When you arrive in Greenland, you quickly realize that Greenlandic architecture is very distinct, with its many colored houses placed on sloping hillsides. The big apartment blocks may have scared you off a little, and sometimes you stumble upon amazingly beautiful buildings, including some of the churches of Greenland.
You may also have wondered what houses in Greenland are made of and what they look like in Greenland? Many people are even surprised that people actually live in Greenland and tend to ask about what living is like in Greenland when they meet Greenlanders. We will try to give you an overview of Architecture and living conditions in Greenland in this article.
In our overview of Architecture in Greenland, we start with the traditional Inuit buildings, including the world-famous igloos. We then move on to the farms and churches of the Norse. Today, colonial buildings are visible in many towns, even though they are made from wood and several hundred years old. However, the dry climate has helped preserve these buildings and houses. After World War II, a new era started for the Greenland population, which is very visible in the new architecture of the country.
Jesper Kunuk Egede
About the Author
Jesper Kunuk Egede grew up in Narsaq. He and his family first lived in the green four-story tower building (next to the yellow one). There have only ever been these two four-story apartment houses in Narsaq. After a year in Qaqortoq, his family moved back to Narsaq, and he lived in Block G until his parents built a so-called BB2 type house, a locally designed tract house.
For this article, he has relied a lot on the excellent Danish book “Greenland’s History of Technology” by Hans P. Steenfos & Jørgen Taagholt. Unfortunately, it is not translated into other languages.
Section 1: A Journey Through Time: The Inuit and The Norse
Traditional Inuit Buildings
Inuit have arrived in several waves over the past 4,500 years. The first arrivals were the Saqqaq Culture, walking here from what would later become Canada. The Dorset culture followed, also from the west, about 2,500 years ago. The last major immigration was the so-called Thule culture, which arrived in Greenland 1,000-1,100 years ago. These cultures are not named after their origin but after places where their remains were found.
When we talk of Inuit houses, we are not talking about Inuit Architecture in a modern sense. The houses were not built to impress but to shelter. Inuit daily life was about survival, and the Inuit way of life reflected this in both housing, religions, and sustainability.
The Inuit of Greenland were a nomadic people, moving along to follow the food sources, so we do not have many old buildings, expressing the old Greenlandic way of life. However, several remains of early Inuit buildings have been found, and excavations have proved very important in telling us about the housing of the early Inuit and their way of life and food.
Back on land, and despite the small size of the island, there are several marked hiking trails. Often these lead to mountain lakes, but the most popular is the relatively short hike to Santa’s Cabin. For more experienced adventurers, it is possible to climb Uummannaq Mountain if you have the technical skills and equipment, and for long-distance trekkers, the nearby Nuussuaq peninsula and Upernavik mountains offer a wealth of options for hiking expeditions and are unknown beyond the local community.
Also, when Greenland was recolonized in the 18th century, artists made drawings of and notes about the traditional houses. Sermermiut on the northern bank of the Ilulissat icefjord is probably the best known of these sites.
Inuit housing in Uummannaq.
Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen – Visit Greenland
Peat Huts
So what were old Inuit homes made of? The winter houses were mainly built of rocks and turf. Driftwood and the ribs and jaws of whales were also used to hold the roof. Often, the houses were built next to a hill which would then function as one of the walls.
Peat is a cold and wet material, so the old houses were often quite damp, and many people were living in the crowded space of the peat huts, which also added to the dampness. Windows were made by using thinly stretched intestines from seals and other animals. Sometimes, the houses held one family, and in other cases, the houses were bigger, built for several families to live together.
The peat huts were in use for millennia, and as late as in the 1940s, people were still living in peat huts in many places in Greenland, including Old Narsaq, which you find on the town’s edge in modern-day Narsaq.
A woman carving seal skin for a tent at the living
village museum in Qasigiannguit in Greenland.
Photo by Mads Pihl – Visit Greenland
Inuit summer homes: Tents
In summer, the families would relocate to follow their catch and often stay overnight in tents made from sealskin. The tent pole would come from driftwood, and the sealskins would be sewn together and kept in place by a ring of rocks. The tents would house the families that were stocking up on foodstuffs for the long winters. Inuit had many ways of preserving foodstuffs to last long in case of hunting in winter proved hard.
