Ben Claasz Coockson was born in 1956 in The Hague, The Netherlands. He worked in his own Archaeological Buro in Holland, from where he was sent to Syria in 1986 to do the architectural work on the excavation site of Tell Hammam et Turkman. This was his first introduction to mud-brick, as nearly all the architectural remains on the Tell were mud-brick and a quick understanding was therefore necessary. After Syria, excavation projects in Turkey followed and Coockson migrated permanently to Ankara in 1990. Here he worked until 1995 for the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara (BIAA); since 1997 he has taught full-time in the Department of Archaeology, Bilkent University (Ankara). The rapid transition from mud-brick to concrete in the last 30 years and the need for archaeology students to see the possibilities and variations with this plastic material were the main motivation to create Living in Mud.