Winy Maas Prof. Ir. Ing FRIBA HAIA (1959, Schijndel, the Netherlands) is the Director of The Why Factory, a laboratory of ideas for the future that he founded in 2008 within the School of Architecture of the University of Delft. Architect, urbanist and landscape architect, Winy Maas is one of the founders of the MVRDV architecture studio, operating from Rotterdam at a global level. MVRDV is known for embodiments such as the Pavilion of the Expo 2000 in Hanover, their proposal for Paris (Grand Paris Plus Petit) and, more recently, the Housing building and Markthal market in Rotterdam. Currently Winy Maas is Professor at Chicago IIT, and has taught at Columbia University in New York and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), the University of Hong Kong, the ETH Zurich, Berlage Institute of Rotterdam, MIT, and Yale University. Winy Maas hosted exhibitions, gave lectures around the world and participated to international juries. He is also a designer of scenographies and objects, and he was commissioner of Indesem 2007 (International Design Seminar). In 2013, Winy Maas joined the Economic Development Board of Rotterdam (EDBR). In 2012, he was appointed urban planning supervisor of Almere city and since 2003 is responsible for the urban plan of Bjørvika in Oslo.