Biggest Hits 2022: 16 Concepts to Steal from Iceland (and Icelandic Turf Homes)

Maybe you’ve puzzled at them on a drive round Iceland’s Ring Highway, or simply in images: dwellings seemingly constructed into the land, doorways and home windows lower right into a hillock—Icelandic turf homes, their gabled roofs coated over with inexperienced.

Turf homes are a convention that dates to over 1,000 years in the past in Iceland, to the ninth and eleventh centuries, based on Nationwide Geographic. A really abbreviated historical past: The idea of turf homes was first delivered to Iceland (and different elements of Europe) by the Vikings; turf was renewable, available, in no brief provide, and further insulating—the best constructing materials for residing by the Arctic Circle. Early turf homes had been single constructions referred to as lengthy homes, the place households lived communally and one house served a number of functions, although later they advanced into gatherings of smaller peaked homes. Most had a lava stone basis, then a timber construction coated with thick turf bricks that grew lush with grasses.

Happily these locations have been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Website (they’re on the “tentative checklist”)—and plenty of have been preserved as open-air museums. So when photographer and photojournalist Greta Rybus emailed a number of months again with plans to make a pilgrimage to 2 of them—Skógasafn, or Skógar Museum, within the south of Iceland and Glaumbær within the north, each with historic Icelandic homes, each turf and conventional timber—we had been desirous to make a (digital) go to.

Right here’s a have a look at a number of singular design takeaways.

Images by Greta Rybus.

1. Look to the earth.

2. Salvage constructing supplies.

3. Paint colourful cupboards.

4. And a shiny plate rack.

5. Hold from pegs.