fcd425a3a3Saskia Spijkerman, architect and urbanist, is working at the municipality Aa en Hunze in the Netherlands and as a self-employed architect.

She studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology and graduated in 1992. She is registered as an architect in the Netherlands. In 1992 she was consultant for a UNDP/UNESCO project in Lima, Peru. From 1992 until 2005 she worked as an architect and a project manager at offices for architecture and the City of Zwolle. She designed housing projects in historical urban settings and in residential areas. She made designs for renovation and adaptation to new programmes for modern and monumental buildings. Since 2004 she has her own office for architecture and works for private clients and as an advisor for the City of Assen.

In 2005 Saskia became urbanist at the municipality Aa en Hunze. Scope of work is the redevelopment of and extensions to historical villages in relation with the surrounding rural landscape, which is of high cultural and historical value. In this ancient landscape with archaeological monuments the new developments in farming, cattle breeding, sources of renewable energy, such as installations for biomass and windmills, need to be planned carefully by a team of experts, in consultation with all stakeholders.

Saskia worked as a guest tutor at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology and is working as a guest tutor at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Groningen.

Since 2005 she has attended every ISOCARP congress, became an ISOCARP member in 2010 and was one of the coordinators of the Young Planning Professionals Workshop which was held prior to the 46th ISOCARP Congress in Nairobi, Kenya.