The hunters also used the tents for winter hunting trips, but they would sometimes make igloos to stay in for the night.
Igloo Lodges In Ilulissat. Photo – Filip Gielda, Visit Greenland
Igloos
Obviously, igloos are the internationally best-known buildings of the Arctic, although they were not as common as popular myth suggests. However, most people around the world have some idea about a real Inuit igloo. Igloos were traditionally used by Canadian Inuit and the Inuit of the far north of Greenland (today’s Qaanaaq area), so you would not have stumbled upon one further south in Greenland, although you can try igloos built by both snow and metal in Ilulissat today.
An igloo is dome-shaped and built by putting hard snow blocks on top of each other. The principle used to build an igloo is reminiscent of the Fibonacci sequence, but in reverse, where the lower outermost ring is curving a bit towards the center. The ice blocks are not stacked right on top of each other in straight lines like bricks. Instead, they form a spiral where each layer is curved further towards the middle and gets thinner, so the upper blocks of snow are not too heavy. This way, the dome is made. Thin ice or animal intestines can make it out for a window to let light in, and a lowered entrance is made to avoid the wind blowing straight into the igloo.
The Norse with Their Farms and Churches
Greenland also had immigration from the east, notably from 982 when Erik the Red arrived here, and after 1721, when the Norwegian-Danish priest Hans Egede arrived to Christianize and recolonize Greenland.
The Norse arrived in 982, after Erik the Red had to flee Iceland for three years after being outlawed for killing another man. Together with his wife Tjodhildur, family, and friends, he set out towards the west to the hills in the far distance that sailors had described.
Eric the Red Village, Qassiarsuk. Photo – Aningaaq R. Carlsen, Visit Greenland
Farm House
Arriving in South Greenland in 982, Erik settled in today’s Qassiarsuk and built a village he called Brattahlid. Brattahlid and nearby Gardar (today’s Igaliku) would become the center of life in South Greenland at this time, as the Thule Inuit had not yet reached the south of Greenland.
The Norse used the building techniques of the Viking-style houses that had been perfected in their native Iceland. The Norse architecture called for quite big farms built together, so stables, housing for people, and stock housing were located in the same large structure. One of the perks of doing it this way was that the heat of the animals would help heat the whole building.
Some of these farms were quite big. For example, in Igaliku, you can see the remains of a 70 meter (230 feet) long stable. This stable would hold lots of livestock, including 65 cows and sheep, horses, and pigs. To secure enough food for the animals, the Norse also built irrigation systems for the fields in the area. The Norse buildings were built using large rocks for stonewalls that were isolated on the outside with turf. The inside house often had wooden floors and walls, as you can see in the picture of the reconstruction of Erik the Red’s house.
More and more people followed Erik the Red, and Greenland became home to many immigrants from Iceland. They settled not only in South Greenland but up to the Nuuk area. In Nuuk’s fjords, you can still find many ruins from the Norse, or Vikings, as others call them. For the most part, the Inuit stayed further up in North Greenland on both the eastern and western coasts, but they also traveled south where they encountered the Norse. The meetings between these two cultures were sometimes amicable, sometimes not so much.
The Old Church Ruins of Hvalsey. Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen – Visit Greenland
The Norse Churches
In the year 1000, Erik’s son, aptly named Leif Eriksson, returned from Denmark, and he brought along a Christian priest. Tjodhildur soon became a Christian and had a church built. This small, unremarkable building became the first Christian house of worship on the two American continents. In today’s Qassiarsuk, you can see both the horseshoe-shaped remains of the original church and visit a reconstruction of it. Not far from the Norse reconstructions, you can also see an Inuit house reconstruction.
In Igaliku, you can see the remains of the Gardar Diocese, a large complex consisting of the church, the bishop’s farm and stables, warehouses, and a forge. Today’s best-kept Norse building is Qaqortukulooq, more commonly known as the Hvalsey Church Ruin. This large ruin is situated close to Qaqortoq, the largest town in South Greenland. This building was the scene of a wedding in 1408, which became the last recorded event among the Norse of Greenland in the Icelandic Sagas.
