Martin van der Linden studied architecture in the Netherlands, the UK and Japan, where he worked for the renowed Japanese architect Hiorshi Hara on the redesign of Kyoto's main station. In the mid-'90's, he was employed by the Japanese office of Cesar Pelli, and then became a design consultant to the Japanese Ministry of Education's privatised architecture office (EFI) from 1997-1999. Taching at Waseda University and Tokyo University of Science for around ten years, Martin established his architecture office van der Architects in 2001.