Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Mobile/manufactured housing

[Collaborative Housing Society (cohosoc]

The project you refer to was Habitat, built for the 1967 World's Fair (and
Canada's 100th birthday!), and was designed by architect Moshe Safdie

It was not octagonal panels, but set of three or four kinds of "boxes" that
were *supposed* to neatly fit together like a big 3D puzzle.  It turned out
that a lot of on-site carving/hacking and specialization was required, and
the thing went way over budget.

I read somewhere that Safdie would love to try modular housing again, but
would likely not go this route, even though, by all accounts, it's a good
place to live.  It was designed as lower-income housing, but has since
become a fairly well-to-do address.  You often see it in some of the bad
Canadian tax-shelter movies made in the 1970's - it's a bit futuristic, very
modern, and the unit interiors seem pretty funky.  Since every unit was
built to have as much outdoor space as possible, largely on the roof of the
module below, it has apparently aged well, with lots of greenery, flowers,
etc scattered all over it's vaguely mountain-like mass.  (There's actually
three piles of blocks, rather than one great big one.  I think it ended up
being about 100 units or so.)