1 percent of Greenland

Up until 2012, 1% of the population of Greenland lived in the same apartment building.

Peter Løvstrøm from Nuuk, Greenland [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Blok P was a big building in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital city. Built in 1965, it had 320 apartments, and more than enough space to house more than 500 people. Greenland’s population is not huge by international standards – around 55,000 at the moment – so that was enough for one in every hundred Greenlanders.

It was not a pretty building. A giant concrete block, essentially, that cut right through the middle of Nuuk. It was not a well-designed building. 88% of the population of Greenland is Inuit. Doorways were too narrow for their heavy winter clothing; blood from fish preparation clogged up bathtub drains. Because of these and other problems, Blok P was demolished in 2012.

• Blok P

[Thanks to Futility Closet for writing about this topic.]