Habitat67: Over 40 Years Old, Still Cutting Edge by johngayton
This was something that caught my eye whilst wandering around the Old Port and the pic duly taken without knowing what it was.I had assumed at the time that it was a very modern apartment building and upon doing some research afterwards was surprised to find that, whilst it is an apartment building, it actually dates back to 1967. This is Habitat67 and was designed and built for Expo 67, housing being one of the main themes of the exhibition.
The architect responsible is the Isreali born Moshe Safdie who studied at McGill University. Habitat67 was in fact his Master's thesis piece which was selected in a competition for construction for the Expo. Safdie has since become one of North America's best know architects and his other Canadian masterpieces include Ottawa'a former City Hall and National Gallery.
The building was certainly ahead of its time with the 60's being better know for many failed residential experiments. Here the concept was to provide (in Safdie's own words) "a fragment of paradise to everyone". The building is constructed of 354 cubes to form 158 residences, stacked so that no two residences has adjoining walls and that each has its own private garden/balcony and views. The residences are made up of varying numbers of building blocks and provide accommodation for singles, couples and families.
It was initially intended as high-density, affordable housing, but the planned development of 900 units was scaled back to the 158 completed due to prohibitive construction costs. Also because of the cachet of the architecture and its riverside location the homes are no longer "affordable" in the sense that the architect intended.
It is however a fascinating structure and made for an interesting little research project.
see www.habitat67.com and www.greatbuildings.com for more info.