Moshe Safdie (; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, and author, who is a citizen of Canada, Israel, and the United States. He is well known for incorporating principles of socially responsible design throughout his six-decade career. Safdie is most identified with designing Marina Bay Sands and Jewel Changi Airport, both in Singapore, as well as his debut project, Habitat 67 in Montreal, which was originally conceived as his thesis at McGill University. His projects include cultural, educational, and civic institutions such as neighbourhoods and public parks, housing, mixed-use urban centers, and airports. He has also designed master plans for existing communities and entirely new cities in the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia.
Early life and education Safdie was born in the city of Haifa, Mandatory Palestine, to a family of Syrian Jews. His father was from Aleppo, and his mother, whose family had its origins in Aleppo, was from Manchester. He studied at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa. He was nine years old when the Israeli Declaration of Independence was issued by David Ben-Gurion. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, he lived on a kibbutz where he tended goats and kept bees. In 1953, the Israeli government restricted imports in response to an economic and currency crisis, severely affecting Safdie's father's textile business. Consequently, when Safdie was 15, his family emigrated from Israel to Canada and settled in Montreal, where he attended Westmount High School.
In September 1955, Safdie registered for the six-year architectural degree program at the McGill University Faculty of Engineering. In his fifth year, Safdie was named University Scholar. The following summer, he was awarded the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) scholarship. He traveled across North America to observe housing developments in the continent's major cities. In his final year, Safdie developed his thesis, entitled "A Case for City Living", and described as "A Three-Dimensional Modular Building System". He received his degree in 1961. Two years later, while apprenticing with architect Louis Kahn, Safdie's thesis advisor Sandy van Ginkel invited Safdie to submit his modular project for the World Exposition of 1967. In preparation for the exposition his thesis was developed into a complete master plan, eventually being constructed in Montreal. Named after the event that turned an idea into reality, the building is known as Habitat 67.
Career
Habitat 67 and early career In 1964, Safdie established Safdie Architects in Montreal to undertake work on Habitat 67, an adaptation of his thesis at McGill University. Habitat 67 was selected by Canada as a central feature of Expo 67. The project launched the design and implementation of three-dimensional, prefabricated units for living. Safdie designed the complex as a neighborhood with open spaces, garden terraces, and many other amenities typically reserved for the single-family home and adapted to a high-density urban environment.
Jerusalem and Israeli projects In 1970, Safdie established a branch office of his practice in Jerusalem. During this period, Safdie combined his interests in social activism and advanced technologies with respect for historical and regional context. He worked on the restoration of the Old City and the construction of Mamilla Mall, linking old and new cities. Other significant works in Israel include the New City of Modi'in, the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies, Ben Gurion International Airport, National Campus for the Archeology of Israel, multiple projects for Hebrew Union College, and others. During this period, Safdie also worked with leaders in Senegal and Iran. Safdie was consulted on integrated geometry during the development of the Merkava tank by General Israel Tal.
Major international projects Later, Safdie received commissions for public buildings in Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Quebec Museum of Civilization, and Vancouver Library Square. Other notable cultural works include the Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex, the national museum of the Sikh people in Punjab, India; the United States Institute of Peace Headquarters on the Mall in Washington, D.C.; the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri; and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Safdie has worked on projects in emerging markets, bringing projects to completion in shorter periods and at larger scales. These include Marina Bay Sands, a mixed-use resort integrated with Singapore's Skypark; Jewel Changi Airport, an airport complex combining a marketplace and garden; and Raffles City Chongqing, a mixed-use development featuring more than one million square metres of housing, office, retail, transportation and hotel space. To connect four towers in Chongqing, China, he designed a sky bridge that has been referred to as the world's longest "Horizontal Skyscraper". Safdie and his team have used sky bridges and multi-level connectivity in other projects to make skyscrapers more accessible.
Safdie Architects Safdie Architects is headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Harvard University, with additional offices in Jerusalem, Toronto, Shanghai and Singapore. The business is organized as a partnership.
Safdie formed a research program within his office to pursue the advanced investigation of design topics. The practice-oriented fellowship explores speculative ideas outside normal business practice constraints. Fellows work independently with Safdie and firm principals to formulate specific proposals and research plans. The salaried position is in-residence, with full access to project teams and outside consultants. Past fellowships include Habitat of the Future, Mobility on Demand, and Tall Buildings in the city.
