Fermont, an iron-mining town of 2,874 people on Québec’s border with Labrador, boasts a unique feature: a 1.3 kilometre long community complex which residents use to cross through town during the cold sub-arctic winter.

UWindsor alumna Krysia Bussière will offer a fascinating look into the social dynamics of a young Canadian settlement in her free public lecture, “Permanence in Transient Settlement,” Thursday, March 13, at 7 p.m. in room 115, LeBel Building.

“Fermont’s plan was intended to provide a stronger sense of community (typically absent in transient settlements) and combat the remote region’s harsh climate,” she says. “Residents who initially did not want to stay in the town are now seeking to establish permanence … (providing) insight into broader concepts of human settlement and place making.”

A 2012 graduate of the UWindsor’s Visual Arts and the Built Environment program, Bussière is pursuing graduate studies at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture.