SAFDIE, Moshe

(1938- )

   After World War II, the need for inexpensive urban housing created innovative apartment designs based on the utopian urban ideals of Le Corbusier. Most of these urban apartment buildings were constructed using raw concrete formed in bold rectangular shapes in a style called Brutalism. Within this historical framework, the Israeli-born architect Moshe Safdie introduced a more spatially complicated apartment complex called Habitat '67 as part of the permanent housing exhibition created for the 1967 World Exposition in Montreal. The overall design consists of prefabricated modules placed together in a stacked, zigzag pattern to create rooms, courtyards, and roads elevated at different levels. This multi-level format recalls ancient Mesopotamian dwellings that were traditionally clustered together with shared walls and a stepped pattern of differing building heights. These regional considerations anticipated the architectural style called Critical Regionalism, which has been popular in domestic architecture of the 21st century. The Habitat is also very practical in its modular system, which featured an internal structure to allow for easy expansion of its components. Safdie's innovative apartment designs provided a welcome alternative to the traditional high-rise apartment blocks of the modern era.