Digging in the Dirt

             Way back in October our class went to spend the night at a turf house and then help to build turf walls the next day. This was an incredible experience and we really got an inside look into what Icelandic life used to be like, and how this old style of building is slowly dying out, this is the last privately owned turf house in the country. Spending the night sleeping in one of these structures was also a hugely rewarding experience and got me thinking a little about how we live to day, and what I feel I would really need in a house, and what are extras.

The farm from a distance
Photo credit: Christina Donovan

             I particularly enjoyed seeing both the historical aspect of how Icelanders used to live, and also how this can be incorporated with modern architecture techniques to make spaces that are more livable to most modern people, while still incorporating traditional building styles. Turf architecture might not be the most efficient at insulating a house, but it does a really good job based purely on the sheer quantity of dirt that is incorporated in the architecture. I was truly amazed and how warm the turf house stayed at night even with single pane windows and a really inefficient stove. I loved this, because it reminded me of how you can get by with a simple dwelling and have your needs met and be happy. 

Our host Hannes looking contemplative
 in the house he grew up in
Photo credit: Jordan Frazin

              If I lived in a turf house there would be some modifications that I would make to the interior design, mainly adding a hot water heater, but you don’t need much to be happy, especially if you’re not living with ten other people. This reminded me a lot of the backcountry skiing course that I was the teacher’s assistant for last winter where we stayed in yurts for 15 out of 19 days, and while they were definitely rustic, even with minimal insulation you could keep them warm with a fire on the cold winter nights due to small size, also having not private rooms made for a strong sense of being included because you could not go hide in your room. I really like the idea of incorporating these ideas with some more modern techniques to provide the kind of house that I would be both comfortable living in, but would not be excessive. By modern building I mean that I would put good windows in and better insulation in the roof so that it would retain heat better.

             I’m not saying that these rural housing situations are perfect for everyone, but with increased incorporation of these it seems like we could connect people to their roots better and also make their houses more efficient at the same time, which seems good to me. I find this a challenging topic though for me because I want to live simply and don’t plan on having a TV in my house ever, but also don’t want to simplify at the risk of losing information that could be valuable to my efforts of being sustainable. For this reason I will most likely have internet in my house which I think is good because it has so much information at your fingertips that can give you ideas about how to do things better or connect you with other people that are doing similar things and might be good resources. It is a dangerous tool though because it has the ability to suck time like nothing else; both because there is so much good information, but also so much junk that is designed with no intention other than to waste time. So this is what I struggle with, how connected do I want to be.  This will become even more challenging to distinguish as technology becomes more advanced and reaches more and more into every aspect of our lives.

Working on the new Turf House museum. Building a wall and some steps.
Photo credit: Lily Alverson

Dusty Reed