Norwegian Houses With Grass On The Roofs

For hundreds of years houses in norway have been covered with turf.

Norwegian houses with grass on the roofs. Some are bright green and almost velvety. These roofs are covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. And they come in different varieties. The grass roofs of norway kaushik patowary sep 15 2010 38 comments norwegians have their own way of going green and quite literally.

Green roofs have become a long standing tradition in norway and it s not common to see them dotting the country s landscape or in this case essentially melding with the landscape. Its distribution roughly corresponds to the distribution of the log building technique in the. Until the late 19th century it was the most common roof on rural log houses in norway and large parts of the rest of scandinavia. A sod roof or turf roof is a traditional scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards.

They look like hobbit homes or houses for fairies but scandinavian grass roofs are the real deal. The load of approximately 250 kg per m of a sod roof is an advantage because it helps to compress. Houses with their roofs looking like small meadows may seem a little strange in these modern times but until the late 19th century turf roofs were the most common type of roofs in rural norway.