Description

Winy Maas’ lecture “What’s next for Architecture and Urbanism?” reflects on completely new ways of thinking about cities with regard to contemporary societies and urban situations. Urban environment has become fundamentally different in many aspects. There is a need to find ways of bringing together two extremities – the individual and the collective – into possible constructions.

About Winy Maas Prof. Ir. Ing. FRIBA HAIA

Architect, urban planner and landscape designer Winy Maas (Schijndel, the Netherlands, 1959) co-founded architectural firm MVRDV in 1993, together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, with whom he forms the current board of directors.

Maas has received international acclaim for his range of building projects, across all typologies and scales, that are self-generated, innovative, experimental, and theoretical. He has received the Order of the Netherlands Lion and has been made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, the most important award of the French government. Maas is an honorary fellow of the architecture associations of Scotland, the UK and the USA. Over the past 25 years Maas has been responsible for award-winning projects including the Dutch Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Rotterdam’s Market Hall (2014), the Crystal Houses in Amsterdam (2016), the Glass Farm in Schijndel (2013), and the first publicly accessible art depot in the world, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen which is scheduled to open in 2020.

In addition, he has developed several masterplans, including a vision for the future of Paris, Bordeaux and Oslo. Since 2012 he has been supervisor of Almere Floriade 2022, and in 2017 Maas was appointed supervisor of Eindhoven City.

Maas advocates denser, greener, more attractive and liveable cities, with an approach to design that centres on a user-defined, innovative, and sustainable ideas for the built environment, regardless of typology or scale. He is professor of urbanism and architecture at the TU in Delft. In 2008, he founded The Why Factory at TU Delft, a research institute on future cities, which he leads as director.

The Why Factory collaborates intensively with other academic institutes around the world. This has led to numerous publications. [hyperlink www.thewhyfactory.com] Besides his work for MVRDV and The Why Factory, Maas has been a visiting professor and has held various teaching positions at notable institutes including the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Columbia University in New York, the Strelka Institute in Moscow, Hong Kong University and the Rotterdam Building Academy.

Maas participates in numerous international boards and juries. In 2019 he acting as a full year guest editor-in-chief of the Italian magazine Domus. Maas has also been appointed to conduct the pre-biennal research study for Manifesta 13, which will be held in Marseille in 2020.