Jean-François Coppens was born in Brussels, Département de la Dyle, Southern Netherlands, French Republic (now Belgium) in 1799.

[4] On September 27, 1841, he was named honorary architect of the railway for the part he took in the formation of the project for the North station in Brussels.

[5] The project of the Solvay Castle in Walloon Brabant, involving Coppens and French architect Jean-Jacques Nicolas Arveuf-Fransquin, was finished in 1842.

He served as a jury member tasked with judging the class of "Decorative furniture and upholstery, including paper-hangings, papier-mâché, and japanned goods.

[6] He was involved in a limited partnership Coppens alné et compagnie which dissolved in 1860, and was replaced by a public company established by Coppens, Charles de Brouckère and Emmanuel Jacques Pyn to operate steam navigation between Ghent and Antwerp.