The climate was changing, and boats sailing to and from Scandinavia had become scarce. The next ship didn’t arrive until 30 years later, finding no Norse left. Still today nobody knows what happened to them although there are many theories. The areas where the Norse built their farms 800-1000 years ago are still in function. Many of today’s sheep farms are built near the Viking ruins, and the fields that the Norse cleared for stones are used by today’s farmers.
Colonial Architecture
Colonial Architecture is probably the most famous architecture in Greenland, apart from the igloo. In our article about Hans Egede, you can read how Greenland was colonized and how trading stations were set up along the coast.
In time, many of these trading posts turned into villages, settlements, and towns. This means that a lot of the towns of Greenland have a neighborhood that relates to the former colonial status of Greenland. Since the old Inuit buildings are very rare, the colonial buildings of Greenland have a certain status among all inhabitants and visitors, for that matter.
The original colonial buildings were often made using a Norwegian tradition of log housing, or “laft houses.” They were made by wooden planks stacked on top of each other and easily taken apart again.
This means that many colonial houses were built in Scandinavia, taken apart, and rebuilt in Greenland. The colonial buildings were built for trade and housing for the Danish employees of, among others, The Royal Greenlandic Trading Department. However, the local population still mainly lived in the traditional peat and stone houses and tents in the summer.
Colonial neighborhoods are often placed close to the sea, making the transportation of imported goods easier. The colonial neighborhood in Qaqortoq also boasts a very unusual thing in Greenland: A square. Surrounding the square are old buildings which include the current museum, built in 1804, and, on the square, you find Greenland’s only public fountain.
Today, colonial architecture is often seen in pictures and postcards from Greenland. There is no doubt that the colonial buildings are often very beautiful and picturesque. However, as opposed to many buildings built after World War II, the houses and buildings are individual entities.
Color-coding of the houses
In colonial times, a color-coding system was introduced to the houses in Greenland. Later, GTO (Greenland’s Technical Organisation) stuck with this color-coding which made it easy to identify the function of a building.
Let’s say someone had fallen ill in a settlement or on a traveling ship. Then, upon arriving in a town in Greenland, whoever was helping this person would take a look at the town and go straight for a yellow building, simply because they knew that yellow buildings would house either a hospital or be the private home of the town doctor. This was practical and, for a long time, the colors of the houses in Greenland stuck to this regime:
Red buildings would signify churches, schools, teachers’ or ministers’ houses, and trade, yellow colors were assigned to hospitals, doctors, and health care personnel.
Green houses and buildings were assigned to power works, auto mechanics, teleoperations, and such. Blue buildings and housing were related to the fish factories and police stations were black.
Kulusuk public school. Photo- Aningaaq Rosing Carlsen – Visit Greenland
The Hospital in Uummannaq. Photo – Jason C. Hill
Today, this system is no longer in use, and we paint our houses in any color we like. So now you will find purple, pink, and any pastel color on the houses. While walking around Nuussuaq, the large suburb of Nuuk, you sometimes feel like you’re wandering inside a candy factory, as there are houses of any color.
A striped and colourful house in Upernavik in Greenland
Pastel Color Houses. Photo by Peter Lindstrom
Pastel Color Houses. Photo by Peter Lindstrom
Why are there sometimes two numbers on the houses in Greenland?
Many people have wondered why there are several numbers on the houses in Greenland. The answer is simply that each building in a Greenland town gets a chronological number based on when it was built. This gives old buildings low numbers and new buildings higher numbers. However, as proper streets became more and more common – and sometimes very long – it made sense to number the houses with street numbers as we see in most Western countries.
The numbers were painted on the rooftop of a building in most towns and settlements during World War II, aiding the navigation of the United States Air Force pilots as they were trying to locate the American bases in this vast country.
Kayakers from PGI Greenland in front of Restaurant H8 in Oqaatsut in Greenland
View of Narsaq taken from above. Photo – Aningaaq R. Carlsen
Section 2: Churches in Greenland
As in the rest of the world, the churches of Greenland were built to impress. Temples and other worship sites have always been designed to stand out, to reflect the otherworldly glory of whichever religion they house. This was also true in Greenland, where many beautiful wooden churches were built in the 18th century and later.
