Exploring the Tiny Houses of Iceland with Damien and Steph

And it's fantastic to see architects utilizing repurpose spaces. There are so many beautiful structures. And if you take that away, that's the history you're taking away. You can put a bunch of modern day units and it kind of ruins the aesthetic.

Welcome to the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast the show where you learn how to plan, build and live the tiny lifestyle. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman, and this is Episode 259, with Damien and Steph. Damien and Steph are the creative team behind Tiny Spaces and they traveled all over Iceland to film some extraordinary tiny and small

Thanks for having us.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, you're very welcome. So how did you get interested in Iceland? Or why Iceland?

Well, we were actually on another job over in Iceland. And we pitched the idea to the production company, at Shelter Stream. And anyway, we're in Iceland at the moment. And because we'd already done in season one in Australia, okay, we said, why don't we take this opportunity to go and suss out as many cool little houses that we can? And so they said, amazing, great opportunity. Yeah.

And then the team just put it all together very last minute. Yeah. Yeah.

It was a it was a lot of Slack conversations. And it was just super deep. Yeah. How many interviews we needed to get? I think we did about Yeah, 15 houses and shot 15 interviews. And yeah, it was just like, really just gone and gotten really so nice.

How did you I mean, some of these houses and you sent me lots of images, which I'll include on the shownotes page for the episode. They're just absolutely stunning, like modern little homes, like, seemingly like planted in the middle of nowhere. So how did you find them?

Well, a lot, a lot of work is done by Dustin and Camille the produces tiny spaces. And yeah, they just, I think we just jumped on it together. And we were just like, You know what, this looks like a cool place. So this is a cool place. They found a lot of stuff on Instagram. And yeah, like cool architecture. Like magazines. So and like, obviously a lot of online stuff. They just looked up Tiny Spaces and

and whatever they found they tried to fit into a specific narrative, and also make sure our timeline work to travel around the entire country. Yeah, it all worked out. That's awesome.

Can you briefly explain what Shelter Stream is? And is that is that your business? Or is that a separate thing?

No Shelter Stream is basically a Netflix for architects.

Okay, cool.

The architects that love seeing cool, tiny spaces, call structures in our interesting people that just create the most amazing houses and spaces. And it's a streaming service that you can get on all of your devices and stream from anywhere.

Okay, so So Shelter Stream has some of your content on it as well as other filmmakers that but it's all just about architecture and homes.

Okay. Across the globe. Yeah.

Cool. And is is Tiny Spaces. Is that Is it live now? Can people watch it? Or is it is it coming out at some point?

Tiny Spaces is live now. I think the last episode has just gone up to episode four or five might have just gone up so nice.

So are tiny houses kind of part of Icelandic culture?

huh? Yes, the USA in one of the turf houses is it's very modern. It's very old school sort of building style. And that's where

it was bought from Ireland. What you don't want to houses I think small houses. Not just that because in the cities like everyone lives in these big concrete apartments and comprehensives are limited resources that you can use the materials you can use because of the harsh conditions of Iceland. Yeah, so I think modern architects are utilizing what was done before to make more sustainable homes.

Okay.

So it's becoming more and more popular. And I think the tradition of turf housing, which is something that they used to do a long time ago.

What is yeah, what is turf housing,

basically rocks and sticks put together just using the land and basically molding a house into the land. So it's like, looks like a seamless bit of architecture.

And they dig slabs of turf and layer it on top of each other to insulate walls to insulate the roof. And it stays really warm. stays really, really cool.

Okay,

depending on some of the locations as well, they would make like a big a big house or some would have like a small house that would make churches they would

like even a stable use you drive around us and you didn't see like a massive waterfall and then a giant mountain and inside that mountain is a small little turf hot, which is a shed. Yeah. Mine or, you know, yeah,

there's actually built it into the land. So they integrated into the

so it looks like it always looks like it's part of nature. That's really cool. So modern architecture, I think for you know, roofing on these incredible houses

now, like super modern structures. Now we're taking the the turf, sort of installation and placing it onto the modern Roof. Now, to create an extra

area it really like aesthetically looks like these, you know, modern houses shouldn't be there.

