Moshe Safdie Quotes

• Architecture should be rooted in the past, and yet be part of our own time and forward looking.

  Moshe Safdie

  Future, Past, Looking Forward

  21 Copy quote

• Architecture is not about building the impossible, which we can do if we have enough money and enough tools and enough computers. It is about building what is appropriate and about attaining beauty through such an approach. I describe this premise as 'inherent buildability', and I believe it is central to what I do.

  Moshe Safdie

  Beauty, Money, Believe

  "Moshe Safdie: Global Citizen". worldarchitecture.org. November 21, 2013.

  25 Copy quote

• He who seeks truth shall find beauty. He who seeks beauty shall find vanity. He who seeks order shall find gratification. He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed. He who considers himself the servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self-expression. He who seeks self-expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance.

  Moshe Safdie

  Motivation, Fall, Inspiration

  Moshe Safdie (2009). “Moshe Safdie: Volume 1”, p.11, Images Publishing

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• I think you need to, as an architect, understand the essence of a place and create a building that feels like it resonates with the culture of a place. So my buildings in India or in Kansas City or in Arkansas or in Singapore, they come out different because the places are so different.

  Moshe Safdie

  Thinking, Kansas City, Essence

  14 Copy quote

• The greatest satisfaction, I think, is when a building opens and the public possesses it and you cut the umbilical cord and you see it taking on its own life. There’s no greater satisfaction.

  Moshe Safdie

  Cutting, Thinking, Umbilical Cord

  11 Copy quote

• Beauty connotes humanity. We call a natural object beautiful because we see that its form expresses fitness, the perfect fulfillment of function.

  Moshe Safdie

  Beautiful, Motivation, Inspiration

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• Architecture has joined the world of fashion, but fashion is passing and architecture is timeless.

  Moshe Safdie

  Fashion, World, Architecture

  10 Copy quote

• Who knows, maybe I am simply a talented architect?

  Moshe Safdie

  Architect, Knows

  14 Copy quote

• This is the contradictory desire in our utopia. We want to live in a small community with which we can identify and yet we want all the facilities of the city of millions of people. We want to have very intense urban experiences and yet we want the open space right next to us.

  Moshe Safdie

  Cities, Space, People

  10 Copy quote

• There is a profound ethic to architecture which is different from the other arts.

  Moshe Safdie

  Art, Profound, Different

  7 Copy quote

• Architecture is changing faster than some other professions.

  Moshe Safdie

  Architecture, Faster, Profession

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• We are producing urban places which are disjointed and disconnected and not worthy of our civilisation

  Moshe Safdie

  Urban, Architecture, Worthy

  6 Copy quote

• I want my children to be able to meet and play and communicate with many other children on their own, not only when they are driven somewhere. I want them to grow up in an environment that is not just a place where people sleep but where people work.. and where people enjoy themselves.

  Moshe Safdie

  Children, Growing Up, Sleep

  Moshe Safdie, John Kettle (1987). “Beyond Habitat by 20 years”

  7 Copy quote

• I'm completely taken and impressed by the planning authority of Singapore and its Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). It's the most cutting-edge agency in the world. They have very effective guidelines for development, and they review design as it evolves.

  Moshe Safdie

  Taken, Cutting, Agency

  "Toronto should be more like Singapore, Moshe Safdie says". Interview with Lisa Rochon, www.theglobeandmail.com. April 08, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

• Urban design as a discipline barely exists in most American and Canadian cities. In Singapore, there are innovative transportation strategies at work.

  Moshe Safdie

  Cities, Discipline, Design

  "Toronto should be more like Singapore, Moshe Safdie says". Interview with Lisa Rochon, www.theglobeandmail.com. April 08, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

• Performing arts buildings are complex. The acoustics, the sight lines and all that have to just be perfect. So you begin with just making these things sublime as musical instruments. And if you fail there, you have failed it all.

  Moshe Safdie

  Art, Sight, Perfect

  4 Copy quote

• I think the general public's response to my projects is very strong. You can be an intellectual and say that popularity detracts from architectural quality. On the other hand, you can see in the public's identification something very positive.

  Moshe Safdie

  Strong, Thinking, Hands

  4 Copy quote

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