Legendary Architect Moshe Safdie- The Genius Behind Altair

- Tina Edward Gunawardhana

With the designing of Habitat 67 you were seen as an architect ahead of the curve. How did that happen?

It was fate. When you think back, I was only 24 years at the time and I had an office of young people my age. Habitat 67 was one of the most complicated and complex buildings that I had designed. The people who had to approve it were civil servants and it was a miracle they approved it. It was a special moment for Canada with the centennial happening. Everyone was optimistic about the future and they all banded together for this project. I don’t think it will happen today as civil servants will not risk building anything so experimental and take a chance with a young person who had never built a building before. Habitat was a mixed use project. It had schools, retail space, hotels and apartments but we did not integrate offices. The projects we do now incorporates housing and the Marina Bay Sands project even as a museum too. With Habitat 67 I used Lego to help design the building.

Do you still use Lego?

 Not much, but there is a funny story with Lego. Forty years later they have made a Lego kit for Marina Bay Sands. I wrote to Lego and asked if they could create a kit for Habitat. They replied that they had attempted to but it was too difficult, even though it was the first building I had conceived using Lego!