Robbrecht studied at Ghent's Sint-Lucasinstituut from 1969 to 1974 and, the following year, founded Robbrecht en Daem with Hilde Daem, whom he later married. He also trained and continued to work as a visual artist, and taught for years at Ghent University alongside running the practice; the two strands meet in the exhibition architecture he designed for Documenta in Kassel. Dutch-language critics group him with Daem, Marie-José Van Hee and Christian Kieckens as architects who gave Flanders' Nieuwe Eenvoud its European standing, built from exact proportion and a short list of materials. Beyond houses and the Boijmans wing in Rotterdam, the Bruges concert hall is the practice's clearest public statement. He won the Prix de Rome in 1979 and is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
