Designer Profile

UNStudio/Ben van Berkel

Ben van Berkel provides highly significant thought leadership in contemporary architecture. He loves to transform architecture into sculpture. 

Together with Caroline Bos, Ben van Berkel founded UNStudio in Amsterdam in 1998. The interdisciplinary design team develops urban projects around the world, builds bridges and public buildings, and designs both products and media. Ben van Berkel currently holds the Kenzo Tange Chair at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Long before it became commonplace, he was already using computer-aided animation in his image language. In 2018 he founded UNSense, an Amsterdam-based architecture-tech business, which designs people-centered technical solutions and integrates them into the built environment.  

His designs are attention-grabbing yet still respect historical structures, as illustrated by the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam and the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.

The latter is where the collaboration between Walter Knoll and UNStudio has its origins: the development of the architecture and the Circle sofa took place in parallel. By redefining the museum space, Ben van Berkel opened up a new chapter in architectural history.  

The equally sculptural MYchair and Seating Stones represent further milestones in the partnership between Ben van Berkel and Walter Knoll. We co-developed these powerful designs, inspired by nature and also by the archaic – both of which hold great importance for us.