Yeah, that's amazing. Just that the imagery is is just stunning. And the homes are amazing. There's, there's one I think it's kind of like the home that's being used as like the cover image for Tiny Spaces, Iceland, but it's like, it looks like it's mostly glass. And you can like see, right, you can see right into it like into the bathroom and stuff. So what is that? Is that a dwelling? Is that like a retreat? Like what what is that space?

A retreat. It's a Yeah, Airbnb retreat, okay, and escapes that honor of you. Well, not on the field. And it's in the middle of nowhere. There's there's actually another one located just down the road, but they're positioned in a way that you can't see inside. You know, that's good. So yeah, it is pretty much like the only time that you can have ultimate privacy in nature with a giant volcano behind you as well.

I think it's called Katla. Yeah. Katla was one of the it was one of the most active or dangerous mess massive volcanoes so that it's in? Yeah, it's the apparently the rocks and all the love that comes out can shoot up to 60 kilometers. So he was just out of striking range.

Okay.

And I think the inspiration behind it is just to you know,

be immerse immersed in nature and it's literally to

unwind and relax and just get

away from all of the noise really? Yeah. Although there is like Wi Fi and stuff there but there's yeah, there's towns are not that close, and it's just yet to be secluded, and

just Yeah, unwind. Yeah, get out of it.

It almost looks like you know it pulls from the surroundings in terms of the the color of the lava rocks in the house. itself almost looks like a lava rock just kind of planted in that field

100% That's what they that's what we really did find over there is a lot of people are just trying to use the landscape and bring it into the dwelling as much as they've got inside, they would bring like the moss inside and all the branches that are around the area that would use for the light fittings. And yeah,

yeah, well, that's actually something Ari, who owns the glass cottage was saying that everything that's used internally or the interior design, it's sourced locally, from local artists and manufacturers and, you know, little things. So it was really important that it was, you know, I think it would fit obviously, with the aesthetic of the area, but

nice part of the,

the Icelandic culture.

And are they completely off grid those those

lava field houses? No, they're not offered. Okay. But a lot of the electricity in Iceland is from thermal. And waterfalls, create the energy to the electricity

run.

With geothermal, okay. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, there's, there are some, I'm actually there are most ways that that European countries and northern European countries are so far ahead of the United States in terms of the alternative energies, and the geothermal is is one of them, I teach a tiny house course. And there's one of my students is really interested in geothermal. And he did a bunch of research and found that you can't get a small enough geothermal system

Yes, it's crazy, isn't it? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, Australia is very behind as well. So you're just has it together.

Europe does have it together. I mean, there's there are more people in a smaller space. So I feel like in some ways, they have had to get a bit more creative and technologically advanced with their housing, because because of that limitation, like, you know, there's just so much space here, you can just go off and find your own your own hunk of land and do whatever you want, if you want to.

Yeah, another thing with the the glass cottage as well as the insulation, so it's like, triple glazed windows and it's, it's like you can be in the super harsh condition outside, walk inside and it's, it's just completely peaceful

because all of the houses all of them have to withstand extreme winds, extreme snow, extreme anything, you know? Yeah. One of the houses is located on water. And there could be like many tornadoes in the water. Sand pelting at the the exterior. Okay, so strong materials.

Hence the like, I see like a lot of concrete a lot of stone. A lot of metal. Yeah. durable materials. Yeah. Yeah. And what season were you there filming?

It was actually my was this

spring? So there was

and in our days, like the days were 18 hours, it was most

incredible. Did one in the morning? Yeah.

It'd be like, it'd just be completely daylight. No, it's just, but as

of the bulk of volcano mountains, north of the island. It's freezing. It's so cold. So we were in ski gear in spring but the surface

Yeah, it was it was pretty good. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

And I saw do they heat much with wood or other biofuels I did see some woodstoves in some of the some of the images.

