Norway Road Trip Stop 3: Chillin in a grass-roof cabin | Adventure Every Day
A lot of buildings in Norway need a haircut from time to time. Some might even have trees coming out of the top. So what’s the deal with this building technique?
Kor e det?
In this third stop on our Norwegian road trip adventure, we rented a quaint cabin on a countryside farm with a delightful view over Vågåvatnet (Vågå lake) in the Ottadalen (Otta valley). Here's the location on the map:
We arrived rather late in the evening, but being in the middle of the summer still, it wasn't completely dark even after midnight. Gotta love Norway in the summertime!
The sheep on the farm could not be seen, but they made their presence known with their gentle bleating and the scent in the air.
The cabin was built with a traditional Norwegian technique with a living roof that had several types of grasses growing from it.
This is quite a common sight as you travel around Norway. In fact, though I haven't really seen it myself, you can find pictures online of cabins with shrubbery and even whole trees growing out of the roof or goats grazing on the grass. Something to look out for on your Norway trip!
Green roof construction - how and why?
Norwegian torvtak (turf roof) construction dates back centuries. Like, back to the Viking ages over a thousand years ago.
Their existence was threatened by tile building techniques in the 18th century, but the practice survived in remote areas and eventually was revived for cultural reasons, so the tradition carries on today.
These types of roofs are usually constructed with birch bark laid over the roof beams. This creates a solid, water-tight under layer, on top of which the sod is laid down. The main point of the sod is actually to keep the birch bark in place.
There are a few reasons for sod roofs. As you can imagine, especially with how much it can rain here, these roofs can become quite heavy. But that is actually one of the objectives - the heavy weight helps to stabilize the logs of the cabin and compress any gaps between them.
They are also long-lasting roofs with an expected lifespan of at least 30 years. And they insulate well, preventing too much heat from escaping through the roof. A very important consideration indeed given the long winters!
Come on in!
Okay, enough with the history of these buildings, let's take a tour, shall we?
Trivia Time!
1 SBD to the first commenter with the correct answer to today's trivia question:
When the birch back is laid down on the roof, which side faces up?
There's like a 50/50 chance of getting this one right, so might as well take a shot at it!
Join me next time as we make an unplanned roadside stop and end up finding one of the highlights of the trip!
Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started in 2016. In addition to the Steemit blog, I post short films of my adventures to the Adventure Every Day YouTube channel.
The video was so cool with the drone shots, and the house looks so comfy with the fireplace.I went to Oslo just this June and have been wondering why would they have the green roof and now I know. Thanks for your information.😊
Hi midnightviola thanks for your comment and sharing your experience of coming to Oslo! I hope you got to get out and experience some Norwegian nature while you were here - Oslo is nice but the nature here is what's really special. If not, come back sometime and stay in a cabin like this one :)
Cheers!
I actually did stay in a cabin like that and it was in a rafting resort place called soja and I loved the whole experience. Being able to wake up to the view and mountains and calm water was magical. I envy Norwegian who get to have the nature so close by, haha!I really hope to visit again in the winter, I bet it'd so different.😄
Oh that's great you did get to do a nature trip! Having such easy access to beautiful nature is definitely something I appreciate about living here, even from the capital and largest city.
Sjoa is actually not too far from this cabin and I think we drove past the rafting place on the way there.
The winter certainly is a different experience than the summer! Come back sometime and I can take you cross-country skiing, or you can head up north and see the northern lights!
Oh wow!That sounds amazing, I've never experienced snow actually.I am from Hong Kong in South-east Asia so it never snows.😝
Yeah, it's completely different here in the winter. In the inland it's filled with huge amounts of snow (unless it's too warm and raining).
That would be so much fun to make snow angel and snow fight, haha!😀
Snow ball fights are actually really fun, and I somehow end up in a few of these each year despite the fact that I'm a grown up :P
Awesome!hahaha😄
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