Jan Mannaerts (°1973) graduated in 1996 as Civil Engineer-Architect at the University of Leuven. As a scientific researcher he worked for the urbanism design and research team ‘Projectteam Stadsontwerp’ lead by Prof. Dr. Marcel Smets. For several years he worked as a Project Leader at the architectural office Stéphane Beel Architects. In 2004, Jan Mannaerts founded his own architectural office 360Architecten, partnering with Ir-arch. Kris Buyse and Ir-arch. Greet Houben. Since its start, 360Architecten has evolved into a middle sized office with 20 collaborators, covering a large variation of assignments. 

The work of the office is directed by the fundamental investigation of Urbanity, and sets of from a blurring of the artificial boundaries of disciplines - urbanism, architecture, infrastructure or landscape – blending them into one workfield: the design of space. The interdisciplinary attitude of the office has led to a varying and commited oeuvre with a fundamental quality as binding feature. 

Jan Mannaerts is a Visiting Professor at the Vakgroep Architectuur & Stedenbouw of the University of Ghent and is as of 2017 an independent expert-member of the Architectural Quality Committee of the City of Ghent.