An Icelandic turf house was assembled from four elements in sequence: a flat-stone foundation, an internal timber frame, walls of stacked turf blocks, and a turf roof laid over the wood. Each layer answered a specific problem posed by Iceland's climate and scarcity of timber, and together they produced a dwelling that could be rebuilt when conditions demanded. Understanding that sequence, and how the design changed over a millennium, also explains why these houses moved from ordinary shelter to national symbol.
Deconstructing the Icelandic Turf House
Before tracing the history, it helps to see the building as a system. Each component solved a distinct constraint: damp ground, scarce wood, brutal cold, and wind. The table below isolates the four structural parts and the adaptive function each performed.
| Component | Material and technique | Function and adaptation |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Flat stones laid carefully to form a stable base | Kept the structure durable and separated the earthen walls from damp ground |
| Timber frame | Internal wooden skeleton giving the house its basic shape | Carried the structural load; wood was scarce, so the frame was used sparingly |
| Turf walls | Blocks of turf—grass and soil, cut up to a metre thick—packed over the stone base, sometimes in a herringbone pattern | Provided thick insulation and could be cut and stacked with local material |
| Turf roof | Turf laid in thick blocks over the wooden frame, grass-side up | Insulated the interior and blended the house into the landscape |
The logic of the assembly follows from the materials. Stone was available on site; turf was effectively inexhaustible; wood was not. So the builders inverted the proportions of a timber house: earth does the enclosing, and wood does only the shaping and supporting.
Foundations of Survival: The Stone Base
Construction began not with walls but with reading the land. Builders chose sites that offered some shelter from harsh winds, using the natural landscape to their advantage, according to a historical account of how Viking settlers built these homes. The foundation itself was typically made of flat stones, laid carefully to create a stable and durable base.
The stone layer mattered more than its modest appearance suggests. Turf walls absorb moisture from the ground, and a house built directly on soil would wick dampness into its living spaces. By setting the earthen structure on rock, builders gave the walls a dry starting point and the whole dwelling a footing that would not shift under Iceland's freeze-thaw cycles. It was the quiet, load-bearing first act of the entire process.
The Wooden Skeleton: Timber Frames
Around and within that stone base rose the house's wooden skeleton. These dwellings were built around basic timber frames, as Luke Waterson reported for the BBC, with the turf arranged over and packed around them to form walls and roofs. The frame established the building's shape and carried the structural support.
What makes this component remarkable is its economy. Iceland's deforested landscape made wood a precious commodity, so the frame was kept minimal—just enough to define the interior and hold the roof. UNESCO's description of the tradition notes that the most distinguishing feature of Icelandic and Faroese turf houses is precisely this presence of a timber house within the earthen envelope. The architecture is, in effect, two buildings: a scarce wooden core wrapped in abundant earth.
Layered Protection: Turf Walls and Roofing
With the frame standing, builders turned to the material that defines the tradition. Blocks were cut out of turf—the grass together with its soil, in layers up to a metre thick—and arranged over the base layer of rock, then packed in to form the structure's walls and roofs. The cutting and stacking demanded skill: photographs of surviving walls, such as those at Grund above Akureyri around 1900, document the herringbone walling technique, in which blocks were laid in interlocking diagonal courses for stability.
The roof completed the enclosure. Thick blocks of turf were added over the wooden frame, grass-side up, giving the structures an appearance that blended into the rolling green hillsides. The result, as one account puts it, was a sustainable home that quite literally grew out of the earth. Today the surviving houses still stick out of the landscape like tussocky tents, their green crowns the visible signature of the method.
Maintenance was continuous and communal. The historical account of the settlers' methods notes that upkeep was a communal effort, reflecting the collaborative spirit of Icelandic communities—a social structure built into the architecture itself.
Architectural Adaptation: Evolution of Turf House Design
The turf house was never a fixed design. Norse settlers introduced the form in the ninth century, and over the following centuries it evolved in response to climate, isolation, and social change. Harsh, unpredictable weather, volcanic activity, and a lack of resources encouraged semi-permanent housing solutions: the turf house allowed Icelanders to move and rebuild easily when the need arose, as Guide to Iceland explains.
The most distinctive Icelandic development was the passageway-farmhouse. UNESCO's description of the tradition characterises it by the construction of a passageway linking all the separate houses to each other. Rather than one large structure, a farm became a cluster of specialised rooms—kitchen, sleeping quarters, storerooms—connected under cover, so that daily life could continue without stepping into the weather. It was an architectural answer to both winter and the growing complexity of Icelandic farm life.
From Necessity to Icon: The Shifting Cultural Meaning
For centuries, the turf house was simply how Icelanders lived—practical, unremarkable, essential. Its cultural standing then fell before it rose. As the nationalist movement gained momentum beginning in the 1700s, activists felt pressure to prove that Iceland was mature enough to rule itself, and this dynamic manifested itself in a rejection of turf houses, as Amelia Soth recounts in JSTOR Daily. Under the gaze of colonial thought, the earthen dwelling came to be read as a symbol of poverty and backwardness rather than ingenuity.
The revaluation ran in the opposite direction in the modern era. The houses are now described as essential to understanding Iceland's history, reminding locals of the hardships and determination of their ancestors, and the tradition has been put forward on UNESCO's tentative list for World Heritage recognition. What was once dismissed as putrid rusticity is now celebrated as a legacy of sustainability—early settlers adapting to their environment using the resources at hand, in the words of one historical account. The same walls that once embarrassed a nation aspiring to modern statehood now anchor its sense of identity.
Preserving a Legacy: The Enduring Value of Turf Houses
The decision this history invites is to recognize Icelandic turf houses as a testament to historical ingenuity and a symbol of evolving national identity—not a static relic but a building tradition that adapted across a millennium and whose meaning changed with the society that built it. The construction details rest on historical descriptions rather than a modern building guide, and the story is an Icelandic one, with the broader Nordic tradition only briefly touched here.
The measurable indicator of this legacy is continued preservation efforts and educational initiatives at historical turf house sites. Several well-preserved examples are open to the public, including Glaumbær in the north-west, Laufás in the north, and Keldur in the south. Whether those sites keep their walls maintained and their techniques taught is the observable test of whether this tradition remains living history rather than a memory.
Sources
- \r\n \n How the Viking Settlers Built Icelandic Turf houses\n \r\n — Torfhus
- Turf houses: Iceland's original 'green' buildings — BBC
- The Turf House Tradition - UNESCO World Heritage Centre — WHC
- Exploring the History of Icelandic Turf Houses — Atlasoceanvoyages
- The Ultimate Guide to Turf Houses in Iceland — Guide to Iceland
- Life Inside Icelandic Turf Houses - JSTOR Daily
