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Habraken, Nicolaas (John)
(b Bandung, West Java, 29 Oct 1928). Dutch architect and theorist. He came to the Netherlands in 1946 and studied architecture at the Technische Universiteit, Delft (194855). After two years in the Netherlands Air Force he returned to the university as an instructor (195860), and at the same time worked in the office of Johannes Berghoef. He practised independently (196062) and as a job captain for the office of Lucas & Niemeyer in Voorburg (19625). In 1961 he published De dragers en de mensen. In 1964 architects from ten offices in the Netherlands formed the Stichting Architecten Research (Architecture Research Foundation; SAR); Habraken was their first director. In 1967 the foundation relocated in Eindhoven, as did Habraken. There he worked as chairman (196770) and as professor (196775) of the new architecture department at the Technische Universiteit. From 1975 he was professor and head of department in the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, although he retained close ties with SAR. He was the architect of a few individual buildings but most of his career was devoted to the development and promotion of the supports theory.
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