Safdie, Moshe (mōshā` säf`dē), 1938–, Israeli-Canadian architect, b. Haifa. He grew up in Israel, moved to Canada with his family at 15, studied architecture at McGill Univ. and with Louis Kahn Kahn, Louis Isadore (kän, ĭz`ədôr'), 1901–74, American architect, b. Estonia.
..... Click the link for more information. , and later opened an office in Montreal. Safdie attracted early acclaim as the designer of Montreal's revolutionary "Habitat" for Expo 67, a housing system based on prefabricated modules stacked around prefabricated or site-built utility cores (see prefabrication prefabrication, in architectural construction, a technique whereby large units of a building are produced in factories to be assembled, ready-made, on the building site. The technique permits the speedy erection of very large structures.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Safdie designed Habitats for San Juan (1968–72), Tehran (1977), and other cities, but none except the Montreal complex was ever built. His many later commissions include the Museum of Civilization, Quebec City (1984); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1984); Vancouver Library Square (1995); Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles (1996); and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass (2003). In Jerusalem, where he also maintains an office, his buildings include the Bronfman Amphitheater (1982), Yad Vashem Children's Holocaust Memorial (1987), and Hebrew Union College (1989). Safdie is the author of Beyond Habitat (1970, repr. 1987) and several other books.

Bibliography

See W. Kohn et al., ed., Moshe Safdie (1996); I. Z. Murray et al., ed., Moshe Safdie: Buildings and Projects, 1967–1992 (1996).

Safdie, Moshe

(born July 14, 1938, Haifa, Palestine) Israeli-Canadian architect. Educated at McGill University School of Architecture, Montreal, he began his career in the offices of Louis Kahn. His Habitat '67 was a bold experiment in prefabricated housing using modular units; the design was for a prefabricated concrete housing complex of individual apartment units stacked irregularly along a zigzagged framework that was evocative of an Italian hill town or a pueblo. This aroused intense international interest but failed to catch on as a low-cost housing construction method. Later works include Yeshivat Porat Joseph Rabbinical College in Jerusalem (1971–79) and Coldspring New Town near Baltimore (1971). He served as director of urban design at Harvard University, 1978–84.