Tim Habraken

"Sustainability has been seen primarily as an environmental problem and only secondarily as a social problem. I believe that this is backward. Sustainability is first a human problem and then an environmental problem."
- John R. Ehrenfeld (Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming Our Consumer Culture)

I graduated in architecture (TU Eindhoven, TU Berlin) with an academic background in sociology and philosophy. I am firmly rooted in European culture (having lived and worked in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, with projects extending beyond that), thus equiped with an international perspective on change, innovation and sustainability.

I don't think future-oriented innovation is about efficiency and smart technology per se. I am convinced that improvement can only take place if we understand human behaviour and (inter)action, by putting people at the center of our strategies and processes. Human-centered design is a catalyst for transformation and chance processes.

Currently, I work as a consultant for sustainable construction and I am active in the Swiss Green Building Council.

I regularly lecture and publish on themes like sustainable architecture and urbanism, human-centered built environments and urban innovation - e.g. in De Architect, Green Building, Facade Construction Manual and dax.