THE HABITAT 67

THE HABITAT 67 (28541)

by HA Studio

Designer: David Huynh

Photography: David Huynh

HA Studio @huynh_arch_studio

Let's design a building that gives the qualities of a house to each unit. Habitat would be all about gardens, contact with nature, streets instead of corridors. They prefabricate it so they would achieve the economy, and there, it is almost 50 years later. It's a very desirable place to live in. It's now a heritage building but it didn't proliferate. There are a lot of issues, low rise environment, and with it comes congestion, and they lose mobility, and so on and so forth. So a few years ago, they decide to go back and rethink Habitat.

"Could we make it more affordable? Could we actually achieve this quality of life in densities that are prevailing today ?" And we realized, it's basically about light, it's about the sun, it's about nature, it's about fractalization can we open up the surface of the building so that it has more contact with the exterior? They came up with a number of models: economy models, cheaper to build and more compact: membranes of housing where people could design their own house and create their own gardens.

I'd like to introduce The Habitat 67 which was recreated a small part with this realistic Lego bricks model, with 500 pieces. Lego bricks were taken from New York City (Lego Architecture set 21028) and Big Ben (Lego Creator Expert set 10253). This was a very simple building and the colors were very suitable for Habitat. I called it that is "The Organic Habitat".

Habitat 67, or simply Habitat, is a model community and housing complex in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, designed by Moshe Safdie- Canadian architect. It was built as a pavilion for Expo 67, the World's Fair held from April to October 1967.

Habitat 67 is widely considered an architectural landmark and one of the most recognizable and spectacular buildings in both Montreal and Canada.

Comprising a three-dimensional landscape of 354 stacked concrete "boxes", Habitat 67 pioneered the combination of two major housing typologies – the urban garden residence and the modular high-rise apartment building.

Moshe Safdie was awarded the project in spite of his relative youth and inexperience, an opportunity he later described as "a fairy tale, an amazing fairy tale." I think Habitat was important at its time because it had changed the architectural styles of the apartment building.

H.A Studio (H.A 創作室), (as known as V.Boi Design Studio) is a small studio where specializes in the design and development of architectural models and as well as the re-design of famous icon landmark buildings, houses, and skylines in the world with small scales by Lego bricks. I always love architecture and Lego. As a designer, I'd like to bring whole historical and cultural knowledge in architecture, and life into the Lego world for all ages in order to achieve the term "Play & Learn."
The Habitat 67 (Lego)measures:
h (height) = 3.2 inches/ 81.28mm 
l (length) = 5.5 inches/ 139.7mm
w(width) =4.2 inches/ 106.68mm

Habitat 67 comprises 354 identical, prefabricated concrete forms arranged in various combinations, reaching up to 12 stories in height. Together these units create 146 residences of varying sizes and configurations, each formed from one to eight linked concrete units. The complex originally contained 158 apartments, but several apartments have since been joined to create larger units, reducing the total number. Each unit is connected to at least one private terrace, which can range from approximately 20 to 90 square meters (225 to 1,000 sq ft) in size.

The Habitat 67 in winter

In Summer

At Night