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. www.vs-a.group. 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 www.ublo-window.com was jointly set up with Naree Kim, and the start-up coat-ing www.coat-ing.eu was set up with Pauline BELLEC, hosted by Station F in Paris. He was honoured with the Silver Medal from the French Académie d’Architecture for Research and Technique in 2008. VS-A.HK was awarded by the CTBUH in 2019 with the “Vanke Binhai Cloud Centre” in Shenzhen, and in 2023 with the “Cloud City”, with OMA, in Hangzhou, China. Impossible not to mention his Partners Nicolas DELPLANQUE, Marion BERGERIE, Clément DUFOUR-LEFORT, Suzy HUANG, Ze MIAO and Jérôme DAMIENS, director of VS-A Lille office.
