[HN Gopher] "The Wall" Housing Structure In Fermont, Quebec
___________________________________________________________________
"The Wall" Housing Structure In Fermont, Quebec
Author : asyncscrum
Score : 156 points
Date : 2022-02-19 17:10 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.houseporn.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.houseporn.ca)
| hassancf wrote:
| Quebec, that's America in French.
|
| Quebec is NOT a piece of France in America.
|
| That's the mistake lots of people make.
|
| I know what I'm talking about. I'm in Quebec.
| not_math wrote:
| Quebec was pretty disconnected from France for a long time, and
| it was not until very recently with Charles de Gaulle that the
| friendship started again.
|
| Now Quebec is more influenced by the European way of living,
| but there is still a very "American" way of life.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| Reminds me of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City
|
| Can't imagine what it would be like to live in one of these
| things. Probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing how real
| life vault dwellers would play out.
| Vvic wrote:
| There's also the largest "underground city" in Montreal, Quebec
| to avoid winter. It links up universities, stores, offices,
| subways and much, much more!
| speed_spread wrote:
| I feel the "underground city" is a bit oversold to tourists.
| It's mostly just a bunch of shopping malls and bland corridors.
| But yeah, you can walk for miles below ground level without
| ever setting foot outside. Especially if you include a Metro
| hop or two.
| not_math wrote:
| While living in Montreal, I could walk around 5 minutes
| outside (from my apartment to the metro) and never have to go
| outside again to go to work or school until I had to come
| back home.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > But yeah, you can walk for miles below ground level without
| ever setting foot outside.
|
| It's ironic because if you visit Montreal in the summer
| everyone is outside.
|
| Also, if a French Canadian take you to lunch, expect to eat
| for 1+ hour. No such thing as a quick lunch.
| jrockway wrote:
| I think the idea of the underground city is that it's nice
| in the winter.
|
| I lived in Chicago which has something similar, and never
| went down there except to take the train. It's all chain
| stores that have "upstairs" versions as well. Good if
| you're walking around outside and you notice there's a
| tornado heading your way, though.
| mattkrause wrote:
| Amen! So many friends have wanted to "visit" it, but it's
| just shops, Starbuckses, and hallways with nary a mole person
| to be seen.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| I mean really you could say that about most non-tourist
| attraction neighborhoods.
|
| It's probably indicative that it's nice for everyday
| residents. Most people's lives are pretty mundane.
| magicroot75 wrote:
| I lived in a building connected to the underground in
| Montreal. I could go see a movie, eat at any major restaurant
| chain, shop in massive shopping malls, and even get to NYC
| without ever going outside. I'd say that's pretty cool. Even
| if it is just a loosely connected group of underground
| corridors between buildings.
| tomcam wrote:
| > even get to NYC without ever going outside
|
| Wait what? How?
| baybal2 wrote:
| I think we have just DDoSed the website.
| manholio wrote:
| I don't understand high density housing in low density
| neighborhoods with huge empty lawns. Seems an artificial, Le
| Corbusier style of utopia where the actual inhabitants are forced
| to conform to the architect's vision of how they should live.
|
| When people want to escape suburbia, the natural higher density
| option is the 2-3 story terrace, rows of individual homes that
| share lateral walls and have front access to the street and a
| back yard. Owning your own personal yard and trees is an immense
| quality of life factor compared to a cramped apartment and a
| balcony.
|
| The next, even higher density option I've seen in some european
| cities is to squeeze the frontal street, remove all parking there
| and move it in the back yards. A concrete slab covers the back
| parking and the backyard is effectively elevated one flood into
| the air.
|
| This produces a dense, walkable urban environment with
| comfortable individual houses, each with a lot on the order of
| 150 square meters (1600 sq feet).
| Elr wrote:
| Fermont was founded as a company town when they opened the Mont
| Wright mine and most homes were under the ownership of the
| company (Quebec Cartier back then, now ArcelorMittal).
|
| Take this with a grain of salt, but I believe a big percentage
| of the habitations still are under their ownership. A lot of
| split houses were built in the last 10 years and if you work
| for the company and accept to transfer to Fermont, they offer
| you to live in the house for cheaper and offers you to buy it
| for a reasonable price after a few years.
|
| It is a small compact town, but as soon as you leave, you're in
| the wilderness. It's paradise.
| dirtyid wrote:
| I always wonder how much cumulative value has been generated by
| remote company towns built around resource extraction. Always a
| marvel to see civilization at work.
