Willy Van Der Meeren

Willy Van Der Meeren (°1923, Lebbeke – †2002, Jette) was a Belgian architect.

Van Der Meeren followed in 1942 initially the training of medicine at the University of Leuven. However, after one year, he broke this course and he decided to study architecture. He enrolled in 1943 at the Académie de Bruxelles, but he soon discovered that his modernist thinking was not consistent with the attitude in the institute. As a result, he saw himself compelled in 1944 to continue his studies at La Cambre. Here he was surrounded by the main Belgian modernists of the twentieth century.

Typical of Van Der Meeren was his interest in the construction and mass production, and social conscience (one of the principles of La Cambre that architecture is a matter for the masses, not for the individual). He is also considered one of the leading Belgian furniture designers of the postwar period.