Habitat 67: A Federation in Parts
Fig. 1. A distant view of Habitat 67.
Loreina Chew 260739874
Prof. Annmarie Adams
ARCH 251: Architectural History 2
March 23, 2018 2
Abstract
Expo 67 marked an important opportunity for nations around the world to showcase their achievements in the wake of decades of global conflict. For Canada, Expo 67 was the nation’s chance to emerge in front of the global community as a fully formed nation, separate from Great
Britain with its own ideals, political identity, economy, and culture. The exposition was coincidentally hosted the same year as Canada’s centennial anniversary, shining a spotlight on the nation’s endeavours in the past hundred years since its inception as it evolved past the hold of the British commonwealth. This paper will explore how the erection of Habitat 67 at Expo 67 mirrored Canada’s endeavours and accomplishments as a federation in parts, analyzing the structure’s various architectural features in parallel to the nation’s unique characteristics.
Introduction
The 1960s marked a decade of unprecedented achievements in Canadian history. The nation had enacted its Bill of Rights, adopted a new flag, and passed legislation allowing indigenous people to vote in federal elections.1 Following the Second World War, Canada had experienced a rise in economic prosperity as the British-dependent colonial nation found its own political identity and common culture. Expo 67 revealed an opportunity for the nation to reflect on its advancements while concurrently celebrating the centennial anniversary of Canada’s confederation. Anniversaries often induce moments of reflection and in this case, Canada’s 100- year history of bold decisions and dedication to national growth were being brought into the
1 Alan C. Elder, ed., Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.cttq4929, 4.
3 spotlight. As such, Expo 67 marked a juncture between the former dependent, colonial nation and the newfound innovative, iconoclastic nation Canada had become.
This paper is an exploration of Expo 67 as a momentous occasion that brought Canada to the forefront of the world’s leading nations. In particular, this paper will focus on Habitat 67 and its various architectural features as a parallelism to Canada’s transformation into a modern nation, manifesting as a material symbol of national identity and culture.
Montreal vs. Canada
The decision to host Expo 67 in Montreal was reasonably a foregone conclusion. It was the most populous and globally recognized Canadian city at the time, proving it to be the premier candidate to share the nation’s economic, political, and cultural growth. Canada and its citizens carried an absurd amount of naivety and insensible patriotism, thinking of Expo as the golden opportunity to show off their transformation into a fully-formed modern nation to the world. The young nation perceived Expo as the mechanism in which their ambitions and ideals would come to life. Thus, Montreal had to be the obvious choice to host Expo as it was inaccurately distinguished to always remain the nation’s largest city. It was where everything had happened and where everything would continue to happen: “The world was coming to Montreal; we were hosting the world in Montreal”.2
Concurrently, at the start of the decade, a massive internal conflict between English and
French Canadians emerged, due to the Quebec separatist movement. The movement was focused on dividing Quebec from the rest of the nation, where the province would become its own country. There had been existing tension between the two parties since confederation in 1867
2 Marcel Coulombe, (Expo 67 attendee at 16 years old), Interview by Loreina Chew and Brian McGinn, March 20,
2018. 4 and also corresponding to the centennial anniversary, a group of the French Canadian population felt that the issue should be addressed. However, and quite understandably, both parties did not want to taint their national image to the world, therefore slowing the movement’s traction until the year following Expo.3
The media coverage of Expo made it seem as if it was the greatest celebration of their confederation to happen to the nation. It encouraged locals to commute out of the suburbs to attend the Expo daily. It was the talk of the town, if the town were an entire nation. With such popularity building among the Canadian population, it was hardly an unusual phenomenon that an Expo attendee, such as Christopher Hume, would describe his experience as the “most exciting thing [he] had ever seen” to the point of uncertainty of if the experience was real.4
Further, Canada’s prime minister at the time, Lester Pearson, commended Expo and its successful efforts in unifying the nation, and the global community:
“Expo’s lasting impact is: That the genius and fate of man know no boundaries but are universal;
that the future peace and well-being of the world community of men depend on achieving the kind
of unity of purpose within the great diversity of national effort that has been achieved here at this
greatest of all Canada’s Centennial achievements.”5
3 Rudy Fenwick, "Social change and ethnic nationalism: an historical analysis of the separatist movement in
Quebec,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 23, no. 2 (1981): 213.
