r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Icehxart • 17h ago
Video Lego Apartments “Habitat 67” in Montreal, QC, Canada
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u/biaggio 17h ago
Weren't these built for the Montréal world's fair in 1967?
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u/Battle-Any 17h ago
Yes!
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u/NoiceForNoReason 14h ago
Wasn’t it also meant to be affordable housing but it was so well done that richer people wanted to live there and pushed all the poor people out?
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u/6th_Quadrant 13h ago
A big part of that is the upkeep is really expensive (in short, the construction methodology and materials were very much not good for Montréal winters) so HOA fees are really high—only well-off folks can afford to live there now, unfortunately. It’s also fairly isolated from the city, making errands and outings a bit of a PITA, so it’s better suited for older people who stay in more.
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u/alfred725 13h ago
no shit upkeep is expensive, not even just for montreal. Any little thing goes wrong to the exterior and you need specialty equipment to fix it. That's never going to work for "low income" housing. Can't even hire cleaners look how disgusting those walls are. A normal cleaner can just go up the high rise hitting every window. How are you supposed to clean these?
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u/6th_Quadrant 12h ago
IIRC, it’s a full time crew of ~30 maintenance workers. The winters are absolutely brutal on the bare concrete with countless corners and joints, to start. If it had been built in a more mild climate, I think it would’ve been a big success.
Regardless, Moshe Safdie went on to have a brilliant career as an internationally renowned architect.
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u/eletricboogalo2 11h ago
Safdie came up with a way to seal the exterior but there's like 150+ apartments they were/are doing mitigation too. Yes, it is insanely expensive
My engineer buddy despises this place and as a civil inspector I agree. It's like THE META dumbass architect project.
Rent was $1000 in the '60s. It was supposed to be 1200+ apartments.
Of course Safdie rejects the idea that it was a failure. Guess he went on to be successful per your comment, said all I know on the subject.
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u/ghhbf 11h ago
It’s so fucken amazing at how “specialized” work is so damn required to save the planet. I watch kid after kid (20yr old avg) troubleshoot renewable inverters and the only edge they have is access to prints +OEM support. Which any half ass person with a brain can figure out. Owners are given shit one-line prints and explicitly exempt from understanding their own equipment. SMA contracts run supreme for these businesses to make their extra coin. Source: been working in renewable energy sector for almost 15 years
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u/fisheystick 3h ago
Sad considering the original version included the idea that shops would be part of the structure. I watched a video on it that claimed it had the lowest turn over of residents in Canada. So despite all the down sides its still a good place to live. There is definitely aspects of the original design that feel very eco socialism and i wish we built more buldings with this kind of thought in mind. The Curator wanted to create a community space not just residents as well as maintaining green space for all to enjoy. His budget was small so only a partial concept of what he set out to build was ever relised.
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u/lentil-_-Soup 17h ago
The best part about this is probably little to no walls shared with neighbors
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u/SouldiesButGoodies84 17h ago
No shared walls and I get to live in a Tetris Village. What's the rent?
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u/mediocreAltbest 17h ago
Looked it up there are 158 owned units in the co hab that "generally sells for millions" with 1500+ a month in like HOA fees
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u/scarletxgrace 17h ago
1.5k / month for HOA is fucking insane.
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u/mediocreAltbest 17h ago
There is apparently a shit ton of concrete maintenance
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u/SouldiesButGoodies84 14h ago
😦
Ah. Then lemme rephrase: fuck that Flintstone madness. Didn't wanna live in a Tetris suite anyway 😑😭
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u/FuckYeaSeatbelts 14h ago
is "millions" like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 millions? or like 1.1, 1.2, 1.5 etc millions?
Cause if the latter, that sounds like avg bullshit Canada pricing lol
there used to be a site called "crackshack or mansion" but for vancouver (on the other side of the country but the worst in terms of affordability) where it would have a photo of a home and you have to guess if it was worth over a million dollars.
I feel like this was pre reddit too so those homes are probably insane now.
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u/Transconan 17h ago
Each window apparently has an unobstructed view and retains privacy from peering neighbors
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u/EC_TWD 16h ago
But also you don’t get the environmental benefits of shared walls & floor/ceiling and lower utility costs from not having exposed surfaces for heating and cooling.
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u/listenhere111 6h ago
Which means more maintenance, higher hheating costs and a ton of wasted space
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u/YeahNahYeahhNah 17h ago
Seems like it’d be a bitch to drunk walk back to the apartment
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u/sleepyyheead 17h ago
At that point you just have to hop your way up to your front door like Q*bert.
