Rare unit goes up for sale inside Habitat 67
Engel & Völkers is representing the sale of a rare piece of Canadian real estate, a unit inside Habitat 67. A housing complex located at Cité du Havre in Montréal, the architectural icon has not had a top-floor unit for sale in nearly two decades.
The apartment is a contemporary dreamscape within a piece of architectural genius and is currently listed for $1,688,000 by Martin Rouleau of Engel & Völkers Montréal. The unit’s interior is a modern-urban wonder. It brings touches of interior brutalism with concrete feature walls and simplistic design, allowing the desired functionality of the complex to be present. With three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two garages available, and a skyline view, it more than delivers on Habitat 67’s flare for the modern.
Habitat 67 was designed by Moshe Safdie, an architecture student at McGill University, for his thesis project. It was well received by his advisor and it became the major theme of the 1967 Montréal World Exhibition, showcased as a vision for urban housing using pre-fabrication technology to create a built-form that still resonates. Habitat 67 is a self-contained neighbourhood with open spaces, garden tarraces and many other amentities typically reserved for single family homes, but adapted to a high-density city environment.
Habitat 67 has gone on to receive global recognition and served as the launching pad for Safdie’s successful architectural career completing 75 buildings around the world.
The complex is a stunning demonstration of the power brutalism has in architecture, being perhaps Canada’s greatest example of the concept. The structure connects 365 prefabricated construction modules , all stacked together. There are units ranging between 600 and 1800 square feet, and 15 housing types within the design. The concrete box modules were fabricated by a factory on site, and each is roughly 600 square feet. The modules were lifted and stacked to create a stepped form, jut out from one another in random configurations, making it appear as something out of science fiction.
In 2017, Canada Post launched a celebratory stamp for Expo 67’s fiftieth anniversary , with Habitat 67 being the featured image. This showed the lasting impact of Safdie’s design within the nation and the global adoration it still commands over five decades since its inception.
Enjoyed reading this piece? Check out “An Ode to the Los Angeles Dingbat.”
Thomas Publow is a contributor at Glossi Mag. Currently finishing his degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University, Thomas considers himself an expert in all things VMAs and Beyoncé.