Today, Greenland is a Lutheran Protestant country, and most people in Greenland belong to the Church of Greenland, a separate entity under the Church of Denmark. 94 % of the inhabitants are baptized. Among other religions in Greenland are Catholicism, Bahai, and Jehovah’s Witness. Most churches in Greenland are Lutheran, though, and in all towns and most villages, you will see the church placed in a prominent location. A run-through of the churches of Greenland deserves its own article. However, here is a shortlist of some of the prominent ones:
The old church in Nuuk on a sunny
National Day in Greenland, June 21 – 2015. Photo by Mads Pihl
Annaassisitta Oqaluffia (Church of our Savior), Nuuk
The Cathedral of Greenland is the old church in Nuuk, located in the colonial harbor district. It was built in 1848-9. While most old churches were built from savings from the locals, this church was paid for by a donation by Ms. Karen Ørsted. It was a quite unusual gift from a Danish woman, and rumor has it that she had an affair with Poul Egede, son of Hans Egede, the colonizer of Greenland.
Hans Egede Church. Photo – Aningaaq R. Carlsen
Hans Egede’s Church, Nuuk
Hans Egede‘s Church in Nuuk became the largest church in Greenland when it was built in 1971, taking over the title after Zion’s Church in Ilulissat, which had held this distinction since 1783. Hans Egede’s Church is a large, white-painted cement church located on a hill in the heart of Nuuk.
The church entrance in Qeqertarsuaq in Greenland.
Photo by Mads Pihl
Qeqertarsuaq Church (“The Lord’s Ink Pot”), Qeqertarsuaq
The Church in Qeqertarsuaq has an unusual octagonal shape which has earned it the nickname, The Lord’s Ink Pot. It was finished in 1914 and expanded in 1976.
Narsaq Church in summer. Photo – Aningaaq R. Carlsen
Narsaq Church, Narsaq
Like Qeqertarsuaq Church, Narsaq Church was expanded in 1981. Most expansions are made by adding an appendix to the current building, but Narsaq Church was cut in half and prolonged instead. Unusually, the church was designed by a local Greenlandic carpenter, Pavia Høegh.
The church in Uummannaq in Greenland.
Photo by Mads Pihl
Uummannaq Church, Uummannaq
Uummannaq Church is the only church in Greenland built completely from stone apart from some of the old Norse churches. It is made from granite from the nearby hills and was finished in 1935. The outer stones are square and places in lines, a symbol of the order and power of God. Inside, the rocks have more untraditional shapes, symbolizing the human race.
Narsaq Church in summer. Photo – Aningaaq R. Carlsen
Old church, Tasiilaq
Tasiilaq’s old church houses the museum today, and the oddly pentagon-shaped younger church from 1986 is located not far away in the center of the town. It’s easily recognized by its high central church spire. The church is a beautiful example of a newer church building, and it is decorated by Aka Høegh, one of Greenland’s foremost artists. In some ways, it seems more similar to the untraditional churches of Iceland than to a church built in the Greenlandic or Danish tradition. Still, it is designed by the Danish architect Holger Jensen.
Tjodhilde’s Church at the norse reconstruction site
in Qassiarsuk in South Greenland. Photo by Mads Pihl
Tjodhildur’s Church, Qassiarsuk
Tjodhildur’s Church in Qassiarsuk is a small, horseshoe-shaped ruin next to the Church of Qassiarsuk. Not far from it, a replica was built in the year 2000, 1000 years after introducing Christianity to Greenland. Thus, Tjodhildur’s Church is the oldest Christian church in both of the Americas!
Historical Sisimiut museum tower. Photo-Aningaaq Rosing Carlsen
The Bethel Church, Sisimiut
The beautiful blue Bethel Church in Sisimiut is the oldest still intact church in Greenland, although it is no longer used as a church. Instead, it is a part of the Sisimiut Museum. It was created in Denmark and then rebuilt by a carpenter in Greenland. The inscription on the weather vane suggests it was built in 1773, but actually, it was not finished until 1775. The church was moved here from Ukiivik, the former placement of Sisimiut.
