Robbert Jan van der Veen is a Design Teacher of Urban Design at TU Delft.
His fascination is to focus on ‘clarifying inspiring urban design methods’ and creating “renewed urban design principles”. Innovative, meaningful, and feasible design principles that arise from a combination of practical experience and the scientific knowledge of the technical university of Delft.
He holds the Master of Urban Design from the Technical University of Delft (2007, Cum Laude)
During his studies Robbert Jan founded a Dutch Urban Design Office in Rotterdam in 2006, called plein06 stedenbouw en landschap. The company grew towards a multidisciplinary design office with 25 Urbanists, landscape Architects and architects working on complex innercity densification assignments. The company was renamed to ECHO Urban Design in 2020, to bring the international ambitions forward. Robbert Jan has been active before as a design teacher at ITU (istanbul), TU (Delft) and UVA (Amsterdam).
Robbert Jan received the laureate ‘40 under 40 most promising and emerging architectural and design talents in Europe’ by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum in 2020. The most renowned work of ECHO Urban Design are the won international tender for ‘ZOHO Rotterdam’ (under construction), the realization of the city centre urban design ‘Esplanade Almere’ (built), the densification-strategy for the Gooiseweg Amsterdam (city vision), the masterplan of the Gaswerkareal in Bern (competition) and the development of the Manufacture area in Lausanne (on going).