Blok P | Book | 2026

Between 1965 and 1969, Blok P was constructed in Nuuk, the capital of Kalaallit Nunaat. At 200 meters long and six stories high, it was the largest residential complex in the country, housing nearly one percent of the entire population. Blok P was planned and designed in Denmark, built by Danish guest workers, and was part of a policy of urbanization and population concentration that led to the closure of numerous settlements along the coast. It was demolished in 2012.

The book Blok P takes the demolition as its point of departure to explore Nordic colonialism, the instruments of welfare colonialism, and the many lives that unfolded between the concrete walls. It challenges the problem-oriented narratives that have shaped perceptions of Blok P from the outside, and brings forward the voices of those who lived there—childhood memories, community, and a nuanced critique of an architecture that offered material improvements, but on the terms of assimilation.

The photographs lead us from the aerial view through an airplane window over Kalaallit Nunaat, through abandoned homes and into the city, to emptied apartments and the demolition itself. Tone Huse’s text uses Blok P as a prism, tracing lines from postwar Danish assimilation policies to everyday life, resistance, and adaptation in and around the building. The book also includes Nicholas Norton’s essay The Implicated Eye, which situates the photographs within histories of the colonial gaze, as well as a contribution by Inge Bisgaard, curator at the National Museum and Archives of Greenland and one of the country’s leading experts on Greenlandic architectural heritage. The book is bilingual in English and Kalaallisut.

Made in collaboration with Tone Huse. Design by Blank Blank. Published by MONDO Books.