Habitat 67? Say Habitat 2023 instead. The building dating from the 1967 Expo is starting to make people dream again now that a technology from the video game makes it possible to recreate in its entirety the vision of its architect, Moshe Safdie. And what we see is a project that hasn’t aged a bit. On the contrary.
A little over half a century ago, a 23-year-old architect graduating from McGill University had in mind questions that we still ask ourselves today. If, instead of being crammed into huge vertical boxes of glass and concrete, we had terraces and gardens, airy space and a real connection with nature? What if our skyscrapers weren’t really skyscrapers, but rather superimposed villages, with all the amenities you could wish for a few steps away?
In Safdie’s head, the answer to these questions gave birth to Habitat 67. Not the building we know today, no. Five times bigger and far more ambitious: Habitat 67 was originally intended to be a high-density community of modular apartments stacked in pyramid-shaped structures.
A complex consisting of modules stacked 20 to 30 stories high in a structure of leaning towers. As if they were on a hill. Each accommodation has a garden and borders on a space open to the sky. These “hills” come together to form neighborhoods that float above sheltered, ground-level public spaces. Streets on every four floors provide access to gardens, offices and community spaces.
Unfortunately, the governments of the time did not see that far ahead. A minimal budget granted by Ottawa to Moshe Safdie limited the final project to three smaller pyramids of 158 residences. Construction in the 1960s was more laborious, too. Technologies like 3D printers were far from existing at the time.
Hillside Project
Immersive digital worlds like the one in which video games like Fortnitefrom Epic Games, did not exist in 1967 either. Fortnite the game, its technology, is impressive. It is based on a graphics engine called Unreal Engine, partly developed in Montreal.
It was by wanting to demonstrate the potential of Unreal Engine beyond the video game that the designer of Mexican origin Carlos Cristerna had the idea to launch, not quite two years ago, the Hillside project. .
The Hillside project is the complete and revisited version of Habitat 67. It is an immersive online environment, presenting the Old Port and the complex built in its entirety, in which one can evolve virtually. As we would see it today. We recognize the Farine Five Roses sign as we normally see it in real life.
“We wanted to show Unreal Engine in an architecture context,” says the Duty Carlos Cristerna. We thought we would hire an architect to create a fake building, but it was complicated. So I suggested the idea to Moshe [Safdie], since we already knew each other. I knew he was thinking of his legacy, of his unrealized projects. »
Habitat 67 launched the career of Moshe Safdie, who now lives in Boston, where his architectural firm is located. “He said yes. From there, we delved into his archives, including documents from McGill University that the public has never seen before. »
Back to basics
A third partner joined the project: Neoscape, an American design visualization company, collaborated with the Epic Games team to create a virtual model of the original plan, including 30-story A-shaped towers It’s the rendering of this digital mockup that people can check out and explore to learn more about Moshe Safdie’s original vision of Habitat 67.
Neoscape sees in the Hillside project and its comparison with Habitat 67 as it currently exists, in the Cité-du-Havre sector in Montreal, an illustration of where architecture and even the entire real estate sector are going. Presenting a building in an environment that can be visited in its three dimensions does it much better justice than models, sketches or static sketches…
“It raises questions about how urbanization over the past fifty years may have missed its mark,” says Hillside project manager for Neoscape, Ryan Cohen. “We see what Habitat 67 could have been: a community, schools, markets, offices…”
If the governments of the 1960s had been able to see this neighborhood of the future almost as if they were walking its streets, perhaps they would have been more generous in their funding, continues Ryan Cohen. Perhaps the next major real estate, urban or architectural projects will take advantage of this technology to present themselves better, he adds.
“It was not our main objective, but we also see how this technology can replace textbooks in schools of architecture or urban planning. It redefines urban planning as a whole. You can explore a whole neighborhood before it’s built. It’s easier to illustrate the real vision behind the projects. »
“I hope people, with the challenges facing big cities right now, will see the value of this technology. »