Belgian architect Marie-José Van Hee (b. 1950) has been an acclaimed designer and teacher of numerous fellow architects for about half a century, creating timeless architecture by renewing traditional and vernacular building practices. With everything she drew, there was a particular focus on the proportion of space, the quality of light and the resolved detail, implementing classical elements such as the window, door, fireplace, staircase and gallery to anchor built environments at every scale.
Profile
With a career spanning almost half a century, Marie-José gained respect and esteem for the extraordinarily high quality of life offered by the unpretentious and unique environments she designs.
In her twenties, she was influenced by the wooden creations of the Californian Greene and Greene brothers; in her thirties and forties, she looked closely at the solid stone constructions and public spaces while travelling in Southern Europe. Over the years, Van Hee reinvented the townhouse typology as a cornerstone of tomorrow’s city. Her designs for public buildings and bridges are less well known; they shape a humanistic vision of architecture and the city by valorising public space as a meeting place and using genuinely authentic architecture that intensifies the experience of light, space, and human contact.
Marie-José Van Hee (b. 1950) graduated in 1974 with a degree in architecture from the Ghent Sint-Lucas School of Architecture to start working with Ghent architect Francis Serck, working freelance for landscape architect Paul Deroose in Jabbeke and Groep Planning in Brussels and Bruges while taking on her own commissions. In 1986, she co-founded VDVH Associés in Brussels before finally setting up a Ghent office in 1990.
Marie-José taught at her alma mater as a professor of architectural design between 1991 and 2015 and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH) as a guest professor from 2015 to 2016. She was an external examiner for London Metropolitan University, the Sir John Cass Faculty of Architecture, between 2016 and 2019. Until 2022, she was regularly invited as a jury member and guest critic at various universities and institutions in Belgium and abroad.
Marie-José Van Hee received national and international recognition for her oeuvre, most recently the Flanders Architecture Prize in 2023. Her work was awarded the Provincial Prize for Architecture in 1993, 2003, and 2013 (Flanders, Belgium) and her creations have been nominated for the Dutch Abe Bonnemaprijs 2013, the Architectural Review Awards in 2014 (UK) and twice for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies Van der Rohe Awards: in 1999 for her own house and in 2013 for the Ghent Market Hall and city squares (with Robbrecht en Daem architecten). Marie-José Van Hee and her office contributed to the Belgian Pavillion at the Venice Giardini in 1991 and 2021 and exhibited at the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale (2012 and 2018).
Marie-José Van Hee received the Flanders Biannual Culture Prize for Architecture in 1997 and 2023. She has been a fellow of the Belgian Royal Academy for Sciences and Art since 2008 and of the Royal Institute of British Architects since 2017.
mailto: menno@mjvanhee.beCurrent and past team members:
Jan Baes | Els Claessens | Sylvie Cosyns | Mattias Deboutte | Wannes De Brouwer | Céline De Clercq | Bram De Gieter | Lennert Dejonghe | Viktor Derks | Frederik De Smedt | Sam De Vocht |
Valerie Doutreluingne | Thomas Faes | Dirk Goyens | Artuur Herman | Frédéric Hossey | Yza Hunsinger | Sahar Jaber |
Indra Janda | Jessica Langerock | Ursula Novak | Carmen Osten | Daniel Pickering | Ben Rea | Filip Reumers | Diego Sanchez | Alice Sanders | Lou Terryn | Frédéric Timmermans | Maarten
Vanbelle | Marthe Vandenabeele | Tania Vandenbussche | Menno
Vanderghote | Ariane Van Craen | Dietlinde Verhaeghe | Tinne Verwerft | Wim Voorspoels |
Visualisations:
Thomas Hick | Frederik De Smedt
Office management:
Ilse De Sutter
Financial consultancy:
Yves Callens - Montes bv | Greta Van Belleghem - Sed Arte bv