Moshe SafdieCCFRAICOAAFAIA (
Hebrew: משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is an Israeli-Canadian-American architect,
urban planner, educator,
theorist, and author. He is known for incorporating principles of socially responsible design throughout the course of his six-decade career. His projects include cultural, educational, and civic institutions; neighborhoods and public parks; housing; mixed-use urban centers; airports; and master plans for existing communities and entirely new cities in the
Americas, the
Middle East, and
Asia.[2] Safdie is most identified with designing
Marina Bay Sands and
Jewel Changi Airport, as well as his debut project
Habitat 67, which was originally conceived as his thesis at
McGill University.[3] He holds legal citizenship in
Israel,
Canada, and the
United States.[4]
In September 1955, he registered for the six-year architectural degree program at the
McGill University Faculty of Engineering. In his fifth year, Safdie was named University Scholar. The following summer, he was awarded the
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) scholarship. He traveled across
North America to observe housing developments in the continent's major cities.[10]: 13 In his final year, Safdie developed his thesis, entitled "A Case for City Living," and described as "A Three-Dimensional Modular Building System."[11] He received his degree in 1961.[10]: 14 Two years later, while apprenticing with Estonian-American architect
Louis Kahn, Safdie was invited by his thesis advisor, Dutch-Canadian architect
Sandy van Ginkel, to submit his modular project for the
World Exposition of 1967, which was to be held in Montreal.[11] Constructed permanently there, it became known as
Habitat 67.
Career
In 1964, Safdie established Safdie Architects in
Montreal to undertake work on
Habitat 67, an adaptation of his thesis at
McGill University.[12][13]Habitat 67 was selected by Canada as a central feature of
Expo 67. The project pioneered[peacock prose] the design and implementation of
three-dimensional,
prefabricated units for living. Safdie designed the complex as a neighborhood with open spaces, garden terraces, and many other amenities typically reserved for the single-family home and adapted to a high-density urban environment.[14]
Safdie has worked on projects in
emerging markets, and brought projects to completion in shorter periods, at larger scales.[15] including:
Marina Bay Sands, a mixed-use resort integrated with Singapore's iconic Skypark;
Jewel Changi Airport, a new community-centric airport typology combining marketplace and garden; and
Raffles City Chongqing, a mixed-use development featuring over one million square meters of housing, office, retail, transportation, and hotel programs. To connect four towers in
Chongqing, China, he designed a sky bridge that has been referred to as the world's longest "Horizontal Skyscraper."[18] Safdie and his team have used sky bridges and multi-level connectivity in other projects to make skyscrapers more accessible.[19][20]
Practice
Today, Safdie Architects is headquartered in
Somerville, Massachusetts, near Harvard University, with additional offices in
Jerusalem, Toronto, Shanghai, and Singapore.[21] The business is organized as a partnership.[22]
Safdie formed a research program within his office to pursue the advanced investigation of design topics. The practice-oriented
fellowship explores speculative ideas outside normal business practice constraints. Fellows work independently with Safdie and firm principals to formulate specific proposals and research plans. The salaried position is in-residence, with full access to project teams and outside consultants. Past fellowships include Habitat of the Future, Mobility on Demand, and Tall Buildings in the City.[23]
In December 2023, Safdie Architects announced it was suspending its involvement in a controversial hotel development in Jerusalem's Armenian quarter, citing "controversy surrounding the land lease agreement".[24] This followed an attack by some 30 armed masked individuals on Armenian community members holding a vigil at the site. The Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem accused Danny Rothman, Safdie Architects' client for the project, of organising the attack.[25]
Academia
In 1978, after teaching at
McGill,
Ben Gurion, and
Yale universities, Safdie was appointed Director of the
Urban Design Program at
Harvard University's
Graduate School of Design (GSD) and moved to
Boston, Massachusetts. He served as Director until 1984. From 1984 to 1989, he was the Ian Woodner Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard.[26] Safdie continues to work closely with the GSD, frequently teaching design studio; Notably, Rethinking the Humanist High-Rise (2019) and Rethinking Hudson Yards (2017).[27][28]
Personal life
In 1959, Safdie married Nina Nusynowicz, a Polish-Israeli
Holocaust survivor. Safdie and Nusynowicz have two children, a daughter and a son. Both were born during the inception and erection of
Habitat 67. Just before its opening, Safdie and his young family moved into the development. Safdie and Nusynowicz divorced in 1981. His daughter Taal is an architect in San Diego, a partner of the firm
Safdie Rabines Architects; His son
Oren is a playwright who has written several plays about architecture. Safdie's great-nephews,
Josh and Benny, are independent filmmakers.
In 1981, Safdie married Michal Ronnen, a Jerusalem-born photographer and daughter of artist Vera Ronnen. Safdie and Ronnen have two daughters, Carmelle and Yasmin. Carmelle is an artist, and Yasmin is a social worker.
The Moshe Safdie Archive, donated to
McGill University by the architect in 1990, is one of the most extensive individual collections of architectural documentation in Canada.[8] Comprising material from 235 projects, the Moshe Safdie Archive records the progression of Safdie's career from his first unpublished university papers to Safdie Architects' current projects. The collection includes over 140,000 drawings, over 200 architectural models, extensive project files, audiovisual and digital material, as well as over 100,000
project photos and travel slides, 215 personal sketchbooks, and 2,250 large sketches.[8] Administered by the
McGill University Library, a list of physical holdings are available to researchers.
With Intention to Build: The Unrealized Concepts, Ideas, and Dreams of Moshe Safdie. Ed. Michael Crosbie. Melbourne, Victoria: Images Publishing Group, 2020.
Megascale, Order & Complexity. Ed. Michael Jemtrud. Montreal: McGill University School of Architecture, 2009.
The City After the Automobile: An Architect's Vision. With Wendy Kohn. New York: Basic Books; Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co., 1997.
The Language and Medium of Architecture (lecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design delivered November 15, 1989)
Jerusalem: The Future of the Past. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
Beyond Habitat by 20 Years. Ed. John Kettle. Montreal and Plattsburgh, NY: Tundra Books, 1987.
The Harvard Jerusalem Studio: Urban Designs for the Holy City]. Asst. eds. Rudy Barton and Uri Shetrit. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1985.
Form & Purpose. Ed. John Kettle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
Habitat Bill of Rights With
Nader Ardalan, George Candilis, Balkrishna V. Doshi, and Josep Lluís Sert. Imperial Government of Iran Ministry of Housing, 1976.
For Everyone A Garden. Ed. Judith Wolin. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1974.
Beyond Habitat. Ed. John Kettle. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1970.
^Safdie, Moshe (1974). Wolin, Judith (ed.). For Everyone a Garden. The M.I.T. Press.
ISBN0262191083.
^
abAlbrecht, Donald; Williams, Sarah;
Safdie, Moshe (2010). Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie. Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. p. 27.
ISBN9781785510281.