Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie, CC, FAIAis an Israeli/Canadian/American architect, urban designer, educator, theorist, and author. He is most identified with Habitat 67, which paved the way for his international career...
NationalityIsraeli
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth14 July 1938
CountryIsrael
taken cutting agency
I'm completely taken and impressed by the planning authority of Singapore and its Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). It's the most cutting-edge agency in the world. They have very effective guidelines for development, and they review design as it evolves.
cutting thinking umbilical-cord
The greatest satisfaction, I think, is when a building opens and the public possesses it and you cut the umbilical cord and you see it taking on its own life. There’s no greater satisfaction.
attempt diplomat expansive inherited life lower mediator mission narrative portion represents site structure symbolic weave
We inherited a site with a large, bunker-like structure and made every attempt to weave it into the narrative of the project. The lower portion of the building, with its militaristic past, represents the first portion of Rabin's life as a warrior. The upper portion of the building, with its mission of education, its expansive views, and symbolic dove's wings, represents the diplomat and mediator that he became.
bringing combining daylight dollars greatly improve millions project save street
Bringing it to street level, combining it with a park, you bring daylight into it. It's airy. So we save tens of millions of dollars and greatly improve the project experience.
city community desire facilities identify intense millions next open small space urban
This is the contradictory desire in our utopia'. We want to live in a small community with which we can identify and yet we want all the facilities of the city of millions of people. We want to have very intense urban experiences and yet we want the open space right next to us.
area
This is going to make the whole area airy, exciting, green, a place they want to be in.
achieved certain concentration creates francisco los openness possible prefer san society york
I prefer San Francisco to Los Angeles. I prefer New York to Philadelphia. Why? The kind of concentration that is achieved in them creates certain choices, an openness of society that is not possible in the lower-density environments.
I have a passion for libraries. They are potentially real community centers.
except gulf hard israeli negatively persian projects
Except for the projects in Israel, my being Israeli has contributed negatively to my global activity. It is hard for me, for example, to get projects in the Persian Gulf emirates.
anywhere architects opportunity produce seized star
I don't think I have a signature style that announces, 'This is a Safdie.' But I think star architects have seized an opportunity to go anywhere in the world to produce meaningless buildings.
country environment
I grew up in a country where the environment was very social justice-oriented.
A house is not a machine! It's something else for living - but not a machine.
affect express society stay
A painter, a sculptor, a writer, they can express freely. They don't affect society as a whole. We build buildings that have a purpose, that stay there for hundreds of years or decades.
countries history
Countries and places have a history, a story, and a culture.