Sod house

A sod house (also Torfplaggenhaus or general turf hut ) is a fixed dwelling, the wall panels and roofing are predominantly built of stacked sod or Torfplaggenhütten from dried Torfplaggen that were engraved locally. Buildings in this technique, there were and are usually in places with extreme weather fluctuations, and where other building materials such as wood or stone are not available.

Central Europe

In Central Europe, above all in northern Germany and the Netherlands Torfplaggenhütten were particularly common in peat from the 18th to the early 20th century. There, the mostly poor colonists were no funds for expensive house designs available, so they used the locally available building materials.

Iceland

In Iceland houses were dug into the ground, thereby accruing sods were piled up to the walls. Even churches were built.

North Sea Coast

Also in the North Frisian Rungholt sods were used as building material.

North America

In North America, sod houses were often used in the cultivation of the prairie as cheap first dwelling, if there was no easily accessible wood or stone as a building material. Since the Homestead Act was that it also alone could thereby acquire land by performing and built a dwelling and the land cultivated for five years, served sod houses in the North American prairie often as the nucleus of a landed property. The thick and relatively deep roots of prairie grasses gave the walls a good grip. While this provided a good insulation, holding the indoor environment but rather moist. Of these buildings appear to be no get.