| mrgriscom wrote:
| I've actually been here:
| http://mrgris.com/travel/blog/labrador/2/
|
| Quite a weird place, though definitely not 50m tall.
| xwdv wrote:
| The title should be changed as this currently makes it
| clickbait. I was expecting a wall of over 164 feet in height.
| melissalobos wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this, I have always wanted to go to
| Labrador. Just need much higher resolution pictures(send back a
| mirrorless DSLR to 2009?).
| samwillis wrote:
| Pretty sure its a typo and meant to say 50ft, which is about
| 15m or about 2.7m/floor plus another 1.5m extra for the roof
| for the five story buildings you can see in the pictures.
|
| That looks like an incredible trip!
| TimedToasts wrote:
| I enjoyed the blog entries and am definitely jealous! :)
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That's a cool blog.
|
| I like the way that you switch between your side, and your
| wife's.
| SECProto wrote:
| Yup, 15m ("quinzaine metres") tall.
|
| https://caniapiscau.ca/attraits/mur-ecran/
| francislavoie wrote:
| Interesting, I think the English version of that page was
| mistranslated as per https://web.archive.org/web/200604210350
| 31/http://www.caniap... which seems like an old version of
| that same website. Fifteen and Fifty are easy to mix up.
| SECProto wrote:
| Yup, and looks to have persisted until at least 2012 [2]
| and then by 2013 [2] they just removed the English website
| as far as I can tell.
|
| [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20120904222048/http://www.c
| aniap...
|
| [2] redirected to https://web.archive.org/web/2013072007323
| 8/http://www.caniap...
| [deleted]
| soared wrote:
| > But driving 150 miles one-way only to find an uncrossable
| ditch would be a rude surprise. My oxen would die trying to
| ford that river, so to speak.
|
| This is my favorite kind of blog, excellent stuff.
| brokenodometer wrote:
| I didn't expect to end up reading this whole thing, but I did
| and really enjoyed it! Love a good old fashioned travelblog
| without the bs "hacks", ads, and affiliate links.
| tomcam wrote:
| Wonderful post. I have a feeling they did something very right
| by making the interior corridor so wide. I imagine it feel a
| lot more open. Did the noisy ventilation at least keep it from
| smelling bad?
| jat850 wrote:
| I have to say that the Northern store in the Labrador pics was
| a massive nostalgia throwback.
| japhyr wrote:
| Back in the 90s I lived in NYC and took a bicycle trip to
| Chibougamau, and then another summer rode a motorcycle as far
| as I could on pavement along the St Lawrence river. Your blog
| took me right back to those adventures; thanks so much for
| sharing!
| mleonhard wrote:
| I wish there were photos from inside the building. External views
| don't show how it feels to be inside, which is an extremely
| important characteristic of any building.
| Elr wrote:
| Pardon my poor English, it isn't my first language.
|
| I've worked many years in the mining industry where I had to
| stay both in Fermont and inside workers camps on the mine
| itself (Mont-Wright). I went back during the summer of 2021
| during my vacations to reminisce the good old days. Here is a
| video that shows older footages from inside "Le Mur", but it
| still looks the same to this day, minus the fact that most
| stores has since been closed.
|
| This structure is hosting a lot of apartments, a grocery store,
| a school, a medical clinic that I believe is only accessible
| from outside (You sometimes see people wearing pajamas at the
| grocery store or inside "The Wall" itself), a small bar with
| erotic dancers (La Fer-Tek), an ice rink and much more. I'd
| return live there in a heartbeat if I had the opportunity.
|
| Here are a video showing older footage followed by a video clip
| recorded in Fermont.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQWQqVp8v6w
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9R2H_KkQk
| mleonhard wrote:
| Thank you!
|
| The first video shows the inside of an apartment at time
| 5:40, https://youtu.be/wQWQqVp8v6w?t=340 . It has plenty of
| natural light, with windows on two sides. Nice!
|
| What did you like about life in Fermont? What were the
| downsides for you?
| Elr wrote:
| Thank you for the questions! As a nature kind of person,
| Fermont had everything I was seeking; Plenty of forest, the
| ability to hunt, trap, fish almost anywhere, a lot of snow
| during the winter, the Northern lights, the fauna and much
| more. It IS the place for outdoor activities. If you ever
| drive on the 389, I recommend you check out the Mont
| Groulx. [1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monts_Groulx The
| infamous Manic 5 hydroelectric water dam is on that road.
| Bring a camera, don't be scared to enter the trails near
| rivers and lakes, you won't regret it. [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel-Johnson_dam
|
| You are close to Labrador City in case you need to take a
| flight, the salaries were insanely good in my field, the
| inhabitants were really friendly and always ready to help
| no matter what.
|
| On the downside, I would say that other than going in
| Newfoundland for errands, you are really far away from any
| other town and the more importantly, the sea (I'm from a
| fisherman village). Other than that, it does get really
| cold during winter. I've personally witnessed -63C on an
| iron mine, but fortunately, the humidity level is really
| low (it's dry).
|
| Cheers from the Great White North!
| fifilura wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20220219171521/https://www.house...
| baybal2 wrote:
| https://m.imgur.com/gallery/a8kfa
| trackofalljades wrote:
| Isn't there a podcast episode all about this? I think maybe it
| was 99pi...
|
| ...here we go! https://99percentinvisible.org/article/self-
| contained-cities...
| aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
| 50m would be 12 storeys or more...
| Findecanor wrote:
| I measured only 911 m on Google Maps, along the roof, and there
| is a sharp kink in that line and few smaller ones.
|
| The Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna, Austria is over 1000 m in a straight
| line, from one end to the other. Still the longest residential
| building in the world.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| It doesn't really claim to be the longest.
|
| There are pros and cons to such long buildings. Hong Kong
| actually started regulating breaks in buildings, because tall
| walls of buildings + mountains + irregular street grid meant
| that there was insufficient ventilation for roadside pollution
| to dissipate.
| trhway wrote:
| In USSR/Russia it is pretty typical to build wall-like housing.
| That one is a modern take on it (nicknamed "bleeding attic" for
| what architects intended to depict "northern lights" :)
|
| https://obzor78.ru/posts/domostroy_channel/4014
| Gys wrote:
| A while ago I saw a tv series 'The Wall' (2019) [0]. Took me a
| few episodes to understand the name relates to an actual building
| that really is like a wall.
|
| [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11577386/
| mig39 wrote:
| I was in Fermont a long time ago. I was driving from Goose Bay
| all the way south. in the 90s, the Labrador highway wasn't paved,
| it was just rough gravel.
|
| I got a flat tire somewhere near the border, then pulled into
| Fermont and tried my best high school-level French to find
| somewhere to fix my flat tire.
|
| I asked the guy at the gas station: "Excusez-moi, savez-vous ou
| je peux trouver un garage pour reparer mon pneu creve ?"
|
| He looked at me and said "Fixer le flat, huh?"
|
| No amount of formal French prepares you for Northern Quebecois
| "French" :-)
| cmehdy wrote:
| FWIW your French is impeccable, and indeed there's no shortage
| of culture shock between France and Quebec for this sort of
| stuff.
|
| source: French from FR living in QC :)
| gmfawcett wrote:
| If you want a happy rabbit-hole to visit for a few minutes,
| take a look at these examples of "Chiac", an Acadian French
| variety spoken in parts of New Brunswick:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiac#Example_sentences
|
| A slightly legendary music video in Chiac:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cRPH4lb8UI
|
| Right drole!
| FpUser wrote:
| >"A slightly legendary music video in Chiac"
|
| OMG. They're awesome. Thanks for good find
| dundarious wrote:
| I recommend P'tit Belliveau, in particular Income Tax, which
| has a nice "Glossaire acadjonne" and lines like "J'vais
| blower friggin' 300$ au liquor store":
| https://youtu.be/Ri0r0_urwo8
| gmfawcett wrote:
| That's hilarious -- thanks for sharing.
| dghughes wrote:
| A guy I worked with from New Brunswick was bilingual. He
| dated a woman from northern New Brunswick she only spoke
| French. When he met her parents he said her dad scowled at
| his poor French. To the father he was not French. So this
| person my co-worker bilingual French/English since birth had
| to take French lessons. I guess the words he used were
| bizarre to French-only ears.
| dheera wrote:
| English in Newfoundland is also another level.
|
| Typical greeting isn't "What's up" but "Where ya at?" The
| response I was told is "This is it."
| jmacd wrote:
| Not to be confused with "Where ya to?"
| jeffreygoesto wrote:
| I went with a canadian friend to Quebec and thought "boy is his
| french bad" when he ordered a room. Much to my surprise the
| answer wad in exactly the same dialect. Loved it and ruined in
| the local radio stations for the whole drive after.
|
| Still have a certain song in my ear that we heard live in a bar
| in Quebec "Quand je change ma vie, je rue la Gaspesie...".
| Which is what we did after Quebec... If you asked in French,
| the local people immediately switched to English and were
| extremely nice and helpful.
| aliswe wrote:
| I would see this title as highly misleading?
| francislavoie wrote:
| There was a mistranslation in documentation about this it
| seems. But yes, 15 meters (50 feet) tall. Also easy to mix up
| fifteen and fifty.
| aliswe wrote:
| I was referring to the previous title saying that a city
| lives inside a wall!
| francislavoie wrote:
| Music video filmed there:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9R2H_KkQk
|
| Such a great song and video, awesome cinematography, and includes
| some clips of residents shortly talking about it.
| jka wrote:
| Nice, thanks :)
|
| Enjoyed the sci-fi / Moon[1] vibes at t=189[2] (those neons
| might be to improve visibility of the trucks in the dark and/or
| during storms?).
|
| [1] - https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/17431-moon
|
| [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9R2H_KkQk&t=189
| irthomasthomas wrote:
| Anyone else disapointed that the streetview car reached the
| entrance and then turned around? Is this a military base or
| something?
| https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fermont,+QC+G0G+1J0,+Canad...
| speed_spread wrote:
| Not military but it's a mining town and as such most
| infrastructure might be private? Which would explain the
| limited streetview. But if you're willing to drive there
| yourself, it's not closed or anything.
| larrymcp wrote:
| Yea the building is open to the public; there is a hotel and
| I have stayed there, and some stores too; there's a grocery
| store on the lower level. I did some "sightseeing" indoors so
| to speak; I walked the corridor all the way down through the
| pool & gym area and the school area.
| emrex wrote:
| Correct me if I am wrong but the number of floors does not meet
| the 50m height at all !!!
| francislavoie wrote:
| It might be measured from the basement floors up
| mypalmike wrote:
| That's a lot of basement.
| vidarh wrote:
| Or someone has confused meters and feet.
| francislavoie wrote:
| Yeah, sounds about right. 50 feet = 15 meters.
| jaclaz wrote:
| Yes, 5 storeys x 3 meters = 15 metres, it sounds right.
| rand85632 wrote:
| Looks like it may have been a mistranslation of sorts with a
| 5-0 ft wall
| maxerickson wrote:
| Wikipedia has the 50 meters and cites an article from 2006
| for it:
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20060421035031/http://www.caniap.
| ..
| emrex wrote:
| Wanted to say maybe 50 feet but since I never measured with
| feet I was not confident enough.
| maxerickson wrote:
| The building stories are a good reference, they will be
| close enough to 10-11 feet most of the time.
| aaron_m04 wrote:
| It looks closer to 20m to me.
| emrex wrote:
| Since can not bee sure about the floor standard I would say
| also between 20 to 25 at most.
| greenhorn123 wrote:
| aaron_m04 wrote:
| The site got the HN hug of death.
| nabla9 wrote:
| Definitely not 50m high.
|
| Maybe 50 feet 15.3m? That's the height of standard 5 five storey
| building like in the pictures.
| cm2012 wrote:
| On that day, mankind received a grim reminder.
| samwillis wrote:
| Seems to have been hugged to death, mirror:
|
| https://archive.is/0gcfh
| Keyframe wrote:
| If you want to see another example of urban 'planning' against
| powerful winds, see Mediterranean coast. It's littered with
| densly packed narrow streets.
| dmurray wrote:
| More so than inland towns of the same age and size?
| JamisonM wrote:
| I don't know very much about this stuff but it seems to me that
| the fairly dense housing just "behind" the wall relative to the
| prevailing winds would suffer from A LOT of snow accumulation.
|
| I am sure I would enjoy living in that building and the community
| design seems good, if not quite as dense as might be ideal given
| some of the green space placement. If they have concerns about
| the wind they really need a lot more trees, I would venture a
| guess that a couple of good windrows of trees would be as good or
| better than the building -- but then of course trees aren't
| houses!
| kens wrote:
| This interview with a stripper in Fermont provides an interesting
| look at the culture there:
| https://www.vice.com/en/article/dpwqzk/life-as-a-stripper-ne...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-02-19 23:00 UTC)