets a wooden house in Iceland. Photograph by Danita Delimont, Getty Images In 1918, Iceland gained independence from Denmark, setting in motion a wave of nationalism ...

"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 ...

Known as "torfbæir", these ingeniously designed homes helped settle one of Europe's least-hospitable environments. With its lonely lava fields, sheer bluffs and stark boulder-strewn plains ...

clustered turf houses. Yet despite turf’s vital role in Iceland’s history, you won’t see much of it today. Over a few brief generations, Icelanders have grown ashamed of and buried this ...

Hidden deep in the Icelandic wilderness, this is the last abandoned turf house of its kind—left untouched with everything still inside. Once a warm shelter against the harsh Nordic climate ...

Their style "varies as much as the number of turf houses made -- no two are the same," says Eyjolfur Eyjolfsson, who lives in the Austur-Medalholt plains near Selfoss, in southern Iceland.

On the outside, the roof grows grass. I read that the traditional kind of turf house is not built in Iceland anymore, but new ...

Built and enlarged over the 18th and 19th Centuries, and used as a priest's house as well as a farmhouse, Glaumbær is Iceland's most extensive and intact group of turf buildings. The main complex ...

Their style "varies as much as the number of turf houses made -- no two are the same," says Eyjolfur Eyjolfsson, who lives in the Austur-Medalholt plains near Selfoss, in southern Iceland.

Their style “varies as much as the number of turf houses made — no two are the same,” said Eyjolfur Eyjolfsson, who lives in the Austur-Medalholt plains near Selfoss, in southern Iceland.