Sanne van der Burgh

Sanne van der Burgh is Director of Research & Innovation at MVRDV, where she leads MVRDV NEXT, the practice’s research and innovation group. She is also Executive Sustainability Partner of the Council on Vertical Urbanism, working internationally on the decarbonization of buildings, cities and the wider construction industry.

Her work operates across design, research, policy, technology and education, with a strong focus on turning climate ambition into measurable impact. She collaborates with cities, universities, councils, developers, engineers and industry partners around the world, exploring how architecture can respond meaningfully to the scale and urgency of the climate challenge.

Her projects and research range from data-informed urban resilience, rooftop strategies and carbon intelligence to material research on concrete and reinforcement, circular construction, and radically low-tech building methods such as straw bale construction. She is founder of CarbonSpace.earth, an open platform for embodied carbon intelligence, and leads initiatives including RoofScape and MultiRoofs, which translate research into policy and implementation across cities and countries.

Alongside her research work, Sanne remains an architect, with projects ranging from Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen to the transformation of Plum Village Buddhist Monastery.

She lectures and teaches internationally on climate, carbon, innovation and the future of architecture. Across all of her work runs one central question: what is the role of the architect in a time of urgency, and how can design remain both relevant and impactful?