The island village of Läsö off the Danish mainland has preserved houses built hundreds of years ago, when owners would thatch the roof with tons of seaweed.
Via Natural Homes:
In the Middle Ages the island of Læsø became famous for its salt industry. Hundreds of salt kilns were built on the island requiring constant fuel to refine the salt.
But the island's finite natural resources, feeding hundreds of salt kilns, eventually led to its deforestation. This left the islanders with no timber for construction so they built their homes from driftwood and eelgrass. Because the seaweed and timber had been impregnated with saltwater the seaweed homes were not susceptible to decay, standing virtually unaltered since the 1600s.
In the 1930s a disease attacked the Island's eelgrass making it difficult to maintain the roofs. This marked the decline of this type of roofing on the island. In the late 18th century there were 250 homes and farms thatched with seaweed, now there are only 19. In 2009 a heritage project to save Læsø's seaweed homes was established. Part of the project was to teach farmers in the south of Denmark to harvest and prepare eelgrass. A so called 'Seaweed Bank' was created to provide the materials to re-thatch the remaining homes.
• Seaweed-houses at Läsö (YouTube / Steen Madsen)
Image: Wikimedia
Young @Pugloca has his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist -- the self-described anime and Halflife fan came to Vidcon in this stunning cosplay: an influencer apology video, replete with many, many ads. He was spotted by The Atlantic's Taylor Lorenz.
Back in 2010, It Books published Mary-Lou Weisman's biography of MAD Magazine icon Al Jaffee: Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography; I missed it then but happened upon Arie Kaplan's 2011 writeup in The Jewish Review of Books this morning and was charmed by the biographical sketch it lays out.
Life360 is an app that lets you track a mobile phone user in fine-grained, realtime detail, with options to set alert for things like "is this person exceeding the speed limit?" It's widely used by parents to track their teens, and this seems to be the summer where it comes into its own, with millions […]
With enough practice and commitment, anyone can be a visual artist. But without the right instruction, that time spent honing your skills could seem like an eternity. If you really want to see where your talent can take you, you need sound fundamentals – and no matter what discipline or genre you lean toward, the […]
Theoretically, there’s never been an easier time for marketers. The ubiquity of social media means a good word – or a good brand – can spread like wildfire with very little effort. But as limitless as the internet is, there’s a lot of competition and noise to contend with. And the vast graveyard of failed […]
They might be the shiny new thing, but AirPods aren’t for everybody. Maybe you’re looking for a new sound or you understandably lost those tiny buds during a brisk run. If so, here’s 10 headphones and earbuds that break out of the Apple mode with a return to quality and wearability. Klipsch R5 Bluetooth Neckband […]
