Everyday life

Why do houses wear corrugated metal?

A practical response to the weather became an architectural signature.

Many older Icelandic houses have timber structures beneath their metal skin. Corrugated sheets protect the wood and are used on walls as well as roofs.

Iceland’s cultural heritage agency traces imports of galvanised corrugated iron from Britain to around 1870. Affordable, easy to handle and weather-resistant, it became a familiar material in the country’s towns.

First a protective layer, then part of a town’s identity.