(Not) Dystopian Republic: Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie
While walking along the banks of Vieux Montreal, I spied Habitat 67 across an inlet (yes, the river is covered in snow). I decided to take a spontaneous trek across the water to see it up close. I had no idea if this was possible, but this is such an important building that I felt I couldn't let the opportunity go.
After about 45 minutes of walking next to industrial flour mills and other enormous buildings, under highway overpasses and past deserted parking lots, I knew immediately that the long walk was worth it. Habitat 67 was the graduate thesis project of McGill student Moshe Safdie, the architect who went on to design important buildings such as the Kaufmann Center in Kansas City, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and Eleanor Roosevelt College at University of California, San Diego. A few years after graduating, he proposed this for the 1967 Montreal Expo, and it was built.
Safdie used pre fabricated units strategically arranged to give each unit privacy and access to outdoor space. His intention was to bring suburban living benefits to a higher density urban context. I was particularly beguiled by this glimpse inside of one of the units. Seeing the middle cube in this picture, with the stairs leading up to who knows where, I immediately got a sense of space and light.
While the heavy use of interior negative space is a hallmark of dystopian architecture, in this situation the cubes appear to contact one another in such a delicate and surprising way, that the effect is poetic, light, and fanciful. (His Marina Bay Sands, on the other hand, is quite dystopian in feel, in my opinion).
Winter was a great time to visit, because I could see more of the building through the trees.
