Winy Maas
Founder and Architect
MVRDV

In 1991, Winy Maas founded MVRDV together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. Early works such as the television centre Villa VPRO and the housing estate for the elderly, WoZoCo, both in the Netherlands, have led to international acclaim and established MVRDV’s leading role in international architecture.

MVRDV’s projects include designs for the Netherlands Pavilion at the Hannover World Expo 2000, the innovative business park Flight Forum in Eindhoven, the Matsudai cultural centre and the Gyre shopping centre in Japan, the iconic Mirador building in Madrid and the Silodam building and Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam.

Current projects in development include the new television centre in Zürich, the new Market Hall for Rotterdam, a number of housing and office projects in the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, France, England, Albania, the USA and China. Masterplans in construction include the office campus near Unterföhring, Munich and the Xinjin Water City near Chengdu, China. MVRDV also works on the masterplan for Greater Paris and the development of architectural and urban software.

The work of MVRDV/Winy Maas has been published and exhibited worldwide and has received many international awards. The monographic publications FARMAX (1998) and KM3 (2005) illustrate the brilliant work of the Rotterdam based office.

Maas lectures and teaches throughout the world and takes part in international judging panels. He is currently visiting professor of architectural design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is professor of architecture and urban design at the faculty of architecture, Delft University of Technology. Before this he was professor at a number of prestigious universities including the Berlage Institute, Ohio State and Yale University.

In addition, he designs stage sets and objects, and was the curator of Indesem 2007. He is a member of the Research Board of the Berlage Institute Rotterdam, president of the Spatial Quality Board of Rotterdam and supervisor of Bjorvika urban development in Oslo. In addition to these roles, he is director of the Why Factory, a research institute for the future city he founded in 2008 which is connected to the Delft School of Design. Recently, he was installed as official city architect of Almere, Netherlands to develop a vision for the Dutch boom town.