Habitat 67

It originated in his master's thesis at the School of Architecture at McGill University and then an amended version was built for Expo 67, a World's Fair held from April to October 1967.

It was "highly recognized" at the institution, though Safdie cites its failure to win the Pilkington Prize, an award for the best thesis at Canadian schools of architecture, as early evidence of its controversial nature.

[5] After leaving to work with Louis Kahn in Philadelphia, Safdie was approached by Sandy van Ginkel, his former thesis advisor, to develop the master plan for Expo 67, the world's fair that was set to take place in Montreal during 1967.

This smaller development (about CA$22.4 million)[8][9] was financed by the federal government, but is now owned by its tenants, who formed a limited partnership that purchased the building from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1985.

Each unit is connected to at least one private landscaped garden terrace,[9] built on the roof of the level below,[11][9] which can range from approximately 20 to 90 square metres (225 to 1,000 sq ft) in size.

[9] The development was designed to integrate the benefits of suburban homes—namely gardens, fresh air, privacy, and multilevelled environments—with the economics and density of a modern urban apartment building.

[22] In 2017, from June 1 through August 13, Habitat '67 vers l'avenir / The Shape of Things to Come,[23] an exhibition at Centre de Design, Université du Québec à Montréal, presented "archival images and objects from the project's origins with conceptual drawings, and models, bringing them together with plans for unbuilt iterations".

[23] As a symbol[24] of Expo 67, which was attended by over 50 million people during the six months it was open, Habitat 67 gained worldwide acclaim as a "fantastic experiment"[25] and "architectural wonder".