4 Christopher Hume, “Expo 67: We were fab,” Toronto Star, 22 Apr. 2007,
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2007/04/22/expo_67_we_were_fab.html.
5 Jim Coyle, “Canada 150: When the impossible dream came true at Expo 67,” Toronto Star, 6 May 2017,
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada-150/2017/05/06/canada-150-when-the-impossible-dream-came-true-
at-expo-67.html. 5
Despite the internal conflict within the nation, Expo prevailed as the ultimate movement for Canada to shine and prove to the world what a leading modern nation it had evolved into.
The battle between Quebec and Canada was favourably put on hold, showing the true character of Canadians to flaunt their accomplishments rather than their strife.
Habitat 67 and Man and His World
The theme of Expo 67, Man and His World, was naively utopian, captivating the nation’s young soul and the idealisms it carried. However, it was such naivety that pushed Expo to make the unimaginable happen. When the idea to build the exposition grounds on man-made island to align with its theme, Pearson dismissed the notion to be preposterous.6 However, Mayor Jean
Drapeau believed in the impossible and the ability to construct grounds that echoed Man and His
World. The opportunity to solidify Canada’s global position may not return again and thus, the federation had to align– even if momentarily – to flaunt their achievements. Hence, Mayor
Drapeau organized for the construction of the grounds despite the pessimism of his colleagues, and among them, prime minister Pearson.7 Through the use of rocks and stone from the St.
Lawrence riverbed as well as the excavations from the construction of the Montreal metro, the exposition grounds– now named Parc Jean Drapeau –was erected.8
Expo prevailed in its theme as a unification of the globe, bringing even countries that were fighting ongoing tensions–such as the United States and the USSR in the Cold War– together. Following the analogy, Expo’s themed pavilions would be its nations, the artificial
6 Coyle.
7 Ibid.
8 Van Troi Tran, "Expo 67 Montreal, a milestone event," Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage of French America,
2007. 6 islands would be its continents, and the St. Lawrence River would be its bodies of water (Fig. 2).
Likewise, if Expo was the utopian city of the world, Habitat 67 was the utopian city of Canada.
Safdie’s Vision
Architect Moshe Safdie had an extraordinary vision for the purpose that Habitat 67 was made to fulfill. The Habitat utilized geometric arrangements and modular housing through properties with similar exteriors but varying interior identities to express Canada’s societal evolution. Safdie was inspired by Metabolism, a Japanese architectural philosophy regarding buildings as “living, organic, interconnected webs of prefabricated cells”, thus his creative decision for Habitat to breathe life.9 In Fig. 3, the property cells of the structure are identifiably
Fig. 2. A map of the Expo 67 fairgrounds.
9 Genevieve Paiement, “Habitat 67, Montreal's 'failed dream' – a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 35,” The
Guardian, 13 May 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/13/habitat-67-montreal-expo-
moshe-safdie-history-cities-50-buildings-day-35. 7 individualized, yet appeared as sums of a whole than separated parts that could exist without the reliance of the others. Habitat’s structure embodied this notion of a living organism, where each apartment served as a community for a household and the complex served as a community for all the households. By utilizing various geometric arrangements, Safdie took advantage of space to construct a string of properties that each carried their own identity.10 The concept mirrored the nation’s division into provinces and territories, each with their own set of characteristics, natural
Fig. 3. A side and close-up view of various properties making up Habitat 67.
environments, and population. Case in point, each province possessed their own unique natural environments: Algonquin Park in Ontario, the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, and
10 Amy Frearson, “Brutalist buildings: Habitat 67, Montreal by Moshe Safdie,” Dezeen, 11 September 2014,
https://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/11/brutalist-buildings-habitat-67-montreal-moshe-safdie/. 8
Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia. Provinces and
territories carried special interiors, yet were still
components of a whole.
