{"id":8241,"date":"2016-01-29T08:52:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T07:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/?p=8241"},"modified":"2016-01-29T08:55:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T07:55:32","slug":"turf-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/turf-houses\/","title":{"rendered":"Turf houses: a new World Heritage Site?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been in <strong>Iceland<\/strong> you\u2019ll know the <strong>Turf houses<\/strong>, one of the first examples of <strong>green building<\/strong> in the history of man.<br \/>\nThe <strong>Vikings<\/strong> were the firsts to build these special houses, to survive in often extreme climatic conditions. The basic idea is to use a turf as <strong>thermal insulation<\/strong>, to survive even in the colder months.<br \/>\nThe Turf Houses are buildings that dates back to the <strong>ninth century<\/strong>, built of wood and stone and then covered with a thick blanket of turf, which can withstand up to 70 years.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-8241 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/turf-houses\/beautiful-and-green-icelandic-turf-houses\/#main'><img width=\"270\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/Beautiful-and-Green-Icelandic-Turf-Houses-270x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/turf-houses\/turf-houses-mountain\/#main'><img width=\"270\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/turf-houses-mountain-270x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/turf-houses\/iceland-turf-homes\/#main'><img width=\"270\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/iceland-turf-homes-270x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Where came the Vikings, came also the Turf houses. And even now in Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands it is quite common to see houses, although abandoned, covered by grass, which becomes part of the roof and, sometimes, of the walls.<\/p>\n<p>Although Turf Houses are part of the tradition of different Nordic countries, the Icelandic case remains unique. In the island, in fact, the houses covered in green were built not only for the poor as in other cases, but the turf covered every type of building and the houses of people from different social classes. This is why the state of Iceland has requested reimbursement of their Turf Houses as <strong>exceptional and unique example of vernacular architecture<\/strong> and as a <strong>World Heritage Site<\/strong>. No doubt it is a cultural beauty of the world and a testimony of an important tradition of a vanished civilization.<\/p>\n<p>The Turf Houses also represent a wonderful example of how nature is often the solution and how energy saving is possible in many different ways.<br \/>\nWouldn\u2019t it be nice if the gray buildings of our cities were replaced by <strong>green houses<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8245\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/24984508_18d695466a_o.jpg\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-8245\" src=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/24984508_18d695466a_o-870x490.jpg\" alt=\"5 Turf Houses\" width=\"870\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/24984508_18d695466a_o-870x490.jpg 870w, https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/24984508_18d695466a_o-570x320.jpg 570w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 870px) 100vw, 870px\" \/><\/a><div class=\"caption\">Turf Houses, photo by Steve L. Martin via Flickr<\/div><\/div>\n<p><em>Cover\u00a0photo by rationalcog via Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>You might also like:<\/h4>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/tree-houses\/\" target=\"_blank\">Incredible tree-houses and canopy walkways<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/pallet-house\/\" target=\"_blank\">A DIY Pallet House, ecological and low-cost!<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been in Iceland you\u2019ll know the Turf houses, one of the first examples of green building in the history of man. The Vikings were the firsts to build these special houses, to survive in often extreme climatic conditions. The basic idea is to use a turf as thermal insulation, to survive even in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[214],"tags":[72,1383,1384,1382],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Turf houses: a new World Heritage Site? - Ecobnb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Iceland asked the recognition as a World Heritage Site of their Turf Houses, an ancient example of green building and thermal insulation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/turf-houses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turf houses: a new World Heritage Site? - Ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iceland asked the recognition as a World Heritage Site of their Turf Houses, an ancient example of green building and thermal insulation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/turf-houses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-29T07:52:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-29T07:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/9381349106_f5000a7cf5_k.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"492\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chiara Marras\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chiara Marras\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Turf houses: a new World Heritage Site? 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Spero ancora in un web che sia spazio di condivisione e divulgazione, e credo che l\u2019eco-sostenibilit\u00e0 sia una sfida imprescindibile del nostro tempo. Per questo, amo raccontare il viaggio come un\u2019esperienza autentica, in armonia con la natura e le culture locali.","url":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/author\/chiaramarras\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8241"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8250,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241\/revisions\/8250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}