Safdie, Moshe (1938– ). Israeli-Canadian architect. He worked (1962–3) with L. I.
Kahn before setting up his own practice in Montréal, Canada, in 1964. He established his reputation with the ‘Habitat’ housing-scheme at Expo 67, Montréal, in which the parts were given expression and composed like a pile of building-blocks to form the whole. The antithesis of the
Corbusian insistence on slab-like forms, it drew on Mediterranean
vernacular architecture to create a new paradigmatic
megastructure built of prefabricated parts. His subsequent works also explored vernacular elements (e.g. the Habitat for San Juan, Puerto Rico (1968–72)). He designed (with
Parkin Associates) the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1993–8). Among his other works may be mentioned the Hebrew Union College Campus (1972–8); the Children's Holocaust Memorial (1976–87) and Holocaust Transport Memorial (1994—featur-ing a railway-wagon used to carry Jews to their deaths), both at Vad Vashem, and the Mamilla Centre (1975–96), all in Jerusalem; the Museum of Civilization, Québec, Canada (1981–6); an extension to the Montréal Museum (1987–92); the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (1985–95); the Rosovsky Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (1991–4); the Library Square and Federal Tower, Vancouver, Canada (1992–5); and the
new town of Modi, Israel (from 1989). Among his publications may be mentioned
Beyond Habitat (1970),
For Everyone a Garden (1974),
Form and Purpose (1982), and
Jerusalem: The Future of the Past (1989).
Bibliography
Drew (1972);
Kalman (1994);
Heathcote (1999);
Kalman (1994);
Kohn (ed.) (1996);
Zantovska Mu (ed.) (1996)
