Brinkman trained as a civil engineer at Delft before entering his father Michiel Brinkman's Rotterdam office. When Michiel died in 1925, the twenty-three-year-old Johannes took over the practice and, that same year, formed a partnership with Leendert van der Vlugt — the firm traded as Brinkman & Van der Vlugt until Van der Vlugt's death in 1936. Brinkman handled engineering and construction while Van der Vlugt led design on the Van Nelle Factory, the Van der Leeuw and Sonneveld houses, and the Bergpolder flats; historians still debate how credit should divide between the two of them and the draughtsman Mart Stam. After 1936 Brinkman partnered with Johannes van den Broek, completed Feyenoord's stadium in 1937, and died in 1949 still working on Rotterdam's cruise terminal.
