Ben James is the CEO & Founder of 3D generative AI platform Atlas.

When Ben entered the architecture profession, he was shocked at the limited role new technology played in the design process, and discovered that the lack of automation meant that creative individuals spent too much time on tasks not suited to their expertise.

He founded Atlas in 2021 to augment and focus designers‘ creativity, with an emphasis on gaming and virtual world-building.

Ben graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC and worked as a financial and strategy consultant in NYC and London prior to getting his Architecture Master’s degree from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

His work has been exhibited in notable museums and galleries such as the Architectural Association visiting school in China, the A+D Museum in LA, the Storefront for Art & Architecture in NYC, and the Architecture Biennale in Tallinn.

Winy is a Founding Partner, Urban Planner, and Landscape Architect who has led MVRDV’s interdisciplinary team since its establishment in 1993. Co-founded with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, the award-winning Dutch practice has achieved international acclaim for a wide variety of buildings, cities, and landscapes that are innovative, experimental, and merge theory with practice.

Driven by this dedication to green, user-defined, sustainable cities and spaces, his leadership drives many of the office’s award-winning projects. These include the Dutch Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Villa VPRO in Hilversum, WoZoCo in Amsterdam, Rotterdam’s Markthal, Crystal Houses in Amsterdam, the Tianjin Binhai Library, the Glass Farm in Schijndel, Radio Hotel and Tower in New York, Valley in Amsterdam and the first publicly accessible art depot in the world, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, which opened its doors end of 2021.

His broad portfolio are also several masterplans, including a vision for the future of Greater Paris, the Left Bank in Bordeaux, and the waterfront of Oslo. He also designed and supervised the world horticultural exhibition Floriade 2022 and supervised Eindhoven city centre from 2017 until 2022.

Winy balances practice with academic leadership. Besides his work for MVRDV, he is a Professor of Urbanism and Architecture at the Delft University of Technology. In 2008, he developed The Why Factory, a research institute that he leads within TU Delft, which explores possibilities for the development of cities of the future. In 2022, He was appointed visiting professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague.

His academic work also includes numerous visiting professorships at internationally notable institutions including the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Columbia University in New York, the Strelka Institute in Moscow, Hong Kong University, the Rotterdam Building Academy, and the Czech Technical University.

Besides the many awards MVRDV’s projects have received, in 2015 he was appointed to the Order of the Dutch Lion by the Dutch government. In 2011, the Government of France awarded him with the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur for his work characterized by experimentation, innovation, and sustainability.