MODERN TURFHOUSE


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Year: s.ap arkitektar
Green building counsel Iceland & Jökull Jónsson
Resarch project
S-M-L
2025  -  ongoing
What is a modern turf house? This project explores the concept of modern turf house, not as a literal reconstruction of a turf house, but using design principles such as local materials, community construction, sufficiency, and resilience. The aim is to understand how the traditional Icelandic turf house's mindset can inform new architectural approaches to sustainability today. The project explores the historical background, building practices, community aspects and sufficiency, and places it in the context of Iceland’s climate, resource constraints, and the current sustainability movement. The project is funded by Askur building research fund.



Historic turf houses were built in an era of scarcity, when sustainability was the only way of living. Yet their reliance on local materials, cyclical maintenance, and modest size naturally embodied many of the qualities that modern building design strives for. In the context of climate change and an unstable global political environment, these principles are increasingly relevant. At the same time, Iceland’s dependence on imported construction materials, combined with the vulnerabilities of extended supply chains, raises the question of whether older forms of local knowledge could help reduce material risk and improve resilience.



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