Photos

TorfThe old Icelandic farm was a complex of small separate buildings. The buildings of the farm group date from different periods of the 19th century and all were built in the turf construction style, which was universal in rural Iceland until about the turn of the 19th century.
Extensive turf construction evolved in Iceland owing to acute shortage of large trees. Hence, the buildings at Glaumbaer are the thin shells of wood, all imported, separated from each other and insulated by thick walls of turf, and roofed with a thick layer of sod. The Icelandic grass grows very thickly making this turf and sod strong intertextures of roots and soil.