Church in Sisimiut. Photo Aningaaq R Carlsen
Sisimiut’s “new” Church (Zion)
The church currently used in Sisimiut was built in 1926. It is situated on a small hill near the old church. In 1984, like Narsaq Church three years before, Sisimiut Church was expanded by cutting the church up and prolonging the nave of the church.
Photo by Asbjørn D. Bargsteen.
Naalakatta Illua, Ilulissat
The fate of Naalakatta Illua (House of the Lord) in Ilulissat is not that uncommon in Greenland, where churches and church buildings have been moved many times when newer and bigger churches were built in a town. Naalakatta Illua was originally the church in Qullissat, a coal mining town on the Qeqertarsuaq/Disko Island. When the town was closed in 1972 and its inhabitants moved, causing severe trauma for the Greenland population, the church was moved and rebuilt in Ilulissat.
Ilulissat Church. Photo by Filip Gielda
Zion’s Church, Ilulissat
Zion’s Church in Ilulissat was the largest building in Greenland when it was originally built in 1782. It was restored in 1907, and was not only enlarged in 1929, but also moved further inland. Originally, in order to get the church built, the local hunters caught lots of whales and produced more than 200 barrels of whale oil from 1777 to 1779.
Qaanaaq Church. Photo by Aningaaq R.Carlsen
Qaanaaq Church, Qaanaaq
Hernhut House – Moravia Station. Photo by Aningaaq R. Carlsen
Hernhut House – Moravia Station
Many times over the years, the beautiful Herrnhut House has changed its status. At first, it was a church built from timber imported from Europe in 1747. The story goes that some Greenlanders exclaimed that “if something this beautiful could exist in this life, imagine what the afterlife would be!” The missionary station was later to become the first University of Greenland.
The Church, Temple, and Synagogue in Bluie West 1/Narsarsuaq
In the tradition of changing the function of buildings in Greenland, the former air terminal in Narsarsuaq was originally a Catholic and Protestant Church AND a Jewish Synagogue back when Narsarsuaq was an American Air Base. Synagogues have been very rare in Greenland; they have mostly been seen at American bases and airports. The church at the Thule Air Base is one of these ecumenical buildings.
Photo by Jim Hickman (1944),
Narsarsuaq Museum
Photo by Narsarsuaq Museum (2021)
Section 3: Modern Greenland
World War II – American Influence
The Greenland Treaty of April 9, 1941, was signed by the USA and the Danish Ambassador to the United States, Henrik Kaufmann. The strange thing about this treaty (which still provokes ire among some Greenlanders) is that Henrik Kaufmann signed it against the explicit wishes of his superiors in Copenhagen. However, exactly one year before, Denmark had been occupied by German forces, and Greenland was, in reality, an unprotected area.
The treaty made it possible to build American bases in Greenland, even before the Americans were dragged into the war with the attack at Pearl Harbor. The Americans built quite a few bases during WWII and the cold war, and they have later become very central to life in Greenland, such as the ones at Kangerlussuaq and Narsarsuaq. Some impressive cement landing strips were made, and in Narsarsuaq, Greenland’s first large deepwater harbor was built.
The bases were built where large flat areas could be found, and if local Greenlanders were already occupying areas, this was not a deterring factor as people were then forcibly moved from their homes to make way for the bases. As in the town of Qaanaaq, the bases were often using the American grid with rows and rows of identical housing and streets. The Greenland Government took over Narsarsuaq and Kangerlussuaq as the need for these bases subsided. For a few more years, they still function as the most important airports in Greenland. This will change when the new airports at Nuuk, Ilulissat, and Qaqortoq are ready.
At the transfer airports of Narsarsuaq and Kangerlussuaq, you find hotels located in former cement base buildings, and you will notice the endless hallways of the hotels. Large hotels were – and still are – necessary at these airports as the winter weather especially can be tricky in Greenland. This means that hundreds of passengers from Denmark may have arrived in Kangerlussuaq, and several hundred others from the coastal towns of Greenland may also have arrived but are unable to fly on. As most everyone is in transit, these large hotels are required.
