The building I picked for this assignment is Habitat 67, or simply Habitat, in Montreal, Canada.

Habitat 67 was built as a pavillion for Expo 67, designed by an Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. Its main motive are cubes;  symbols of stability, wisdom, truth, moral perfection. This building is a modern monument; something of a statement and is also widely considered an architectural landmark.

At first glance, this building didn’t seem to be exceptional in any way. Despite being built in the sixties, it still comes off as modern – straight lines, geometry, all made out of concrete. I wanted to pick something different to write about, but then I looked back and decided for Habitat 67. I looked at pictures from different angles, and it caught my attention.

The first idea and goal for the building was to create a natural habitat in harmony with living space in the limited urban settings. While this is achieved, I simply don’t see how this building, aside from its size, is relevant in anything. For the lack of a better word, it’s ugly. Hundreds of beige-colored concrete cubes stacked on top of each other like children’s building blocks with no rhyme or reason that’s apparently considered top-notch architectural planning. It’s huge; I’ll give it that, but if I walked past it, I wouldn’t spare it a second glance. To me, the walkways look just randomly thrown in like torn-off pieces of breakfast bacon and look about just as symmetrical.

However, I can see how it would make architects – especially in ’67 – stare in awe; with 354 concrete blocks, it’s a miracle it could be planned and built without completely tumbling apart. Nowadays, I think Habitat 67 just looks ordinary. Concrete and glass are all over modern architecture; in fact, they seem to be the main materials of choice when building something ‘hip’.

All in all, I think that if somebody wants to recreate this ‘impressive piece of architecture’, all they need to do is walk to the nearest toyshop and buy the biggest box of building blocks they can find.