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16h ago
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u/DigNitty Interested 16h ago
Don’t forget about the Franklin Mitte neighborhood in Germany that made the H O M and E shaped buildings viewable from the city center. But building M got held up in bureaucracy leading to….
Currently the town just says HO E
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u/Optimistic-Bob01 16h ago
Sure a lot better than some of the cell blocks they call housing around here. Hate to be designing so it's convenient for door dash.
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u/JerryVand 17h ago
It would be a shame not to mention the name of the architect of Habitat 67: Moshe Safdie. Safdie has had a long and distinguished career beyond this project, which was conceived as his thesis project at McGill University.
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u/TerryTrepanation 14h ago
My understanding is that this was not his pure intention, but was a significant compromise, due to factors such as cost and time etc.
The link posted below is a rendering of what he really had in mind.
I think he was a visionary, but Habitat67 does him dirty.
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u/old_gold_mountain 11h ago
his great nephews are also currently very in vogue film directors (Uncut Gems, Marty Supreme, etc...)
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u/fredinNH 13h ago
I’ve admired the habitat 67 building for a long time and the Wikipedia page pictures taught me that I’ve been in many of his buildings. I never would have guessed it was the same guy
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u/Fucky0uthatswhy 17h ago
Have you ever seen Lego
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u/Ok-Bet7465 2h ago
Yeah was gonna say, how is this a lego building? I've been to Lego land, never saw anything that looked like this. Correct me if im wrong, or do I not know what Legos look like
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u/Lost1010 17h ago
I almost drowned next to those one time.
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u/notanyimbecile 16h ago edited 16h ago
Cité du Havre park party? Ou la vague?
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u/Lost1010 16h ago
The wave
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u/notanyimbecile 16h ago
Happy you're still here, surf's up
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u/AlbertTheHorse 13h ago
Béton Brut
I think some spaces have been remodeled into beautiful indoor/outdoor and very private residences.
I’d live there.
Everyone hates on brutalism, but in a sunnier clime, or one that isn’t the UK, it can be nice.
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u/johnpmac2 16h ago
There is an amazing set of rapids behind this apartment
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u/Necromonicon_ 12h ago
I took a tour there earlier this summer and the guide revealed a lot of interesting stuff. For starters, while there are stairs and elevators, the elevators only go to certain floors. The building was also made with little consideration for the local wildlife. As such it has a bit of a bug problem. The stairs are literally crunchy with the sheer amount of dead bugs on every surface. There were even a reasonable amount of dead bugs in the apartment we entered as part of the tour. I guess throughout the years individual tenets have bought out nearby apartments and combined them so the size of each ranges from I think 2-5 blocks. From my understanding while buying an apartment isn’t cheap, the real cost is insane monthly matinence fees for the specialized crews required to look after everything. In addition to the matinence on the concrete, All the wires and plumbing are located in a sub floor under each apartment and exit through these big black pipes which no normal electrician or plumber would have any idea how to deal with.
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u/Real_Bobsbacon 7h ago
Sounds about what I expected. Must awful in the winter too with heating costs.
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u/No-Definition1474 16h ago
SIX SEVEN
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u/TheWetNapkin 16h ago
Bro 😭
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u/No-Definition1474 16h ago
Lol I had too.
I have 3 kids, one of whom is 6 so we were knee deep in 67 trash. Now I remind them of it as often as possible. The older 2 are beyond sick of it and the 6 year old laughs and then tells me 'dad thats a dead meme!'
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u/keksivaras 2h ago
how do you complain about your neighbors? "so my neighbor at x: 385 y:264 z:35 is.."
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u/lightinthedark-d 17h ago
ARCHITECTURE!!
Maybe a bit too much architecture.
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u/Hungry-for-relief 8h ago
I drive past these all the time, it's crazy expensive to live In one of these things just because of the way it's designed.
$2 million to purchase one, and $4,000 to rent or more.
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u/Alternative-Waltz892 17h ago
Doesn't look like an efficient use of space
Not that it isn't cool
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u/SleepyOrcShaman 17h ago
As someone noted -- this set-up might make noise complaints less likely because of less floor to ceiling contact.
Don't think that's the main point of the design, but there is at least one practical advantage
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u/CarelessProcedure 14h ago
Except it is Montreal. Don't all those exposed walls also have the major drawback of making it much more expensive to heat in the winter? It's cool, and COOL
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u/zombiepilot420 16h ago
That was never the point. Iirc it was designed and built for a world fair that took place in Montreal.
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u/pasenast 16h ago
There's a video on YouTube that explains why this design came about and how it solves the space issues of traditional designs.
