Arjan Habraken is an Assistant Professor in the Department of the Built Environment at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He is specialized in lightweight structures. His professional focus is on design work and cooperation with architects, resulting in extensive structural and architectural integration. This to raise the level of structural form-finding to support the aesthetics and the function of the project. Arjan’s position as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Built Environment at the Technical University in Eindhoven supports this vision and strengthens the relationship between practice, new developments and research.
His research concerns “Resource-efficient Structural Design”. Three research direction are related to this:
- Giving structures a long lifespan
- Working with biological materials
- Creating material efficient design
Within material efficient design 4 topics are studied:
- Section optimization
- Form optimization
- Topology optimization
- Adaptive optimization

Arjan Habraken studied civil engineering at the Delft University of Technology and graduated at the Department of Mechanics & Constructions in 1996 with an honorable mention from the Dutch Concrete Association. At the Eindhoven University of Technology he also completed a second Master's degree in lightweight structures. He has also been an Assistant-teacher in London at the Architectural Association.
In addition to his position at TU/e, Arjan launched in 2012 his company SIDstudio to work as a structural designer in close collaboration with architects. In 2017 he was one of the founders of MDLX, a company in which a sustainable modular building system is developed.

During his career, Arjan has worked on many high-level, international projects. He is an experienced project manager and design leader, in concrete and steel structures, as well as in glass, cable and membrane structures. He has previously held positions with Arup Amsterdam, Octatube Space Structures and Goudstikker de Vries B.V. Arjan publishes and presents regulalrly at international conferences on architecture and materials.