Until around 1700, local materials were used in the construction of dwellings. Finnmark had little timber, and the Sámi turf hut was therefore used both for humans and their domesticated animals. It had a wooden structure, with the walls and ceiling covered with birch bark and peat. The fireplace was often in the middle of the floor, and there was a hole in the roof for smoke to escape.
Turf huts have been perceived as typically Sámi. As a rule, Norwegians and Kvens lived in log cabins, but they might also have turf huts on their farms. Residential turf huts gradually disappeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but in some places they were still in use until as late as the war years, 1940–1945. By then, a turf hut may have had a wooden floor, windows, wallpaper, a chimney and a fire pit or a stove with a smoke stack. As time went on, only the exterior would reveal the difference between a turf hut and a small wooden house. Turf huts used as outhouses on the farm and also in the outlying fields were common until after the Second World War.
Before the fires the housing stock was varied. The merchant’s house and the vicarage were often built in an Empire or Swiss chalet style, while the house next door might be a log cabin without cladding and window frames. There were also dwellings built according to more modern principles and styles. Variations between town and country, ethnicities, industries, classes and districts could be observed in the building method and shape of the dwelling.