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Habitat 67

Montreal, Canada
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Habitat 67 is a housing complex and landmark located on the Marc-Drouin Quay on the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its design was created by architect Moshe Safdie based on his master's thesis at the McGill University in Montreal. It was built as part of the World Exhibition Expo 67. Housing was one of the main themes of Expo 67 and Habitat 67 became a thematic pavilion visited by thousands of visitors.

Habitat 67 was designed to integrate the variety and diversity of scattered private homes with the economics and density of a modern apartment building and to create affordable housing. Modular, interlocking concrete forms define the space. These foms measure 5 x 11 x 3 metres and weigh 85 tons each. They were pre-fabricated and stacked together on site in a way that all apartments get sufficient daylight.

The building was believed to illustrate the new lifestyle people would live in increasingly crowded cities. The complex was originally planned on a larger scale but due to exploding construction costs and initial criticism over the concept, only 354 of 1350 planned cubic elements were built.

Although the building was initially rejected, it has meanwhile become a sought after residential quarter. It is owned by its tenants, who formed a limited partnership that purchased the building from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1985.

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  1. Wikipedia
archibald, March 7th, 2016
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