If Walls Could Speak, Moshe Safdie
If Walls Could Speak, Moshe Safdie
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

If Walls Could Speak
My Life in Architecture

Author: Moshe Safdie

Narrator: Trevor Thompson

Unabridged: 12 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/18/2023

Synopsis

Over more than five decades, legendary architect Moshe Safdie has built some of the world's most influential and memorable structures—from the 1967 modular housing scheme in Montreal known as "Habitat" and the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas and the Marina Bay Sands development and extraordinary Jewel Changi airport interior garden and waterfall in Singapore. Safdie always refers to the "silent client" an architect must ultimately serve: the people who live in, work in, or experience a building.

If Walls Could Speak takes listeners behind the veil of an essential yet mysterious profession to explain through Safdie's own experiences how an architect thinks and works. Relating memorable stories about what has inspired him—from childhoods in Israel and Montreal to the projects and personalities worldwide that have captured his imagination—Safdie reveals the complex interplay that underpins every project and his vision for the role architecture can and should play in society at large. If Walls Could Speak ends with a chapter outlining seven projects Safdie would pursue around the world if resources and will were no issue and the choices were his to make.

A book like no other, If Walls Could Speak will forever change the way you look at and appreciate any built structure.

About Moshe Safdie

Moshe Safdie is acclaimed as one of the greatest and most innovative architects of the past half century. In 2019 he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize-considered along with the Nobel Prize as one of the most important prizes bestowed on an individual-for having "a career motivated by the social concerns of architecture and formal experimentation."

Reviews

Goodreads review by Enchanted Prose on November 01, 2022

Bursting with grandeur and humanity (“megascale” architectural projects spanning five continents over fifty-fifty years): This is one of the most inspirational books I’ve ever read. It’s also one of the most soulful – “regardless of what one thinks of the word ‘soul’” – writes architectural genius an......more

Goodreads review by J on March 22, 2023

If Walls Could Speak is a thoughtful and immersive review of Moshe Safdie's career in architecture. He shares the motivations and design philosophy behind his most iconic projects while presenting the international context which influenced the final designs. His analysis of Canadian business culture......more

Goodreads review by Chris on April 01, 2023

"...one sign of a good building is if it looks good as a ruin." I come from a small Canadian town that has been slowly tearing down it's downtown over the last half century and replacing the buildings with either sheet metal boxes or nothing at all. The town continues to sprawl to the south with iden......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on June 12, 2024

I waffled between 3* and 4* stars with this autobiography of architect, Moshe Safdie. This book concentrates on his career in the industry and moves over his personal life in a quick gloss. While the book reads smoothly, if you're not so interested in the nitty gritty of architecture than you can lo......more

Goodreads review by Jo on February 10, 2025

Excellent. I haven’t read any autobiographies of architects but, as someone who loves architecture, having a first-hand recounting of the thought processes behind designing impressive buildings all over the world was both eye opening and inspiring. I loved the tie ins of pictures and blueprints. I a......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List