Francine Houben

Francine Houben (1955) is the founder and creative director of Mecanoo architects. With her firm, she integrates urban planning, landscape, architecture, restoration, and interior design in a coherent manner. Her body of work is diverse: houses, offices, schools, and complete housing estates, theaters, libraries, skyscrapers, parks, squares, highways, cities, polders, and the Randstad, hotels, libraries, museums, healthcare facilities, and even a chapel.

Francine Houben was a professor of mobility aesthetics at TU Delft and has taught at Yale and Harvard universities. In 2013, she was named Woman Architect of the Year by Architect’s Journal. In 2008, she was awarded Businesswoman of the Year. Francine Houben is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Academy of the KNAW. In 2015, Queen Máxima presented her with the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Prize for her entire body of work. She has also received honorary doctorates from Utrecht University and Mons University.