In Memoriam prof. ir. Frits Seijffert, emeritus professor Bouweconomie
On Thursday, 25 April 2024, Frits Seijffert, professor emeritus of Building Economics, passed away at the age of 89. As an impassioned engineer and master of calculus, he inspired many Architecture students in the 1990s. With numerous examples from his own practice, he taught the first generations of Master students in Management in the Built Environment (MBE) real estate finance.
Seijffert's career in Delft started in 1962 as a technical officer at the chair of Applied & Theoretical Mechanics. In 1966, he graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering. After various positions in infra, construction and real estate investment practice, he returned in 1990 as Professor of Building Economics at the TU Delft. He was one of three professors to stand at the cradle of a new graduate programme within the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment: Real Estate & Project Management (now MBE). At the time, this Master track was growing very rapidly in student numbers. Frits Seijffert, together with associate professor Jo Soeter, took on the challenge of teaching economics to hundreds of students each year. With its series of teaching resources, the chair served not only education but also real estate practice. Books such as “Vastgoed Financieel” became standard works and reached a large audience.
Alexandra den Heijer (Professor of Public Real Estate and former staff member of the Chair of Building Economics): “Frits was a dedicated mentor with a very broad technical interest. His lectures were memorable: he compared the theories of real estate finance with the effects of mechanical forces and applied physics. He larded calculation examples with anecdotes from his rich real estate practice, which many will still remember. Frits cherished the academic family we were, playing the piano in Room A early in the morning, after first having coffee with the early birds from the technical department. Frits was a ‘beta’ at heart and could get incredibly annoyed at non-logical solutions. After his retirement, Frits followed the developments and innovations in Delft with great interest. He cherished fond memories of Delft and we of him.”