More wood that was more in like the, the the museums so some of the turf that we shot were actually museums, the Icelandic national national gallery and museum of Iceland for the bombs just to preserve it because otherwise if they didn't buy it, it would just rot in full full full bases. Okay, all right. That was more there were more to is just like a show pieces like our his the National Heritage national heritage. Yeah. Like here's the here's like the way they cooked and all

surprisingly well insulated. And I think that's yeah, environmentally a huge, a huge concern for all of the architects building these houses, they want to make sure that they can withstand all of that. But yeah, in terms of, like, how they look and all that everything

was quite modern. Yes. Still very modern. Yeah.

Yeah, they all do look very even. There's one, and I don't I don't know the name of it, but it's, it looks like it's kind of very close up to the slopes of some kind of ridge line. And the the house itself looks very old. Like, it looks like a stucco or like a stone hut.

So that was a it was an old barn where they kept sheep. Okay, and that, that that land was that farm has been around since settlement, which is like in the nine hundreds or don't quote me on that, but okay, so yeah, like, super old school. And, um, yeah, it's just, it's just about, it was more about the person that owned the house. Goodrem, her name is and her husband. And they just worked with a company called

I mean, there were other architects that wanted to take it away, but to do have or wanting to utilize the space and make it something unique. So it's this beautiful art studio where you can, you can go and create downstairs and as you know, as you're working you can work in a kitchen and you can see in the annex it see like your art and the studio in the same space. And then upstairs as your you know, your where you would sleep and

So I feel inspired, just looking at the photo of it not being there.

Yeah, it is. It really is amazing. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I wish I could find that in Australia. I don't know. I don't know where that is.

Maybe you'll you'll have to make it.

Maybe that's maybe, maybe in the future. Is that thing

I wanted to ask you. There's there's one I think I guess it's called the water tower. It's like, hoping actually, since this is a podcast, could you kind of describe the water tower for our listeners? And then and then kind of I'm just curious to hear the story behind it.

Describe the water tower. So

it was a block of concrete.

Okay, that the owners looked at it and they said, You know what, we can do something with this.

So they cut corners out of it? Well, it was a block of concrete is in that water towers.

The water was still there. 60 years old, not being used. Okay. And then they just said, Yep, we're going to do something with this. They cut the sides out of it. wrapped it in metal. Put two more layers on it. On top of it. Oh, no. So build another layer on top of it, converted it inside and and the reason that it's as tiny spaces the footprint that it takes up on the land, so they've just built it, they've just utilize this space that the water tower was and they'll

wood wood. Chute shou shou sugi. Ban.

The Japanese how they burned the wood just to

prevent really strong. Yeah. So they just upkeep that whenever it gets

and then and then also, once again upcycling as well like that's quite a big part of their process was upcycling so they would use old glass panels, which would create the balcony you guys

Yeah, the deck or the balcony, the

balcony around the glass so and it's just it's just everything

inside to even the interior designers a lot of its upcycled

Yeah, old sinks and I'll like cupboards and benches and stuff and concrete like they've created their own concrete. Bench and sink and I don't know does that really explain it?

Yeah, that's That's great. I'll put you know, I'll sorry to put you on the spot I'll put I'll put pictures of that one in the show notes for sure. But I just, I didn't even realize that it was a repurposed structure. I mean, it looks so intentional, like, it just looks like a very modern design, it's kind of wider and bigger on top than it is in the in the main kind of section. But that's even cooler to know that it's that it's an Old Water Tower, repurposed.

And it's fantastic to say architects utilizing repurpose spaces, as there were so many beautiful structures. And if you take that away, that's the history you're taking away. Yeah, you can put up a bunch of modern day units, and it kind of ruins the aesthetic of the fact that, you know, you're behind a volcano, like that volcano just stopped erupting at the time. Yeah, and you're, you know, you're by the ocean, it's just so inspiring. Yeah,

it can be more expensive on fourth, or it can seem like more work to reuse an old space than it can be to just kind of knock it down and build whatever you want. But I think that a lot of the beauty comes from the constraints of the old

space. 100%. And that's definitely what we found with the family that did it. They, they it how much it meant to them. Yeah, really shines through in the episode.

They started their family in their house, and they, you know, it was a real family effort. So I think there's a lot of luck behind that space for them. Yeah, they can feel it, you can feel how much love and energy they've put into it to make it such a beautiful space for people to come in and observe.

