Moshe Safdie, born in 1938, Canadian architect and teacher, known for his innovative prefabricated housing complexes and modernist public buildings that evoke historical styles and traditions.

Born in Haifa, Palestine (now Israel), Safdie moved to Montréal, Québec, with his family in 1953. He studied architecture at McGill University in Montréal from 1955 to 1961. In his graduation thesis, he applied the ideas of modern architecture to modular building systems and low-income housing. Following apprenticeships with Canadian architect Blanche Van Ginkel and American architect Louis I. Kahn, Safdie designed the remarkable Habitat housing complex (1963-1964) in Montréal for Expo '67, an international fair. The first major prefabricated housing project ever constructed, Habitat consists of step-like clusters of cubic, reinforced concrete units—each an apartment—that interlock according to a flexible plan. Safdie’s Habitat design won wide international recognition and the Massey Medal, the highest Canadian architectural award. Although he planned several larger versions of Habitat, only one variant was built, in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1968-1972).

Safdie described his concept in Beyond Habitat (1970), the first of several books in which he presented the humanist and ecological ideas that inspired his designs. He continued his interest in progressive urban planning with the partially completed Coldspring New Town, a planned community in Baltimore, Maryland (1971-1981), and the master plan for the new city of Modi’in (1985), near Lydda, Israel.

Safdie established his own firm, opening offices in Montréal, Toronto, Boston, and Jerusalem. Through the 1970s he worked on projects to restore districts in Jerusalem, and he designed modern buildings and facilities that honored the city’s long history. Safdie restored the Western Wall precinct, the Jewish Quarter, the Hebrew Union College campus, and the Mamilla District. He related his new constructions to the older buildings around them by melding new modernist features with those from local architectural traditions.

During the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s Safdie continued to adapt modern architecture to historical styles in a series of major public buildings he completed in Canada and the United States. His Canadian commissions include the Museum of Civilization, Québec City (1984-1987); the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1983-1988); the Museum of Fine Arts, Montréal (1989-1991); and Library Square, Vancouver (1993-1995). His U.S. commissions include the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California (1986-1995); Exploration Place Science Center, Wichita, Kansas (1995-2000); Eleanor Roosevelt College at the University of California, San Diego (1998-2002); and a new wing for the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (2000-2003). During this period Safdie continued to design housing projects and civic buildings in Israel.

In designs for cultural, civic, or educational institutions, Safdie incorporates features that make the buildings distinctive in a way that matches their settings. In a spectacular display of glass and other contemporary structural materials, the National Gallery manages to echo the contours of nearby public buildings in a neo-Gothic style. Triangular metal and glass additions to Ottawa City Hall (1990-1992) contrast with the original rectangular structure. The Peabody Essex Museum’s new wing, which looks like five separate buildings from the exterior, evokes the scale and traditional building forms of New England.

Safdie taught architecture at McGill in 1970; at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1971; at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel, from 1975 to 1978; and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1978 to 1989. His numerous honors include the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Medal for Architecture, the Gold Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in the Visual Arts.