In many modern cities in the far North, the cities (like Reykjavik here or Greenland or Svalbard), the houses and buildings are very brightly colored. Is this a modern phenomenon, or did Northern civilizations always use bright colors?
I'm from Iceland and I can only offer speculation. House ownership is very common in Iceland and usually only young people rent until they've saved enough money to buy a place. So all those houses you see are mostly owned by the people who live there and they have the freedom to paint their house in any color they like. I've never really thought about why, but people just like to have their house be colorful rather than bland. Maybe it has something to do with long dark winters.