Yeah. Like AJ and Indy Berg, who are the owners, they like the chemistry that those two had, and like the relationship building that happened in that place, like it just made them stronger. As a as a team to build it together. And yeah, just Yes, very inspiring. That's for sure. To say that a couple of other nice.

I was hoping that you could each share, you know, if you have one, your one favorite, tiny house from this from this project, and you can't choose the same one.

We often do. Yeah. I think they're good for different reasons, though. I have favorites for different reasons. Okay. Like,

don't you think in saying that we did stay in only one of them. One, no, two of them said. We stayed in the water tower. And then we stayed in the one on the volcano and by the sea. Yeah. I know what my favorite is. And I think she knows what her favorite is, as well. And I think that the same but um, you go Fair enough. I think

I would be so inspired to be creating hot in the studio, but it was a house. That was a stunning space. But in terms of you know, I don't know a cool place to live. I really love the water tower. I thought it was so cool. Yeah,

I definitely love the water tower as well. I think really like seeing seeing an old building. Come back to life, like tenfold is is just amazing. And what those guys have done.

Yeah, but I also think that's because what we like to do in Australia as well, we like to renovate houses as well to fashion for us. And we're repurposing seven years houses. So it's amazing to see people that are doing it with something's like these materials that are it's a more of a duck the the they've gone more the roll, roll, yeah, term wave.

We're just sort of flipping houses and doing a lick of paint here and there. But they've literally taken taken the structure and completely gutted it and then moved on.

They really inspired us. Yeah, for sure. Nice.

That kind of reminds me. I don't know if you've ever heard of Kristie Wolfe. She's kind of a tiny house person who's gotten who's a really talented builder and designer and has some of the most famous Airbnbs in the US. One of them is a is an Idaho Potato. It's like literally a potato from like, she was Miss Idaho, apparently. And like this is the potato and she turned it into a house. And one of her homes is actually a fire tower in Idaho that was like a former, like, you know, a fire tower.

100% And I do think like, if you're traveling to Iceland, definitely look for these unique houses. Like unit Iceland is littered them. And it's the, they're beautiful. And like in cubic actually said in one of the in the water tower episodes that like all of these old buildings that are abandoned farm houses, like, if they don't do something about them, they will just go to waste. So to upcycle them into these fancy Airbnbs is, is definitely a, like a thing that they're

you know, Airbnbs are great. They get, you know, they let people have these unique experiences, but also hopefully, there's some actual housing too, for people to live in

100% Yeah,

definitely. I mean, they lived in that house for a long time, but they've actually built their own now down the road, which is just okay. But it's utilizing the same sort of materials and resources. Nice. But I think yeah, all these houses have inspired us to do that. We want to buy a block somewhere in like a forest in the middle of nowhere, you know, when you want to escape, and then just put a tiny shipping container on it

would like to do, and also are in the glass, which is also said that a lot of these guests that stay in this the house, they've literally transformed their life. And they've just said, You know what, we actually don't need all of the stuff that we have, but we're very consumed. Like, we're a consumer generation. And, yeah, we don't really need it also. Like,

it's nice to live small. It's nice to minimalize

downscale a bit and just take a breath and for sure, see what's needed.

You accumulate a lot over the years. So it is really nice to unwind with just a few things. Agreed. It's good for us all I think. Right.

So what's next for you? Do you are you do you have more tiny homes to film in

your future? Conversations? Yeah, the conversations already been had with shelter. So yeah, there might be something we're thinking we might be either going to New Zealand or to Tasmania, just to the south of Australia. Nice. Yeah.

Well, if you need somebody to podcast your trip

Well,

this was really fun. I loved to I love looking at the photos. So I will post lots of photos in the show notes for the episode but Damien and Steph, thank you so much for being guests on the show today.

Thank you so much. Thank you

so much to Damien and Steph for being guests on the show today. You can find the show notes including some images of my favorite tiny homes, links to the series and more over at thetinyhouse.net/259. Again, that's thetinyhouse.net/259. Well, that's all for this week. I'm your host Ethan Waldman, and I'll be back next week with another episode of the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast.