Winy Maas - Why?Factory

Mirko Zardini, an architect, is the Director and Chief Curator of the Canadian Centre for Architecture since 2005. His research engages the transformation of contemporary architecture by questioning and relooking at the assumptions on which architects operate today. Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture (2011), his latest exhibition, exposes the excessive optimism in the therapeutic role of architecture.
Zardini has been editor for Casabella and Lotus International magazine and his writings have been widely published. He has taught design and theory at architecture schools in Europe and the United States, including Harvard University GSD, Princeton University SoA, Swiss Federal Polytechnic University (ETH) at Zurich, and the Federal Polytechnic at Lausanne (EPFL).

Dietmar Steiner studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Until 1989 he held a teaching post in architecture history and theory at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst in Vienna. Dietmar Steiner has been director of the Architekturzentrum Wien since 1993. In 2002 he curated the Austrian contribution to the Architecture Biennial in Venice in his capacity as Commissioner.
He is a member of the advisory committee for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, the most significant European architecture award, as well as being president of ICAM – International Confederation of Architectural Museums – the umbrella organisation for architecture museums world-wide. In addition, Dietmar Steiner works as an architecture consultant on a number of juries and for a number of appraisals. His many years' editorial experience with the Italian journal 'domus' and many published articles on the topics of architecture and urban development are also among his activities.

Hans Ibelings is trained as an architectural historian. He was the editor of A10 new European architecture, which he founded together with graphic designer Arjan Groot in 2004. He has just started The Architecture Observer a multiform tool for architectural criticism. Last year he published European architecture since 1890 (SUN Amsterdam 2011)/Europäische Architektur seit 1890 (Jovis Berlin 2011).
www.architectureobserver.eu

Aglaee Degros is cofounder of Artgineering (2001), an office for research and design at the border between urban planning and infrastructure. In 2010 she was visiting professor of Urban Culture and Public Space at the Vienna University of Technology. She has also been visiting lecturer at TU Delft, Academy of Architecture Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Arnhem, as well as at the UCL and ULB in Brussels.
She is a member of the 'Vlaams Jaarboek 2012' editorial committee and the Europan scientific committee. She has served on the juries of Europan 10 (The Netherlands), Europan 11 (Switzerland), plus several competitions involving public space in Belgium. She is a member of the city of Nijmegen's 'Beeldkwaliteit' committee (2009-2013), and the SFA committee. In 2005 Aglaee Degros was a jury member of Archiprix. She has written ‘N4-toward a living infrastructure’ (2007) with S. Bendiks, and ‘A12NU-onderzoek naar de A12 zone tussen Utrecht, Nieuwegein en Houten’ (2009) with H. van der Vegt and S. Bendiks. She is currently working with S. Bendiks on 'Cycle infra' (2012).
About Aglaee Degros was published in Dialogue (Taiwan, 2009), A+ (2008) , Elle (2001) and Dérive (2006) and her work has been exhibited in the NAI (Rotterdam 2008), Westarch Ludwigforum (Aken 2010) and the Centre for Architecture Aorta: A12NU (Utrecht).

Winy Maas is a Dutch architect, landscape architect, professor and urbanist. In 1991 together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries he set up MVRDV. He completed his studies at the RHSTL Boskoop, graduating as a "landscape architect", and in 1990 he got his degree from the Delft University of Technology. He currently is visiting professor of architectural design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is professor in architecture and urban design at the faculty of architecture, Delft University of Technology. Before this he was professor at among others Berlage Institute, Ohio State and Yale University.
In 1991, together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, he founded the MVRDV studio (an acronym of the initials of the names of the three founders), which produces designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urban studies and landscape design. The studies on light urbanism for the City of Rotterdam, the headquarters of the Dutch Public Broadcasting Company VPRO and the Wozoco's senior citizens' residences in Amsterdam, which won the J.A. van Eck Prize of the Dutch Architects' Association, have brought MVRDV to the attention of a vast collection of clients, giving the studio international renown. Today, the studio is actively involved in numerous projects in various parts of the world. MVRDV designed the Dutch pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hanover, the Logrono Eco-City in Spain, the Gyre building in Tokyo and many others.
Winy Maas presented a keynote address “New solutions for new challenges” at the inaugural Holcim Forum, “Basic Needs” at the ETH Zurich in 2004. In addition he designs stage sets, objects and was curator of Indesem 2007. He is member of the research board of Berlage Institute Rotterdam, president of the spatial quality board of Rotterdam and supervisor of the Bjorvika urban development in Oslo. 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.