Explaining your research can seem daunting, difficult and perhaps even downright impossible! How about explaining it in only 60 seconds?

This is exactly what Daniël Postma does with his research on lost building traditions in the Netherlands and his attempt to build a medieval turf house. Daniël is a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen. He entered this video as part of the University of Groningen's Sustainable Society Impact Award 2016 and came second! Watch his video below to find out more about his PhD research:

Daniël Postma's research: Daniël’s PhD research is on farming societies in the north of the Netherlands, from AD 400-1300 (Middle Ages). His study of excavated house remains helps to understand which social, economic and other changes that took place. It is important though, to understand how these houses were built. So, an important step was to make reconstruction models using similar buildings that still exist in Iceland and Scotland. A highlight of this work was the full-scale construction of a very special type of building: a house with walls made of blocks of turf or sod. This exciting experiment was supported by the regional Frisian government and many other funds and partner organisations. Nearly 100 volunteers and students helped out during the build or learned about ancient turf construction through open days, a museum exhibition, TV documentary, book and more. Daniël currently specialises in technical building conservation in Scotland. His aim is to use archaeological knowledge to inspire modern sustainable building.