Together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, Winy Maas is the founder of MVRDV, an architectural practice awarded for its innovative and experimental approach to the architecture of buildings, cities and landscapes.
"The Visiting Professor Studio aims to bring internationally renowned personalities, current topics and new teaching methods to the Faculty. I am thrilled that Winy Maas was the first to accept this role and that we can offer our students two semesters under the guidance of this visionary personality. I believe he will be an inspiration and enrichment for the academic and professional community," says Dalibor Hlaváček, Dean of the CTU Faculty of Arts.
Popular MVRDV buildings include the Dutch pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Rotterdam's Markthal, the Crystal Houses in Amsterdam, the Book Mountain library in Spijkenisse and the world's first publicly accessible art depository, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. The firm's portfolio also includes a number of masterplans, including visions of the future of Greater Paris, the Left Bank in Bordeaux and the waterfront in Oslo. In Brno, he is currently involved in the competition for the building of the Moravian Jewish Museum Mehrin.
Winy Maas combines his practice with teaching and research. In addition to his work for MVRDV, he is a professor at Delft University of Technology, where in 2008 he founded The Why Factory, a global think-tank and research institute that explores the development of future cities.
"I am a proponent of denser, greener, more attractive and more livable cities. Design cannot do without innovative and sustainable ideas. Typology or scale do not play a role," says Winy Maas, underpinning his work.
MVRDV and The Why Factory regularly enter the public debate on architecture and urbanism through exhibitions, publications, and discussions, and this will be the case in Prague as well. In the winter semester, the students of the Maas studio will focus on global issues. The result will be a set of proposals ranging from small interventions to XXL scale visions, which they will present in the form of a 3D installation NEXT PLANET, the planet of the future, at the final exhibition in January. In the summer semester, the studio will focus on current topics in the Czech Republic.
S přednáškou pro veřejnost vystoupí Winy Maas v pondělí 7. listopadu v 18.00 v rámci série November Talks na FA ČVUT.
Photos can be downloaded here. Source: FA ČVUT