In December 2023, Safdie Architects announced it was suspending its involvement in a controversial hotel development in Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter, citing "controversy surrounding the land lease agreement".Safdie Architects respond to participation in the Armenian Quarter land lease deal This followed an attack by some 30 armed masked individuals on Armenian community members holding a vigil at the site. The Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem accused Danny Rothman, Safdie Architects' client for the project, of organizing the attack.Jerusalem's Armenian community attacked by a mob amid land dispute, Civilnet report
24 Sussex Drive In June 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed Safdie to chair the jury overseeing a design-and-build competition for the redevelopment of 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the prime minister of Canada. Carney personally approached Safdie about taking the role. Safdie is not designing the project himself; the jury will select a team of architects, developers and builders to undertake it.
Safdie said in September that significant changes to 24 Sussex were inevitable and that the project should not be approached simply as the restoration of a historic building. He said the redeveloped property would need to accommodate the prime minister and their family as well as ceremonial and social functions, and that at minimum a separate building would be needed for social events. Safdie described the existing residence as not architecturally significant in itself, while emphasizing the historical importance it had acquired through its association with Canadian prime ministers. He said the project should produce a "timeless design" reflecting the site's location in Ottawa and its place in Canada's national identity.
Personal life In 1959, Safdie married Nina Nusynowicz, a Polish-Israeli Holocaust survivor. Safdie and Nusynowicz have two children, a daughter and a son. Both were born during the inception and erection of Habitat 67. Just before its opening, Safdie and his young family moved into the development. Safdie and Nusynowicz divorced in 1981. His daughter Taal is an architect in San Diego, a partner of the firm Safdie Rabines Architects; His son Oren is a playwright who has written several plays about architecture. Safdie's great-nephews are independent filmmakers, Josh and Benny.
In 1981, Safdie married Michal Ronnen, a Jerusalem-born photographer and daughter of artist Vera Ronnen. Safdie and Ronnen have two daughters, Carmelle and Yasmin. Carmelle is an artist, and Yasmin is a social worker.
Recognition 2026: American Academy of Achievement, 2025: President's Design Award for the Surbana Jurong Campus 2020: Genius Award, Liberty Science Center 2020: Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) 2019: Honorary Doctorate, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology 2019: Wolf Prize in Architecture, International Wolf Foundation 2018: Lifetime Achievement Award, Design Futures Council 2018: Shortlisted for the European Cultural Centre Architecture Award 2017: Honorary Doctorate, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 2015: Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects 2012: Medaille du Merite, Ordre des architectes du Québec 2005: Companion Order of Canada, Governor General-in-Council of Canada 2003: Lifetime Achievement Award, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 2002: Honorary Fellow, Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland 2001: Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew College 1997: Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in the Visual Arts, National Foundation for Jewish Culture 1996: Honorary Doctorate in Engineering, Technical University of Nova Scotia 1996: Academy Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1995: Gold Medal, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 1995: College of Fellows, American Institute of Architects 1993: Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 1989: Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, University of Victoria 1988: Honorary Doctorate in Sciences, Laval University 1987: Mt. Scopus Award for Humanitarianism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1986: The Order of Canada, Governor General-in-Council of Canada 1982: Honorary Doctor of Law, McGill University 1982: Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal for Distinction in Design, Tau Sigma Delta Grand Chapter 1961: Lieutenant Governor's gold medal for Exceptional Merit, Lieutenant Governor of Québec
Exhibitions 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, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada / Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California / Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. 2012–2013: Moshe Safdie: The Path to Crystal Bridges, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. 2004: An Architect's Vision: Moshe Safdie’s Jepson Center for the Arts, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, U.S. 2003–2004: Building a New Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. 1998: Moshe Safdie, Museum Architecture 1971–1998, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel 1989: Moshe Safdie, Projects: 1979–1989, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. 1985: The National Gallery of Canada, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. / National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 1982: Context, Traveling exhibit sponsored by New York Institute for the Humanities 1973–1974: For Everyone A Garden, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. / National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada / San Francisco MoMA, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Films 2020: "Moshe Safdie: Another Dimension of Architecture", I-Talk Productions 2018: "Time Space Existence", Plane-Site 2004: "Moshe Safdie: The Power of Architecture", Dir. Donald Winkler 2003: "My Architect: A Son’s Journey", Dir. Nathaniel Kahn