Aldo van Eyck was born in Driebergen, Holland in 1918. Although educated in England during his youth, he eventually returned to Zurich and attended the ETH. He taught at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture from 1954 to 1959, and he was a professor at the Delft Technical College from 1966 to 1984. He also was editor of the architecture magazine Forum from 1959 to 1963 and in 1967.

An active member of CIAM and then in 1954 a co-founder of "Team 10", Van Eyck has lectured throughout Europe and northern America stressing the need to reject Functionalism and attacking the lack of originality in most post-war Modernism. Van Eyck's position as co-editor of the Dutch magazine Forum helped publicize the "Team 10" call for a return to humanism within architectural design.

While van Eyck demands an empirical search for original solutions in most of his written works, he shows a distinct preference for Structuralist as well as 'humanist' values within his completed projects. With his partners, van Eyck has generated a subtle, innovative, and appropriate architecture that effectively meets user needs.

Van Eyck received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1990.