Jeroen de Willigen

Jeroen de Willigen is urban designer and partner at De Zwarte Hond. He studied at Delft University of Technology and in 2015 he obtained his MCD (Master City Developer) degree at Erasmus University Rotterdam. With his thesis “The Value of Structure” he won the MCD Thesis Award that same year.

From 1996 to 1998, De Willigen worked at West 8, after which he founded the urban development department at De Zwarte Hond. In 2001 he became a partner and since 2011 he has been creative director. Within De Zwarte Hond, De Willigen is responsible for numerous urban development projects such as: The Blue City in the Oldambt, De Florijnas and the the Station Area in Assen, the Grunobuurt in Groningen, Hart van de Waalsprong in Nijmegen, Beatrixplein in Haarlem, and the Suikerzijde in Groningen. He also serves as a supervisor in various urban such as Amsterdam Amstel and the Healthy Ageing Campus RUG-UMCG. In these roles, he applies his design expertise to address pressing social and economic challenges.

From 2008 to 2012, De Willigen was coordinator urban development at the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam and lecturer in Groningen and Delft. From 2016 to 2020 he served as City Architect of Groningen. Since early 2024, he has been chairman of the BNA (Royal Institute of Dutch Architects).