N. John Habraken

N. John Habraken (born 29 October 1928, Bandung, Dutch East Indies) is a Dutch architect, educator, and theorist. His theoretical contributions are in the field of user participation in mass housing, the integration of users and residents into the design process. The visual result of his theory is the architecture of lively variety. Habraken is the initiator of the international "Participation movement" in architecture. His book "Supports: An Alternative to Mass Housing", first published in 1961, is the manifesto and starting point of this movement. The theme "Resident or user participation" has been linked to Structuralism and Open building.

Habraken studied architecture at Delft Technical University, the Netherlands from 1948-1955. From 1965 to 1975, he was Director of SAR (Foundation for Architects Research) in the Netherlands, researching and developing methods for the design and construction of adaptable housing. In his seminal book "Supports" Habraken proposes the separation of "Supports" or base buildings from "Infills" in residential construction and design as a means of giving inhabitants a meaningful participative role in the design process. According to Habraken the implementation of his theory into practice is left to the decision of "the architects".

In 1960, Habraken designed the WOBO (World Bottle) for Alfred Heineken. The WOBO is a stackable beer bottle that can be used to build a bottle wall. Initially developed in response to the lack of affordable building materials and the inadequate living conditions that beset Curaçao's lower class, the WOBO is a pioneering example of industrialized recycling and adaptive reuse of materials.

In 1967 Habraken was appointed professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, and charged with the responsibility to set up its new Department of Architecture and serve as its first chairperson. From 1975 to 1981 Habraken served as Head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA. He taught at MIT until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1989.

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