Moshe Safdie facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Moshe Safdie CC FRAIC OAA FAIA
משה ספדיה
Safdie in 2017
Born	(1938-07-14) July 14, 1938 (age 86) Haifa, Mandatory Palestine
Nationality	Israeli, Canadian, American
Alma mater	McGill School of Architecture
Occupation	Architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, author
Spouse(s)	Nina Nusynowicz (m. 1959; div. 1981) Michal Ronnen (m. 1981)
Children	4, including Oren
Awards	See list: Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects Companion of the Order of Canada Gold Medal, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Lifetime Achievement, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Wolf Prize

Practice	Safdie Architects (est. 1964)
Projects	See list: Habitat 67 Marina Bay Sands Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Virasat-e-Khalsa Jewel Changi Airport

Moshe Safdie (Hebrew: משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is a famous architect, urban planner, teacher, and writer. He is known for designing buildings that are good for people and communities. He has worked for over 60 years.

His projects include many different types of buildings. He has designed museums, schools, public parks, homes, city centers, and airports. He has also created plans for new cities and improved existing ones in the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia. Some of his most famous designs are the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the Jewel Changi Airport, and his very first big project, Habitat 67. He came up with the idea for Habitat 67 while he was still a student at McGill University. Moshe Safdie is a citizen of Israel, Canada, and the United States.

Early Life and Education
Designing Buildings and Cities
- Safdie Architects Today
- Teaching and Academia
Family Life
Awards and Recognition
Exhibitions of His Work
Films About Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie's Archive
Some of His Famous Projects
Books by Moshe Safdie
Books About Moshe Safdie
Images for kids
See also

Early Life and Education

Moshe Safdie was born in Haifa, which was then called Mandatory Palestine, in 1938. His family was Syrian Jewish. When he was nine, Israel became an independent country. After a war in 1948, he lived on a farm called a kibbutz, where he helped with goats and bees.

In 1953, when Moshe was 15, his family moved to Montreal, Canada. This was because Israel had economic problems that affected his father's business. In Montreal, he went to Westmount High School.

In 1955, Safdie started studying architecture at McGill University. During his studies, he won a scholarship to travel across North America. He looked at different housing projects in big cities. For his final project, he designed a new way to build homes using pre-made blocks. He called it "A Case for City Living." He graduated in 1961.

Two years later, his professor invited him to show his modular building idea at the World Exposition of 1967. This project was built permanently in Montreal and became known as Habitat 67.

Designing Buildings and Cities

In 1964, Moshe Safdie started his own company, Safdie Architects, in Montreal. Their first big project was Habitat 67. This building was a key part of Expo 67. It showed how homes could be built using pre-made, three-dimensional blocks. Safdie designed Habitat 67 to feel like a neighborhood. It had open spaces, garden terraces, and other features you'd usually find in a single house, but in a high-rise building.

Habitat 67, a unique housing complex in Montreal.

In 1970, Safdie opened another office in Jerusalem, Israel. He worked on restoring the Old City and building the Mamilla Mall. This mall connects the old and new parts of Jerusalem. Other important projects in Israel include the New City of Modi’in, the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, and the Ben Gurion Airport.

Later, Safdie designed many public buildings in Canada. These include the National Gallery of Canada, the Quebec Museum of Civilization, and the Vancouver Library Square. He also designed the Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex in India, which is a national museum for the Sikh people. Other notable works include the United States Institute of Peace Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.

Safdie has also worked on very large projects in growing economies. These include:

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, a huge resort with a famous rooftop park.
Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore, which combines a marketplace with a large indoor garden.
Raffles City Chongqing in China, a massive complex with homes, offices, shops, and hotels. To connect four tall towers in Chongqing, he designed a "Horizontal Skyscraper" sky bridge. Safdie often uses sky bridges to make tall buildings more connected and easier to use.

Safdie Architects Today

Today, Safdie Architects has its main office in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Harvard University. They also have offices in Jerusalem, Toronto, Shanghai, and Singapore. The company is run as a partnership.

The firm also has a special research program. This program allows them to explore new design ideas and future concepts. They look into topics like "Habitat of the Future" and "Tall Buildings in the City."

Teaching and Academia

Moshe Safdie has also taught at several universities. In 1978, he became the Director of the Urban Design Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD). He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, for this role. He was the Director until 1984. He continued to teach at Harvard until 1989. He still works closely with the GSD, sometimes teaching design classes.

Family Life

In 1959, Moshe Safdie married Nina Nusynowicz. They had two children, a daughter and a son. Both were born while Habitat 67 was being built. After it opened, Safdie and his family lived in Habitat 67. They divorced in 1981. His daughter, Taal, is also an architect. His son, Oren, is a writer who has written plays about architecture. Moshe Safdie's great-nephews, Josh and Benny, are filmmakers.

In 1981, Safdie married Michal Ronnen, a photographer from Jerusalem. They have two daughters, Carmelle and Yasmin. Carmelle is an artist, and Yasmin is a social worker.

Awards and Recognition

Moshe Safdie has received many awards for his work. Some of the most important include:

2020: Genius Award, Liberty Science Center
2019: Wolf Prize in Architecture
2015: Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects
2005: Companion of the Order of Canada
1995: Gold Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
1986: The Order of Canada

Exhibitions of His Work

Moshe Safdie's architectural designs have been featured in many exhibitions around the world. These shows allow people to see his plans, models, and ideas up close. Some notable exhibitions include:

2017: Habitat 67 vers l’avenir: The Shape of Things to Come, Université du Québec à Montréal
2010–2014: Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie, shown at the National Gallery of Canada and other museums.
2012–2013: Moshe Safdie: The Path to Crystal Bridges, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
2003–2004: Building a New Museum, at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Films About Moshe Safdie

Several films have been made about Moshe Safdie and his work:

2020: "Moshe Safdie: Another Dimension of Architecture"
2018: "Time Space Existence"
2004: "Moshe Safdie: The Power of Architecture"
2003: "My Architect: A Son’s Journey" (This film was made by the son of Louis Kahn, another famous architect Safdie worked with).

Moshe Safdie's Archive

Moshe Safdie gave his collection of architectural documents to McGill University in 1990. This collection is called the Moshe Safdie Archive. It is one of the largest collections of architectural information in Canada. It includes materials from 235 projects, showing his career from his early university papers to his current work.

The archive has over 140,000 drawings, more than 200 architectural models, project files, videos, and over 100,000 photos. It also has 215 personal sketchbooks and 2,250 large sketches. Researchers can use this archive at the McGill University Library.

Some of His Famous Projects

1967: Habitat 67 at Expo 67 World's Fair, Montreal, Canada
1987: Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec City, Canada
1988: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
1989: New City of Modi'in, Israel
1995: Vancouver Library Square, Vancouver, Canada
1998: David Citadel Hotel and David's Village, Jerusalem
2003: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
2003: Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
2005: Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, Jerusalem
2010: Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, Singapore
2011: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.
2011: Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex, Anandpur Sahib, India
2019: Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore
2020: Raffles City Chongqing, Chongqing, China

Books by Moshe Safdie

Moshe Safdie has also written several books about architecture and urban planning:

With Intention to Build: The Unrealized Concepts, Ideas, and Dreams of Moshe Safdie. 2020.
The City After the Automobile: An Architect's Vision. 1997.
Jerusalem: The Future of the Past. 1989.
Beyond Habitat by 20 Years. 1987.
For Everyone A Garden. 1974.
Beyond Habitat. 1970.
Habitat. 1967.