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Rang

Painted iron houses

Reykjavík

Iceland's capital of small houses clad in corrugated iron, painted in bright colours under a grey sky.

Reykjavík
Photo: Hedwig Storch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Reykjavík is corrugated red

Reykjavík is the most northerly capital of a sovereign state. Iceland has little timber, and from the late 19th century builders clad wooden house frames in sheets of corrugated iron imported from Britain. The metal keeps out wind and rain but must be painted to stop rust. Owners chose strong colours, and the old centre is a patchwork of red, blue, yellow and green walls and roofs. The best view is from the tower of Hallgrímskirkja, a tall grey concrete church. One downtown street has a rainbow painted along its length. It began as a temporary decoration for the annual Pride festival and has since been made permanent. In winter the colours matter most.

Corrugated red#C8342BRoof blue#2F6FB5House yellow#F2C230Roof green#3E8F6BBasalt grey#5F6266

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Reykjavík" on Wikipedia. If you know Reykjavík and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

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🇮🇳 The open-air gallery of RajasthanShekhawatiMerchant mansions in the towns of north Rajasthan are covered inside and out with painted murals.🇮🇳 Land of mirror work and white desertKutchEmbroidery, tie-dye and block print in deep red and indigo, set against the white salt of the Rann.🇮🇳 The silk cityKanchipuramA temple town in Tamil Nadu whose heavy silk saris pair strong body colours with contrasting gold borders.🇮🇳 Red earth and a golden sphereAurovilleAn experimental township on red earth near Pondicherry, centred on the golden globe of the Matrimandir.🇮🇳 Akbar's red sandstone cityFatehpur SikriA Mughal capital built in one red stone in the 1570s and left by the court only a few years later.🇮🇳 Capital in red sandstoneDelhiFrom the Qutb Minar to the Red Fort to the government buildings, Delhi's monuments share one red stone.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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