I like bright colors, but I would not like to live in colorful houses in Greenland

When I choose a place on our planet in which I would like to live, I always look at areas of the Earth that are unpopular with tourists and expatriates. For example, Greenland is the largest island on Earth. It is located in the north of America, but belongs to Europe, as it is part of Denmark.

Life there is very extreme, because most of the island is covered with ice and snow and only on the southwest coast there is land. There, in summer, the temperature rises to 15-20 degrees, and in abnormal heat it can be 25 degrees, but only for 1-2 days. The rest of the year is divided into polar night and polar day, which lasts from May to July.

Architectural principles of Greenland

Of course, it is impossible to say that people from all over the world strive to live in such extreme conditions. But those who nevertheless decided to do without sun and heat for 9 months a year should arrange their home so that it is comfortable in it, and it itself is pleasing to the eye. But Greenlanders are not prone to architectural frills. The main goal of their architecture is to provide comfortable conditions for a life that is an eternal test. And I like this position very much. I hate all these turrets, arches and colonnades, to which builders gravitate today.

Here, in the harshest country in the world, from time immemorial, the indigenous inhabitants of the island - the Eskimos - built the simplest dwellings, because they did not have any tools for building houses. They lived in huts made of topsoil with plant roots - sod. And in winter they even lived in igloos - ice houses. This is where the ascetic principles in housing construction came from - nothing superfluous, everything is simple and functional.

Houses are of the correct shape, the roof is always quite steep, gable, so that snow can roll off it. This is important in conditions of endless snowfalls in winter.

There is one more, perhaps the most important and pleasant to me, difference between houses in Greenland and houses in Russia. This is the absence of fences. From the house there is an exit directly to the street, there are no personal plots or courtyards here.

Houses in Greenland are built of wood or stone, strictly in the same style - a cubic shape, 1-2 floors. It would seem that it is very boring, monotonous? But this monotony is lost in bright colors - all houses are painted in different colors, the brightest shades.

Why are the houses colorful?

I wondered how the inhabitants of the island came up with such a cool idea - to paint cities and towns with cheerful colors? Maybe they are so eager to add rainbows to their boring landscape? It turns out that this is not the case at all. Since ancient times, when Greenland was just being mastered by settlers, the painting of houses was supposed to help sailors determine the place of anchorage in ports. Ship offices were red, hospitals and hospitals yellow, telephone centers green, fish processing plants blue, police stations black.

But now this function of painting houses, for the most part, has been lost. The blue might be the doctor's house, not the cannery. Therefore, this landmark no longer works.

Urban landscape

There is only one thing that does not suit me in this system of households - Greenlanders are not prone to loneliness - they prefer to settle closer to each other so that there is an opportunity to help. That is why the maximum distance between houses is 10 meters.

The main principle of housing construction is free access to the sea. After all, boats and boats are the main mode of transportation. The fact is that the sea does not freeze in winter due to the warm current, and the roads are often swept over by snow.

Modern life

In terms of living standards, Eskimos are in the top 10 richest countries in the world. They are ranked 6th. But Russia, for example, is in 90th place.

Therefore, despite the fact that people on the island are mainly engaged in the extraction of seafood - fish, whales, seals, they do not live badly at all.

And although this country is very harsh, it manages to give people all modern opportunities. Only here is something that does not please them all. It has the highest suicide rate in the world. 85 cases per 10 thousand population per year. For comparison, in Russia - 15 cases. So, most likely, you should not envy the Greenlanders.

And this last fact made me understand that Greenland is definitely not the place in the world where I would like to live.