Philippe, Knight Samyn, (born 1 September 1948, in Ghent, Belgium) started his education in Ghent, before moving to Brussels with his family. He was interested in art, architecture, sciences and technology from an early age. He holds a degree in civil engineering from Brussels Free University (ULB) in 1971, a Master of Sciences in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1973, a degree in urban planning from the ULB (1973), a postgraduate in management from the Solvay Business School (1985) and became Doctor in Applied sciences for the University of Liege in 1999. He begins his consultant activity as an architect and engineer in 1972 and founds Philippe Samyn and Partners in 1980.
He is a Belgian architect and civil engineer whose style is characterized by extensive use of glass, wood and steel to build often monumental structures. Philippe Samyn is Commander of the Order of Léopold and a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts of Belgium, he is personally ennobled with the grant of hereditary nobility to Knighthood by HRH King Albert II on 13 July 2012. His motto is: "Reperire, Invenire, Creare".