Further, Le Corbusier’s influence on
Safdie was very prominent in the structure’s
brutalist style. Safdie used system-building
principles to generate the characteristics of
utopian architecture into the structure’s block
style, evoking an elegance reminiscent of
vernacular architecture.11 Habitat was an
amalgamation of the modern high-rise, the
suburban “American Dream” lifestyle, and
public housing. At its very core, Habitat stood
Fig. 4. The north side of Habitat 67 with a view of the for the future of housing beyond 1967, and St Lawrence River. perhaps, beyond 2018. It represents a sense of community beyond the simple unification that Canada carries, but its existence inputted the question of if this style of living could be implemented into over 50 million people who attended
Expo.
Behind the Brutalist Exterior
It was evident that Safdie urged to juxtapose the cold geometric arrangement of brutalist style with the warm, breathing nature of Habitat’s interior (Fig. 4). The spacing of the boxed-like
11 Cynthia Hammond, "The (Human) Habitat: Humanism, Architecture and Habitat 67/04," In Architecture and
Identity (Habitat- International), Ismaning: Lit Verlag, 2009, 230. 9 complex was maximized so each property featured its own rooftop garden and a personalized external “street” for convenient access.12 Similar to the natural environments within Canada,
Habitat utilized natural resources for its operations and was wary of environmentally friendly elements.13 For instance, the six elevators in Habitat only stopped on every fourth level to decrease energy consumption by removing any unnecessary journeys.14 Having the environment in mind showed attendees the future of protecting the environment and encouraged steps to reduce our carbon footprint. Habitat was designed to emphasize the qualities of collective urban housing as an alternative to single-household homes. At the same time, Safdie did not want the negativities of standard apartment housing–lack of personal space, unremarkable interior designs within each property–to deter people from a future of communal living: “high-rise living could be more like living in a village and have the quality of life of a house”.15
Habitat is often prized for its distinctive exterior; anybody could identify the building without doubt. However, the interior is just as majestic, and acted as a window into modern architecture that would succeed it. The exposition itself was aware that Habitat was beyond its time; it was a symbol of modernity in a time where technology had only begun advancing, and the first space shuttle had yet to be launched. Even inside the Expo 67 Official Guide, Habitat is described with a self-awareness of its erection before its time:
12 Frearson.
13 Elder, 4.
14 Frearson.
15 Ibid. 10
“Habitat 67 reveals to the fullest the extent to which man has used his ingenuity in combining
shelter with all the attributes of modern life, in an urban world in which living space is at a
premium."16
The iconic exterior reasoned massive lineups during the exposition of attendees seeking for a glimpse inside one of the properties. Expo attendee Darryl Richardson recounted his stamp book, discussing the friendly competition between his siblings and friends to collect the greatest
Fig. 5. A kitchen inside one of the Habitat properties.
16 Paul Bourassa, "Habitat ’67: View from the Inside," In Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties, edited
by ELDER ALAN C., 65-78. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, 66.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.cttq4929.11. 11 number of stamps.17 It would take almost the entire day to wait and visit the inside of Habitat, but the end result was twofold: a glimpse of the modern future, and another stamp to add to his collection.18 Fig. 5 displays a kitchen inside one of the Habitat’s unique properties, where the cabinets and kitchen appliances are all geometrically aligned, sleek, and colour-blocked. It demonstrates the attentiveness given to the interior design that would encourage the living, breathing nature Safdie attempted to create.
Conclusion
One of the greatest ironies in Canadian history is the unification of the country in a time of internal conflict to flaunt its transformation into a modern nation at Expo 67. The opportunity to host Expo had only been presented to Canada after the USSR backed out, thus giving the nation a lucky chance to prove themselves to the world.19 Rather than succumb to the difficulties of planning the extraordinary, the nation maximized their efforts to not only successfully host a world’s exposition, but become one that would be remembered forever.
Darryl Richardson describes the opportunity to witness Expo as an extraordinary global engagement that only happens once in a lifetime.20 While Expo remains in the past, Habitat continues to exist in the present day as a reminder of the unification as a nation, and the tremendous opportunity that Canada was given to present themselves in front of the world.
Habitat’s various architectural features align itself with the individualism of each province and
17 Darryl Richardson, (Expo 67 attendee at 14 years old), Interview by Loreina Chew and Brian McGinn, March 20,
2018.
