Joop van Stigt was born January 6, 1934, in Amsterdam, the ninth in a family of fourteen children. Both boys and girls had to continue studying, three brothers going to the priest seminary. Ahead in the world, is the motto. From 1947 to 1949, Joop attended technical school at the friar school of boarding school Don Bosco in Leusden. Then he attends the evening school at the U.T.S. Hendrik de Keyserschool in the Pijp. He joins the carpentry firm John and carpenter A.A. Anthonissen, where he draws stairs, and designs fences of balconies and carpents concrete formwork for the new houses in the western garden cities. In 1953, he receives his diploma from the Stichting Vakopleiding Bouwbedrijf and joins architect Alexander Bodon as a draftsman. In 1954 he completes his training and enters military service. From May 1956, he worked for architect J.J. van der Linden for just under two years. In that year he begins his studies at the Academy of Architecture, where Piet Blom and Cees Dam, among others, are fellow students. He completes the course in 1961. At the Academy, Aldo van Eyck is impressed by Joop van Stigt's experience and insight, and hires him in 1958 as a draftsman superintendent, soon to be chief superintendent, in the construction of the Civil Orphanage in Amsterdam. In 1962, Van Stigt receives an honorable mention for his Prix de Rome design for a children's village. In December of that year, Bureau van Stigt comes into being. In the following years a number of special designs were realized, such as the staff canteen for the TH Twente (1962-1963), the Council House in Ter Aar (1965-1970) and the Willibrordus Church in Amsterdam (1967-1968). Important housing projects include the high-rise (Gouden Leeuw and Groenhoven) and low-rise (Geerdinkhof) buildings in the Bijlmermeer (1970-1975) and housing in Almere-Haven Oost (1975-1979). Later designs include the Faculty of Letters at Leiden University (1976-1982) and a riding school for the disabled in Gaasperdam, Amsterdam (1983-1987). From about 1980, together with his son André van Stigt, he focuses on reallocation and transformation of existing buildings. From 1988-1999 Joop van Stigt is Professor of Renovation and Maintenance Techniques at TU Delft. Since his first trip to Mali with architect Herman Haan, in 1972, an enormous fascination for the culture of the Dogon people living there arises. With his wife Gonny, he founded the Dogon Education Foundation in 1997, which succeeded in raising many funds for the construction of schools in Mali. Van Stigt trains masons there and builds schools and a provincial house. He remained involved until shortly before his death on November 4, 2011.