The Executive Board has appointed Professor Machiel van Dorst as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (BK) with effect from 1 February 2026. He is currently Professor of Environmental Behaviour and Design.
Machiel van Dorst studied a combination of architecture and environmental psychology at Eindhoven University of Technology, graduating in 1992. He subsequently worked for many years as a researcher and designer, including at his own consultancy firm RUIM. In 1997, he joined TU Delft as a researcher at the then interfaculty research centre -The Ecological City-. He has been affiliated with the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment since 2002, obtaining his PhD in 2005 with his thesis -A sustainable living environment-. His research focuses on the interaction between behaviour and urban design. In 2020, he was appointed Professor of Environmental Behaviour and Design.
Over the years, Van Dorst has held numerous management and leadership roles within the faculty. Between 2012 and 2019, he was chair of the Department of Urbanism, a role he temporarily filled again in 2019 and 2024. From 2017 to 2019, he headed the former OTB department. Between 2018 and 2020, he was Vice Dean. In 2025, he was also made Scientific Director of the Resilient Delta Initiative Convergence Programme, as well as Medical Delta Professor, with affiliation to the Faculty of Social Sciences at Leiden University.
Machiel van Dorst succeeds Dick van Gameren, who, after almost seven years as dean, will devote himself fully to his research and education as Professor of Dwelling in the coming years.