Technical Director, VS-A
Robert-Jan van Santen graduated in Architecture from UPA3 Versailles, France. He worked for 4 years in “Atelier de Paris” with Renzo Piano in Paris. He set up his own consulting firm focusing on building envelopes, “Bureau d’études façade van SANTEN” in 1989, which later became “van SANTEN & Associés” in 1999, and later VS-A in 2010. Under his supervision came the establishments of VS-A.HK in 2011, VS-A.KR in 2013, VS-A. SZ in 2018. In the last decade, he was instrumental in the formation of VS-A Design, which hosts VS-A’s R&D activities. The design outputs are regularly patented. The Korean start-up company, UBLO was jointly set up with Naree Kim. This latest enterprise is responsible for developing a personalized ventilation window. He was honored with the Silver Medal from the French Académie d’Architecture for Research and Technique in 2008. In 2019, one of his leaded projects “Vanke Binhai Cloud Center” in Shenzhen, CHINA was awarded by CTBUH Façade Engineering Award 2019. Robert-Jan is a regular speaker at international conferences and participates in numerous jury panels worldwide.