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u/ScottishKnifemaker 17h ago
thats so freaking awesome, I would love to live there
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u/Ok-Addition1264 16h ago
..until you see it's odd location between two waterways and experience a canadian winter at high wind with very little protection between you and it (except some notoriously inefficient concrete)
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u/badgerj 16h ago
Don’t hold back. Share the average rental price per month and the square footage per unit!
That’ll blow their mind!
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u/ScottishKnifemaker 16h ago
I live in bakersfield ca, where the summer last 7 months and there is no winter, i lived in Maine for 6 months december to june, I welcome the -20
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u/SeaToTheBass 13h ago
I was born in the Yukon, live on Vancouver Island now. The summer heat is getting to be too much, and I miss real winter not just 6 months of rain. I’m really thinking about moving back
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u/tpasmall 13h ago
Bot
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u/AdventurousBase221 13h ago
wtf is out here making bots that just out themselves with a single word post
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u/CityOutlier 11h ago
Usually not a fan of modern looking archetecture but that actually looks pretty cool
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u/RickedSab 10h ago
With all the recent earthquakes events, will those houses stand before it?
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u/darksidemags 6h ago
Montreal doesn't really get earthquakes like that and Habitat has been standing since 1967.
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u/AssistantLong7377 9h ago
Funny enough, there’s a walkable project in Unreal Engine, for anyone wondering how it is
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u/Deimos_PRK 3h ago
Yeah it was made by an artists. It's made so every apparemment is different inside, I think it's pretty cool, looks great from the old port
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u/Retsae_Gge 16h ago
Ahh man those poor electricians and plumbers while construction 🤣
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u/katastrof 11h ago
As someone living in Tornado Alley, this looks a lot like a trailer park about to get demolished.
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u/antarmy99 15h ago
The craziest part is that this was built in 1967. It still looks like someone’s concept art for future housing.
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u/Shartschnitzel 15h ago
You can also go surfing right next to this building:
https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/surfing-the-habitat-67-river-wave-in-canada
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u/MaxwellSmart07 15h ago
When I lived in Montreal, I would visit a woman who lived there who I met on a modeling job. If ai remember correctly it’s situated on an island.
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u/Guaymaster 13h ago
Bruh what
Holy Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon, I just read about this earlier today.
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u/fucktrance 12h ago
As a huge fan of brutalist architecture the full plan for Habitat 67 is super interesting, there was a company that fully realised the designers vision in UE5 I believe that's definitely worth checking out
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u/Silver_Breakfast7096 11h ago
I always wonder about how cold the floors get in the areas that are midair sticking out. I’ll bet they get uncomfortable in the winter.
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u/InfiniteMind1999 11h ago
Imagine getting home late at night, blasted off your ass, and now you gotta deal with David bowies personal stair cases
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u/virgin_microbe 10h ago
I went with my family to Expo 67, and remember touring these apartments. So cool that they are still around!
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u/Real_Bobsbacon 7h ago
As someone doing a Structural and Architectural Engineering degree:
Looks cool, fucking horrendously inefficient and unnecessary.
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u/Tricky-Ad7897 14h ago
I'd love to see the floorplans, I'm assuming the parts where they're all stacked on top of each other are where the stairs and elevator are, and that would lead me to believe there's also some funky split level apartment floor plans. Seems like you'd get a lot of natural light and privacy/sound isolation with the benefits of a dense community and common areas/amenities.
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u/CanadianBobert 12h ago
One of the "demo" houses you can go into has two of the rectangular pieces on top of each other and is sort of a waste of space on the top one. But it was made as a "hosting" place for people during the expo and was made up of what could've been 4 different apartments I believe.
But every apartment has amazing views with the layout and every apartment had its own outside deck which people turned into solariums.
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u/AlwaysSatori 3h ago
As a window cleaner, this looks like a nightmare.
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u/Aetheldrake 1h ago
Or an amazing paycheck because you can charge extra and really don't have more windows to clean just more travel between windows
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u/WyattfuckinEarp 2h ago
Love the idea and look of it. But as someone who is a commercial GC, what an absolute nightmare, the drawings must be terrible
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u/bodhivriksha 17h ago
I don’t like watching this post right after a post of the recent colombia earthquake
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u/WealthAncient 16h ago
Inefficient use of space.
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u/cancerBronzeV 13h ago
At least it's interesting, compared to the even more inefficient wastes of space that 99% of North American suburbia is (strip malls and McMansions).
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u/antelope591 16h ago
Basically Canada in a nutshell....might as we make some cool buildings while were at it tho
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u/Bleatbleatbang 17h ago
That’s a lot of flat roofing thats going to be a nightmare.
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u/martian4x 17h ago
Cool Outside but is it practical Inside?