Hubert-Jan graduated with distinction in 1969 from the Department of the Built Environment in what is now Delft University of Technology, under Aldo van Eyck. He went on to study urban development at Otaniemi University in Finland and worked for Reima Pietilä in Helsinki. From 1971 to 1974 he worked for Castle Park Dan Hook Architects in London, and from 1974-1976 he was Director of the Housing Renewal Unit in London for the same firm. In 1976 he started his own architectural firm in the Netherlands.

He has been involved in architectural education without interruption from 1971 to 2005, first as a visiting tutor at the Bartlett School of Environmental Studies in London, then as the scientific head of Renovation Technology at what is now Delft University of Technology. From 1984 to 1998 he was Professor of Structural Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology and from 1998 to 2005 he was Professor of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. He has organised and presided over a large number of conferences, courses and lectures. He has been chairman of many judging panels for awards and competitions both in the Netherlands and abroad.

Hubert-Jan was chairman of a number of working groups of the Building Research Foundation and a member of the National Monuments Committee. He has been chairman of the Rietveld Schröder House Foundation, the Rietveld Archive and the Van Doesburghuis Foundation in Meudon. From 1998 to 2008 he was Supervisor for Architecture and Urban Planning at Schiphol Airport. He was Supervisor of the Spoorzone in Tilburg and the cultural heritage of the Stork site in Hengelo. He is a member of the Commitee Scientifique for the restoration of the College Neerlandais of Dudok in Paris.

In 2002, together with Hilde Heynen, he compiled the book ‘Back from Utopia, the Challenge of the Modern Movement’. He is founder and honorary president of DOCOMOMO, an international organisation for the documentation and conservation of buildings and urban planning and landscape ensembles of the Modern Movement.

The Van Beuningen De Vrieze Pavilion of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe European Architecture Award. In 1999 Hubert-Jan was awarded the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize for his entire body of work. Other awards include the Victor de Steurs Prize and the Schreuders Prize for underground buildings. Together with Wessel de Jonge he won the World Monument Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize in 2010.

In 2003 he was granted a Knighthood of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and in 2004 he received the BNA Kubus. He has been Honorary Fellow of The Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland since 2015.

In May of 2013, Hubert-Jan published his book Waar nieuw en oud raken, een pleidooi voor houdbare moderniteit in architectuur (Where new and old meet, a plea for enduring modernity in architecture) published by Lecturis.