Habitat

Callum Morton was born in Canada while his father was working as an architect on a building complex called ‘Habitat’, a mass housing project that was built in Montreal for Expo 1967 by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. The basic structure of ‘Habitat’ was a series of interchangeable modular apartment units, prefabricated from reinforced concrete and fibreglass then configured on site to form a complex system of varied housing styles. Safdie’s interest lay in generating a system of affordable housing that was efficient in production and construction but had aesthetic merit. The concept was well received and Safdie built other structures with similar principles in Israel, the United States of America and Singapore.

Callum Morton’s Habitat is a 1:50 scale architectural model of Safdie’s ‘Habitat’, to which lights and sound have been added to suggest a day in the life of the housing complex. Through his work, Morton presents for our contemplation a wry and humorous look at the intersection of public and private space, referencing both the extraordinary and the mundane qualities of our lives.