Thys Schreij

Thys received his Master's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from TU Delft in 2005. After his studies, he worked for various architectural firms and as a self-employed person. He has worked at Architectural Studio Herman Hertzberger and UNStudio. Since March 2022, he has been working as an architect in the Paul de Ruiter team.

As a child and teenager, Thys already enjoyed tinkering: "During a handicraft lesson, I was given the task of making a maquette, to which the teacher reacted enthusiastically. I then knew from an early age that I wanted to be an architect."

As an architect, Thys has worked on several projects, including the energy-generating education building Echo at TU Delft. "I learned a lot during this project. It was a real challenge, in which we limited the energy demand by means of an innovative climate system while renewable energy is generated on-site. The building has a high degree of flexibility, plenty of daylight, and good acoustics that will jointly lead to a healthy indoor climate and quality education for the users in the long term."

He has been interested in sustainability, a characteristic aspect of the architecture of Paul de Ruiter Architects, for a long time. The idea that buildings should not only provide energy in a technical sense but also energy in a human sense is very much in line with his own vision of architecture.

Thys is a driven architect with broad technical knowledge and insight. He has extensive experience in all phases of a project and the realisation of complex buildings. He considers the design process as equally important as the actual execution. It is his passion to translate powerful concepts into innovative, sustainable architecture, with a great sense of engineering, materialisation, and finishing.

The open working culture and horizontal organisation of Paul de Ruiter Architects really appeals to Thys: "You are given responsibility, where you quickly make social contact and at the same time can address someone professionally."