The most significant American influence was not related directly to the bases but to the impact of having the Americans in Greenland. The Americans introduced many goods to the local Greenland population, both new and unique, and things that had been reserved for the Danish population. As in other countries, chewing gum and nylon stockings became quite a hit.
Kayakers from PGI Greenland in front of Restaurant H8 in Oqaatsut in Greenland
The End of Colonial Times: Greenland Becomes a Danish County
After World War II, it was decided that the Greenlandic colony could not remain as isolated as before, and, in 1953, Greenland became a Danish county instead of a colony. In 1948, the so-called Greenland Commission had been set up to evaluate the future of Greenland, and among the major concerns was the spread of illness, in particular tuberculosis, in the Greenlandic households.
Up until now, Greenlanders had mostly been in charge of their own housing, which to a large extent still consisted mainly of peat huts and some wooden houses. These houses had bad ventilation, were damp, and although they had been in use for millennia, it was a good thing that people moved out of these, even though they can be romanticized today.
A new era began in the 1950s and ’60s, giving Greenlanders more up-to-date housing, although it did not reflect the local way of living. A housing benefit scheme was set up in 1953, and within the following three decades, the towns of Greenland changed completely.
Qaqqarsuaq mountain & Narsaq. Photo – Peter Lindstrom
Tract houses
Tract houses were built in all towns along the coast, often using the same models in many towns. As a result, you find tract houses all over Greenland, and they have come to dominate our thoughts of what a “real” Greenlandic town looks like. Tract houses are serial houses that are built for one or two families. These wooden houses are painted in all kinds of colors, making neighborhoods very colorful.
In many towns in Greenland, you see these houses built on the hillsides, making the towns as colorful as our national costume. In Greenland, we love colors, probably because the winter is so long and so white. Sometimes, a two-family house even has two different colors.
Qaanaaq Church. Photo by Aningaaq R.Carlsen
Qaanaaq Church, Qaanaaq
Qaqqarsuaq mountain & Narsaq. Photo – Peter Lindstrom
Preparing the Building Boom
It was easier to prepare the land and building development with new roads and sewerage systems in some towns than in others. To this day, many houses in Greenland still do not have water closets, and these houses are visited by the “chocolate truck” every week (the chocolate truck is slang for a sewage truck, of course).
In many towns in Greenland, you see these houses built on the hillsides, making the towns as colorful as our national costume. In Greenland, we love colors, probably because the winter is so long and so white. Sometimes, a two-family house even has two different colors.
Residential block building in Paamiut.
Photo – Aningaaq R. Carlsen
Preparing the Building Boom
It was easier to prepare the land and building development with new roads and sewerage systems in some towns than in others. To this day, many houses in Greenland still do not have water closets, and these houses are visited by the “chocolate truck” every week (the chocolate truck is slang for a sewage truck, of course).
Large apartment blocks were also built, as many people moved from smaller settlements to the towns where new fish factories were built, and local labor was needed. As a result, these fish processing plants became synonymous with progress, and along with larger towns like Sisimiut and Ilulissat, smaller towns like Narsaq and Qasigiannguit, among others, prospered.
Today, Nuuk is the largest town in Greenland, and 1/3 of the population lives here. Nuuk has surpassed everyone’s expectations, but for many years, what happened in Nuuk was also what happened in most other towns, just on a larger scale. So even if Nuuk stands out a lot architecturally, the way Greenland was developed in many towns was similar to the development of Nuuk.
Some towns were spared the big apartment blocks, e.g., Qasigiannguit, Tasiilaq, and smaller settlements. In contrast, modern times arrived with large blocks in towns like Qaqortoq, Narsaq, Nuuk, Paamiut, Sisimiut, and Maniitsoq.
Today, these apartment blocks are very varied, some beautiful and impressive, while others are plain hideous, the leftovers of 1960’s building styles that have blemished the entire world.
In Nuuk, there is a huge difference between the apartments of the 1960s and 1970s and today. Nuuk architecture has changed tremendously, so let’s have a look at the development of Nuuk.
City planning and Growth
The Colonial Harbor Neighborhood of Nuuk boasts the oldest still-standing house in Greenland. Hans Egede‘s House was rebuilt here in 1728 after it had been moved from Kangeq, where it was originally built in 1721. Most of the surrounding houses in the Colonial Harbor neighborhood are younger but still from the 19th century, including Our Savior’s Church from 1849.
