Habitat 67
DrawingsScale@1:1000
Program
300m
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1967
200m
Architect: Moshe Safdie Client: Canada, expo 1967 Plot Area:
25.150 m2 Building Footprint: 7.750 m2 Gross Floor Area: 22.160 m2
Height: 44 m 12 floors Cost US$: $21,000,000.-Lifts: 3 Status:
Realized for expo 1967
100m
Dwelling
Section
Floor Plans
N
ConceptConcept of the Architect Habitat 67 was the major theme
exhibition of the 1967 World Exposition in Montreal. It pioneered
the design and implementation of threedimensional prefabricated
units of habitation. 354 construction modules connect to create 158
residences ranging in size from 180 m2 one-bedroom dwellings to 360
m2 four-bedroom dwellings, exhibiting fifteen housing types in all.
All these different modules where stacked on top of each other.
Stepped back in their modular placement, each residence has its own
roof garden which was provide by an underlying box. Childrens play
areas are provided throughout the project. Three cores with
elevators direct vertical circulation throughout the complex, with
elevators stopping at every fourth floor to serve pedestrian
streets. Every part of the building, including the units, the
pedestrian streets, and the elevator cores, participate as
load-bearing members, units are connected to each other by
post-tensioning, high-tension rods, cables, and welding, forming a
continuous suspension system. The building system is rather unusual
for a high-rise building. The only way for this complex to realize
the building method of stacking boxes on top of each other is to
build, not that high and to use heavy cranes. With a height of 42
meters the building height wasnt a problem and for the place where
it was build the complex is really standing out. Integral to the
sense of community the architect M. Safdie sought to create at
Habitat are its external walkways, called pedestrian streets, which
interconnect the multi-levelled residential modules on five
storeys. Habitats ground floor, plaza, and its fifth, sixth, and
tenth floors, while providing direct access to each residence. It
is precisely these walkways which both expose the building to the
natural elements and open into communal spaces for Habitat
residents. (R)evolutionary about the Concept The concept of Moshe
Safdie for the Expo of 1967 was the theme Man and His Environment.
Habitat 67 is a wonderful kind of apartment building that helps to
solve the problem of space for people to live in cities. For his
building Safdie wanted to put a lot of people in a small space to
take up less room in the environment, yet he still wanted the
people to be happy. To do this he planned to make a garden for each
house/apartment. He also wanted to have a playground for the
children and stores and schools in the building. Also the concept
of accumlate all different elemants on top of easother is for high
rise a new type of construction method. ImagesFrom the top down. 1.
Assembly 2. Exploded view of the different components 3. All kinds
of different appartments (15 in total) Assembly
Construction
Components
Extra Text Explanation After three major design revisions
between 1961 and 1964, Habitat emerged in built form in 1967 as a
series of precast, concrete modules, called boxes, clustered along
a spine of three, hill-shaped structures, and held together by post
tensioning, high tension steel rods, cables, and welding. While the
original designs for Habitat conceived of 950 modular units to be
plugged into a vertical super-frame structure standing just over
twenty storeys high, Habitats finished size was much more modest in
scale, numbering 354 modular units (or 158 separate dwellings,
although recent fusions have reduced the number of residences today
to 150) at a cost of approximately $21 million. It is precisely
these walkways which both expose the building to the natural
elements and open into communal spaces for Habitat residents. The
commercial and institutional facilities that Safdie had originally
envisioned for the project, its schools, shops, offices and
cultural spaces, never materialized. A convenience store beneath
Habitat in the complexs 200-car underground parking lot is its only
retail operation. As the commercial dimension of Habitat was never
fully developed, in theory only did Safdies original Habitat
project represent the first of the architects many designs for
mixed-use buildings.
Sources- www.space1999.net/~sorellarium13/habitat-67.htm -
www.habitat67.com/
