J.M.J. Coenen (born 1949) Jo Coenen (b. 1949, Hoensbroek) graduated from the Technical University in Eindhoven in 1975. He then worked for Luigi Snozzi in Switzerland, James Stirling in England and Van Eyck and Bosch in Amsterdam for some time. In 1979 he starts his own firm, Jo Coenen & Co, first in Eindhoven and from 1993 in Maastricht. From 2000 to 2004, he served as Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands. At the time Jo Coenen makes his entrance into architecture, in the second half of the 1970s, small-scale, often formless architecture dominates in the Netherlands. For many architects, their designs are subordinate to the prevailing adage of "building for the neighborhood. It was at this time that Coenen's aversion to formlessness emerged. Influenced in part by internationally flourishing postmodernism, he develops his own design conception. Creating structure and cohesion in urban environments is a constant theme in his work. Initially he realizes relatively small projects and participates in various competitions at home and abroad. In the mid-1980s he receives larger commissions, including for the City Office in Delft (1984-1986) and the public library (19831986) in Heerlen. In 1988, his design for the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam is chosen in a multiple commission involving a total of six architects. The building is completed in 1993. In the late 1980s he receives commissions to design urban master plans for the former Sphinx Céramique site (1987) in Maastricht, for the KNSM Island (1988) in Amsterdam and the area around the Vaillantlaan (1989) in The Hague. From 1976 to the present, Coenen fulfills various (guest) lectureships and professorships at universities and colleges: in Eindhoven, Maastricht, Tilburg, Amsterdam, Delft, Aachen and Lausanne. In 2004 he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University of the Netherlands. Since 2004, he has been Professor of Restoration, Modification, Intervention and Transformation at Delft University of Technology. His lectures include projects in which old and new merge. Coenen finds knowledge of the existing indispensable to arrive at good designs for these types of projects. Note: the oeuvre of J.M.J. Coenen is not (completely) inventoried. Education: Eindhoven University of Technology/ Additional activities: Delft University of Technology/ Professor/.