“Nuuk” is the Greenlandic word for “cape,” and the town is located on relatively flat lands protruding from the mountains behind Nuuk. When Nuuk was established as a colony back in 1728, all buildings were located in Nuuk downtown. However, since the 1980s, Nuuk has grown considerably, and the suburb of Nuussuaq alone would be Greenland’s second-largest town if it had been a separate town.
Apartment Buildings in Nuuk
Once upon a time, there was a famous building in Greenland, Block P. Indeed, it was so famous that documentaries and numerous articles were written about it. However, it was rarely for the good that Block P was mentioned. Block P housed about 1 % of the entire Greenland population. When it was erected in 1965-66, it was the largest apartment block in Northern Europe, with 231 meters (758 feet), and had 64 apartments on each of the five floors.
The authorities moved people from small settlements into this mammoth building, who were very often overwhelmed by the size, noise, and strangeness of it all. Block P was torn down in 2012, and many of its inhabitants were moved to the suburb of Qinngorput.
The rootlessness felt by many people in Blok P was also felt in apartment blocks in the other towns. The apartments were built where the workplaces were, and people were “nudged” (some say “pushed”) into a modern lifestyle, far from the traditional Greenlandic way of life. Time was suddenly the main factor, whereas weather had always been at the core of everything.
Sure, you need to plan and have a hand in the development, but in Greenland, you have more than that; towns are increasingly manipulated structures. They do not always tell us about what people in Greenland wanted, but rather about what [the authorities] wanted to do with people in Greenland. That was true, at least in the 60s.
Blok P
Photo by Recardolovesmonuments
Memories and documentation about life in Block P
By Peter Jensen and Rikke Diemer, 2013. (Only in Danish and Greenlandic)
The building rush of the ’50s and the ’60s created lots of apartment blocks and tract housing where functionality (if flawed) was at the center. For instance, the apartment blocks had minuscular entrance halls jammed with clothes, rubber boots, the day’s catch, and whatnot. As a result, entering an apartment was often a complicated task. The buildings were made by Danish architects and were variations on the same type of panel housing, which was being erected worldwide.
People learn from practice, so the architects started to build housing better suited to Arctic life. In the 1980s, the suburb of Nuussuaq was built, and you can easily tell that the new buildings were better suited to Greenland.
Newer apartment houses, especially in the suburb of Qinngorput in Nuuk, have introduced new apartments focusing on beauty and proper functionality, such as incorporating large entrance halls (we have a lot of wet outer clothes in winter) and larger bathrooms. In addition, these apartments have large kitchen-dining rooms, where the kids can do their homework while their parents cook next to them.
Nuuk also has tract houses, and a typical tract house area is Qaqortoq, also known as Mosquito Valley.
Living in Greenland
Living in Greenland is an individual experience, and there is a huge difference in lifestyle and possibilities, depending on where you live and if you are rich or poor. In this sense, Greenland does not differ from other societies.
Houses in Greenland come in all sizes. For example, there can be 20 people living in a one-family house in some northern settlements, whereas in the larger towns like Nuuk and Sisimiut, you find houses with 2-300 square meters for 1-2 people. So Greenland is no different from the rest of the world.
Prestige buildings
In Greenland, particularly in the larger towns, you will find unique and beautiful buildings that accommodate their surroundings, such as the Malik Swimming Pool in Nuuk and the newly-built Ilulissat Icefjord Center. These Greenland landmarks are man-made, something quite rare in a country where natural monuments have always been the true Greenland landmarks. Among these famous landmarks in Greenland, you find the icebergs of Ilulissat Ice Fjord, the mountain Sermitsiaq, one of Nuuk’s landmarks, and the dramatic mountain Kullorsuaq, also known as Devil’s Thumb.
However, apart from churches, it is a relatively new thing that buildings were built to be landmarks in themselves. So let’s examine some of those.
Katuaq Cultural Centre Exterior.
