Herman Hertzberger was born in Amsterdam (July 6th, 1932). In 1958, after completing his studies at the Technical University in Delft, he returned to Amsterdam to set up a private practice. From 1965 to 1970, he taught at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam and since 1970 has been a professor at the Technical University in Delft.

Together with Aldo van Eyck, Hertzberger is considered to have been one of the leaders of the Dutch structuralist movement of the 1960s. He believed that it is the architect's role to provide a spatial framework for a building to be filled out by its users rather than a complete solution. Among Hertzberger's best known buildings are the Montessori school in Delft (1966-70) and the administration building for the Centraal Beheer Insurance Company building in Apeldoorn (1970-72).