Seasons Spring summer autumn winter


  Winter in Habitat

The snow comes in giant drifts and, since the Casino never sleeps, is disposed of with remarkable speed. Blizzards screen us from the city and the lone search light on the top of Place Ville Marie sweeps through periodically, illuminating the Cubist construction set of interlocking buildings in the foreground.

The Habitat bus breaks down and its replacement looks unsettling, with the cramped seats of yellow school buses too tight for us. The giant red sign 'Farine Five Roses' begins to drop frozen letters like dead leaves. The Habitat solaria take on a fishbowl appearance and long loops of Christmas lights are strung across the lawn. This is the most silent, the longest, season.

Copyright © (2001) Canadian Architecture Collection, McGill University