Photo – Filip Gielda
Katuaq
Katuaq is Greenland’s national cultural house. Katuaq is the Greenlandic word for a drumstick, a reference to one of our most significant cultural artifacts. Greenlandic drum dancing has always had a significant role in our culture.
Katuaq was opened in 1997 and designed by the Danish architects at Schmidt, Hammer, and Lassen. This well-respected firm is also behind The Black Diamond in Copenhagen, Greenland’s new prison, Ningbo New Library in China, and New University Bristol Library, among many other buildings.
The beautiful front of the building is inspired by the northern lights and the play of light on snow and ice, as it says on Katuaq’s webpage. Inside, there are three main rooms, which are square, round, and triangular, respectively. The large round room houses the cinema and many concerts, the smaller square houses smaller events and concerts, and finally, there is the excellent triangular Cafétuaq, the in-house café.
The public pool Malik in Nuuk on a winter night in Greenland.
Photo by Mads Pihl
Malik Swimming Pool
On the edge of Nuussuaq, where the road is about to take you to the other suburb of Qinngorput, the Malik Swimming Pool is located. The KHR architecture studio from Copenhagen designed Malik, and the building has won numerous medals. The word “malik” means wave in Greenlandic, and the roof of the building is shaped like a giant wave.
Towards the south, the building has a huge glass façade which gives the swimmers an amazing view of nearby mountains and the sea. The glass façade also lets in a lot of sunshine all year round. The swimming pool is a favorite place for many children and grown-ups alike. Greenlanders are known for their kayaking skills, and Malik is a great place to practice these.
Nuuk Center seen from north.
Photo – Filip Gielda
NC – Nuuk Center
Nuuk Center is one of those buildings that you either love or hate. Opened in 2012 at the very center of Nuuk, this massive shopping and office tower divided the population. Some loved its modernity, while others decried that this grey building with one glass front was too different from the multi-colored houses across the street. Others feared that the shops who moved here from other places would leave a lot of downtown boarded up, but that has not been the case.
Nuuk Center was the first shopping center in Greenland and boasted many other firsts, including the first indoor parking basement and first escalators. The two lower floors house more than 25 shops and several cafes and restaurants. Its closest neighbor is Katuaq, and together with the Bank of Greenland Tower and the Tele-Post Tower, it creates an axis of high-rise buildings in downtown Nuuk.
The building is designed by KHR Arkitekter from Denmark and is the largest building in Greenland. Above the two floors of shops, eight more floors rise with government offices. On the top floor, you find the office of the Greenland Premier.
Nuuk Center seen from north.
Photo – Filip Gielda
Ilulissat Icefjord Centre
Ilulissat Icefjord Center opened in the summer of 2021. The Ilulissat Icefjord area became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. Ever since, there has been talking of building a center with exhibits and information about the area, inhabited for more than 4,500 years.
Before the arrival of the center, tourists went to the Ilulissat City Museum (a.k.a Knud Rasmussen Museum) to get information on the Icefjord. Of course, you can still do that, but the new Visitor’s Center will give you even more in-depth information.
Ilulissat Icefjord Center is designed by Dorthe Mandrup and is situated on the edge of the World Heritage site. A long wooden walkway was built about ten years ago. This has been incorporated into the design of the building so that you actually walk on top of the curving building when you walk to the northern shore of Ilulissat Icefjord.
You can read a booklet about the Icefjord Center online here.
Greenland National Gallery for Art
(Upcoming Museum)
In the planning stages is BIG/Bjarke Ingels Group’s new National Gallery for Art. Ring-shaped, the museum will be located on a hill close to the national museum, and it will sort of flow down the hill, like melting ice or snow. It will provide exhibition space for modern art in Greenland and the surrounding circumpolar countries.
We cannot wait to see the finished building. But, right now, we mainly talk about what they will do with all the melting snow and ice inside the ring in the spring…
In the meantime, museums worth visiting include Greenland’s National Museum, located on the waterfront in the colonial area of Nuuk. It houses a vast collection related to the history of Greenland, including the world-famous Qilakitsoq mummies. We also have the Nuuk Art Museum, based on the collection of two local collectors who donated their large Greenlandic art collection to the town of Nuuk, provided that Nuuk would finance a building to house it.
