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Dream Builders: Moshe Safdie

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Moshe Safdie

30/08/2014

BBC World Service - Dream Builders, Moshe Safdie

Habitat 67 designer on his mentor Louis Khan and the creating of memorial buildings

Moshe Safdie discusses his relationship with his mentor, Louis Khan and the creation of memorial buildings in Jerusalem and Anandpur.

Moshe Safdie is an architect, urban planner, theorist and author whose buildings the world over are committed to responding to ‘human needs and aspirations'. He first came to the world’s attention in his early 20s through his ground-breaking Habitat 67 project - a vast interlocking prefabricated housing complex and the centre piece of the Montreal EXPO, which he also developed the master-plan for.

From this sensational launch pad, Safdie has since gone on to write, lecture, teach and build extensively in North America and in many other countries, frequently returning to his native Israel where he was responsible for the restoration of old Jerusalem and the creation of the new city of Modi’in, the new Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, and the Rabin Memorial Center. 

Major projects by Safdie Architects currently under construction, or recently completed, include the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore; the Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex in India; the United States Institute of Peace Headquarters on the Mall in Washington DC and the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem. Safdie has been the recipient of numerous awards, honorary degrees, and civil honors, including the Companion Order of Canada and the Gold Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

In this programme recorded in partnership with RIBA, Moshe Safdie talks to Razia Iqbal about his relationship with his mentor, Louis Khan, the creation of memorial buildings in Jerusalem and Anandpur, and – in a lively exchange on a controversial topic - the politics of building in disputed territory in Israel.

Photo: Moshe Safdie, Credit: Stephen Kelly

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