Virtual Design Festival

Live interview with Winy Maas as part of Virtual Design Festival

Dutch architect Winy Maas joined Dezeen in a live Screentime conversation sponsored by Enscape as part of Virtual Design Festival.

The co-founder and principal architect of MVDRV discussed his studio's work with Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

Maas studied architecture and urban planning at TU Delft before setting up MVRDV in 1993 with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries.

Projects completed by the Rotterdam-based firm are characterised by an experimental architectural style and interdisciplinary approach.

The studio recently announced plans to build a series of stacked terraces at the Shimao ShenKong International Centre in Shenzhen, which Maas describes as an "urban living room".

Previous projects include a mixed-use "vertical village" made up of yellow, blue, red and green towers in New York and a cantilevered, mirror-clad house in Suffolk.

Alongside his work for MVRDV, Maas also holds a teaching position in urbanism and architecture at his alma mater.

In 2008, he founded a research institute called The Why Factor, with which he has authored and publish a number of urban theory books.

Winy Maas Screentime interview for VDF
Winy Maas is co-founder and principal architect of Rotterdam-based architecture firm MVDRV

Other creatives featured in our Screentime series include dean of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture Harriet Harrisstrend forecaster Li EdelkoortUNStudio founder Ben van BerkelThe World Around curator Beatrice Galileefilmmaker Gary Hustwit and British-Israeli architect Ron Arad.

This Screentime conversation is sponsored by Enscape, a virtual reality and real-time rendering plugin for architectural design programme Autodesk Revit.

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 10 July. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at [email protected].