Moshe Safdie graduated from McGill University, School of Architecture in Montreal (1961), and shortly began his career in 1962. He started an apprenticeship with Louis Kahn, who was known to be one of America’s greatest architects, and his philosophy is that all of his buildings should contribute to the community in some way or another.

Habitat 67, located in Montréal, Quebec.

Safdie explained that he wanted to “reinvent apartment building”,as he explained that suburbs are not sustainable, and he wanted to design a building that keeps the qualities of a house to each unit with gardens, and contact with nature.

In Habitat 67, there are 354 interconnected concrete boxes, reaching 12 storeys in height, and this creates 146 residences in total.

It is primarily constructed with concrete, as well as large windows, and this building follows the same philosophy of a japanese building style that was popularized in the same time range that it was designed, called Metabolism.

Metabolism is the idea that buildings should incorporate biology and growth, like organic architecture, which is what a different architect, Frank Lloyd Wright used in his work as well.

NGC (National Art Gallery of Canada), located in Ottawa, Ontario.

500 000 sqft

The south side of the museum (in image), was made to mimic a cathedral, specifically gothic cathedrals, with buttresses.

The most eye catching portion (the great hall), of the building was formed out of glass, with steel supports, and the entire design of this building is heavily reliant on geometry.

Kauffman Center, located in Kansas City, Missouri.

Dezeen calls this structure “a pair of shell like forms”.

As the natural light changes throughout the day, the building’s transparency also changes, as it reflects its surroundings, and at the same time, hints at its interior. As the darkness approaches, the interior of the building is more and more visible to the outside.

Since the Kauffman Center is a place for the performing arts, the interior is made to be volumetric; both literally and audibly.

Personal Illustration (Slide #2):

The illustration that I have created, is a recreation of Habitat 67, and it relates the most to the work that I try to create myself.

Safdie uses cubism in this building, which is something I find amazing, as it is simple geometry, yet the building is amazingly designed.

The materials that Safdie used in Habitat 67 reminded me of another architect whose philosophy I greatly appreciate; Tadao Ando, a Japanese architect. This is because of the material, and the concept that Safdie had behind building Habitat 67.

In order to bring out the form of the building, I tried using copic markers in three colours to get three different shades for the building.