18 Ibid.
19 Coyle.
20 Richardson. 12 the multiculturalism that bleeds across the nation. Though in the exterior, it is evident that the structure is made up of parts–much like on a map in which Canada is divided into provinces and territories–a single property would not amass to the grandiose outlook that Habitat consumes when viewed as a wholesome structure. As such, Habitat 67 mirrored the nation as a federation in parts as it celebrated the country’s achievements, identity, and newfound place among the global nation.
13
Bibliography
Bourassa, Paul. "Habitat ’67: View from the Inside." In Made in Canada: Craft and Design in
the Sixties, edited by ELDER ALAN C., 65-78. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.cttq4929.11.
Coulombe, Marcel (Expo 67 attendee at 16 years old). Interview by Loreina Chew and Brian
McGinn. March 20, 2018.
Coyle, Jim. “Canada 150: When the impossible dream came true at Expo 67.” Toronto Star. 6
May 2017. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada-150/2017/05/06/canada-150-when-the-
impossible-dream-came-true-at-expo-67.html.
Elder, Alan C., ed. Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties. McGill-Queen's University
Press, 2005. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.cttq4929.
Fenwick, Rudy. "Social change and ethnic nationalism: an historical analysis of the separatist
movement in Quebec." Comparative Studies in Society and History 23, no. 2 (1981): 196-
216.
Frearson, Amy. “Brutalist buildings: Habitat 67, Montreal by Moshe Safdie.” Dezeen. 11
September 2014. https://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/11/brutalist-buildings-habitat-67-
montreal-moshe-safdie/.
Hammond, Cynthia. "The (Human) Habitat: Humanism, Architecture and Habitat 67/04." In
Architecture and Identity (Habitat- International). Ismaning: Lit Verlag, 2009.
Hume, Christopher. “Expo 67: We were fab.” Toronto Star. 22 Apr. 2007.
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2007/04/22/expo_67_we_were_fab.html.
Paiement, Genevieve. “Habitat 67, Montreal's 'failed dream' – a history of cities in 50 buildings,
day 35.” The Guardian. 13 May 2015. 14
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/13/habitat-67-montreal-expo-moshe-
safdie-history-cities-50-buildings-day-35.
Richardson, Darryl (Expo 67 attendee at 14 years old). Interview by Loreina Chew and Brian
McGinn. March 20, 2018.
Saunders, Doug. “In 1967, change in Canada could no longer be stopped.” The Globe and Mail.
Last modified 12 Nov. 2017. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-
150/in-1967-the-birth-of-moderncanada/article33466250/.
Tran, Van Troi. "Expo 67 Montreal, a milestone event." Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage of
French America. 2007.
15
List of Figures
Fig. 1. Dixon, Meredith. Habitat ‘67. Meredith Dixon Slide Collection, McGill University,
Montreal. Accessed February 22, 2018. http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/expo-
67/search/slideDetails.php?id=153.
Fig. 2. Thoroe. Map of Expo 67 in Montréal, Canada, highlighting 20 of the 90 pavilions
(English Version). 3 Aug. 2010. Accessed March 18, 2018.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montr%C3%A9al_Expo_67_Site_Map.png.
Fig. 3. Dixon, Meredith. Cooling Jets 2. Meredith Dixon Slide Collection, McGill University,
Montreal. Accessed February 22, 2018. http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/expo-
67/search/slideDetails.php?id=163.
Fig. 4. Dixon, Meredith. Habitat '67 North Side. Meredith Dixon Slide Collection, McGill
University, Montreal. Accessed February 22, 2018. http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/expo-
67/search/slideDetails.php?id=162.
Fig. 5. Bourassa, Paul. View of a Habitat ’67 Kitchen. "Habitat ’67: View from the Inside." In
Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties, edited by ELDER ALAN C., 65-78.
McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, 67. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.cttq4929.11.
16
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my professor, Annmarie Adams, and my teaching assistant, Gina
Page. Their insightful guidance and the awe-inspiring charisma they bring to the class material has profoundly shaped my view of modern architecture and what it means to exist among such dedicated design thinking.
I am especially grateful to Darryl Richardson and Marcel Coulombe, two Expo 67 attendees who offered their time to be interviewed about their experiences.
I thank my friend and peer Brian McGinn, whom I shared the grateful opportunity to interview the aforementioned Expo attendees with.