Jeroen van Ameijde
Director

Jeroen van Ameijde is a founding partner and acting director at Urban Systems, responsible for the management, research and design direction of the office. He has coordinated and co-directed the design and development of several large scale projects with clients and collaborators in China, including the 400,000 m2 ‘Changyuan CBD Mall’ complex, the ‘Yung Gardens’ and ‘East Gardens’ residential projects and urban design projects including the Changyuan CBD Masterplan, the ‘Changsha Northstar Delta’ project and the Changsha International Communication District masterplan.

Before founding Urban Systems, Jeroen has worked for more than ten years as design architect and project architect in several innovative and award-winning international offices in The Netherlands, London, New York and Hong Kong. With Contemporary Architecture Practice in New York he has worked as design architect on several high profile projects such as the Reebok flagship store in Shanghai, as well as several publications including the book ‘Catalytic Formations’ and several other influential publications. In Hong Kong he worked with RAD (formerly OMA-Asia) on several projects including the Taj Hotel in Noida, India, the Shangri-La hotel in Xiamen, China, and the Starcenter University Library in Jeonju, South Korea.

Jeroen is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His teaching and research projects focus on the intersection between urban design and architecture at dense urban locations. His work explores how in this area of application, the organisation and mixing of social, cultural and economic activities can be guided through advanced computational methods for data management and design testing. He employs “generative design” as a methodology to develop programmatically complex urban and architectural proposals, as well as a value system to evaluate and speculate how these interventions can contribute to the growth and development of the city over time. Before joining CUHK, Jeroen taught at the Architectural Association in London for 11 years in several roles, including as Unit Master in the undergraduate programme and as Course Tutor in the graduate school. He has also taught at the Bartlett, University College London and at the University of Pennsylvania and has lectured, published and taught workshops in collaboration with universities and institutions worldwide.

Jeroen received a Master of Science degree in Architecture and Building Technologies from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. He is a chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and is a registered architect in The Netherlands and the UK.
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Brendon Carlin
Co-founder

Brendon Carlin is a Unit Master and PhD candidate at the Architectural Association and co-founder of Urban Systems Office. He has coordinated and co-directed the design of several large scale projects with clients and collaborators, including the 238m tall, 290,000 square meter, mixed use ‘Changyuan CBD Towers’ complex, the currently under construction 5.5 million square meter ‘Changyuan CBD Masterplan’, the ‘Twin Towers’ and the ‘Changsha Northstar Delta’ projects.

Before founding Urban Systems Brendon practised in the United States, China, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. He collaborated on a diverse range of projects as a design architect including Raffles City Hangzhou with UN Studio in Amsterdam, first-prize winning competitions with Plasma Studio in London, urban proposals with Relational Urbanism in London and a range of projects in his native Colorado. Brendon is a Unit Master of Intermediate Unit 6 at the Architectural Association, which he has mentored since 2011. He has been an instructor with several courses at progressive institutions worldwide including the post-graduate course ‘Territorialism’ with the Berlage Institute and at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Brendon received a masters degree in Architecture and Urbanism at the Architectural Association in London and an undergraduate of Environmental Design in Architecture at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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Yan Qin
Co-founder

Yan Qin is a co-founder of Urban Systems Office. Independently, he has been involved with business development, design and construction projects in China for many years including an award winning private school for primary and secondary education and a large hospital group regarded as one of the premier specialist healthcare brands in China. His design and project management experience includes large scale mixed-use developments ranging from residential buildings including retail services to high-rise hotel and office complexes.

Yan received a RIBA part 1 qualification from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and received a Masters degree from the University of Cambridge for Planning, Growth and Regeneration at the Land Economy Department, completing his dissertation on the structural social and economic changes related to large scale urbanisation projects in China.