Samyn grew up within the Belgian countryside, the place his father was a mechanical engineer and his mom was a painter. With a love for each artwork and math, he studied structural engineering, graduating from the Free College of Brussels in 1971. He visited MIT on a backpacking journey and was instantly drawn to its concentrate on considering past concrete. Arriving for a grasp’s in civil engineering, he embraced a philosophy of inventive problem-solving. “The lecturers would say the phrase ‘downside’ doesn’t exist—there are simply questions. And questions have solutions,” he says. 

Samyn utilized that perspective to emphasise environment friendly use of sources. “I hate misplaced cash,” he says. In 1997, he developed a method to optimize the form and power of supplies to face up to load and forces corresponding to wind with out utilizing any extra—a formulation that has turn out to be trade normal.

Samyn’s designs over many years replicate site-specific structure in motion, from the majestic glass and metal of the European Council headquarters in Brussels to the austere polygonal form of the Princess Elisabeth polar analysis base in Antarctica, which includes a novel envelope of woolen felt, plastic foam, and stainless-steel to guard in opposition to excessive winds and subzero temperatures. When a design for a Chinese language port undertaking not noted parking, Samyn designed a slender tower to stack 25 ranges of automobiles; the tower is now thought of a landmark. 

Regardless of this vary of modern designs, Samyn doesn’t hesitate when requested to choose his favourite: “The following one,” he says. “I forbid myself to look again. Each undertaking is a brand new journey.”