Bureau Bas Smets’ project “Building Biospheres” has been selected for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial 2025. Based on a decade-long conversation between Bas Smets and neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, this exhibition examines how a better understanding of the natural intelligence of plants can create a new relationship between nature and architecture. The pavilion serves as a prototype where plants create a microclimate by activating rain, wind, and light.

Year: 2024-2025
Commissioned by: Flanders Architecture Institute
Curators: Bas Smets with Stefano Mancuso
In collaboration with: Erik De Waele, Lisa De Visscher, Veronique Patteeuw, Kathy Steppe, Dirk De Pauw
Photographs (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10): Michiel De Cleene
Photographs (6) Bureau Bas Smets & Plant AnalytiX

The project rethinks the emblematic public spaces around Notre-Dame as a sequence of climatic atmospheres. Compressed and imbricated around the Cathedral, these spaces frame new views towards Notre-Dame, establish a new relationship with the Seine and offer multiple activities in the centre of Paris.

Year: 2022 – 2028
Client: Ville de Paris
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets (Team Leader), GRAU – Architectes, Neufville Gayet Architectes – Architecte du patrimoine, Ingérop
In collaboration with: Franck Boutté Consultants, Les Eclaireurs, BLD Waterdesign, Cronos Conseil
Images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6): Studio Alma

The semi-desert climate of the former industrial railway yard is transformed into a Mediterranean climate by accelerating what nature would have done over time. Planted with more than eighty thousand trees, shrubs and plants the park is made with the species of the three surrounding biotopes and connects all the buildings of the new art centre of the Luma Foundation.

Year: 2009 – 2021
Client: SCI AAI, AREA
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Gehry Partners LLP, Selldorf Architects
Photographs (7, 10): Rémi Bénali
Photographs (1, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18): Iwan Baan
Photographs (3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 19): Michiel De Cleene

The Water Garden is part of the gradual transformation of the former industrial site of the Vitra Campus into a living landscape. As part of this long-term strategy, it introduces water as climate infrastructure. Fed by rainwater collected from the surrounding roofs, the garden creates a cooling microclimate while introducing a new ecology. Fish, birds and aquatic plants gradually become part of the campus.

Year: 2022-2026
Commissioned by: Logad GmbH
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Julien Lanoo

The transformation of the public space around the MAXXI museum develops a new relationship between architecture and nature. Building on a careful study of Zaha Hadid’s original sketches, the project works with the existing composition while replacing concrete with earth. A new topography stores rainwater and supports Mediterranean vegetation, proposing a new alliance between heritage and ecology.

Year: 2022-2026
Commissioned by: Fondazione MAXXI
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Folia Consulenze
Photographs: MUSA, courtesy Fondazione MAXXI

As part of the project ‘Reenchanting the Villa Medici’, we were invited to reimagine Ferdinando de Medici’s former secret garden as a gathering space for its residents. The project is organized around a triangular garden that adds 29 citrus trees to the Giardino dei Limoni. Along the villa’s façade, a terracotta terrace allows visitors to enjoy the winter sun, while a planted pergola provides shade during the hot summer days. The pergola is planted with Lunario lemon trees, which bloom with every new moon, bringing fragrance and flowers throughout the year.

Year: 2022-2025
Commissioned by: Villa Medici
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Pierre-Antoine Gatier
Photographs (1,3,4): Daniele Molajoli

The former high seawall blocked both the view and the access towards the Mediterranean Sea in this Albanian beach town. Its replacement with several sloped terraces reconnects the town with the sea. The pine trees provide shade and create a new linear forest in front of the buildings.

Year: 2015 – 2017
Client: Atelier Albania
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Son-group
Photographs (1, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15): Michiel De Cleene

The public space around a new skyscraper in the Paris La Défense business district is suspended above an urban boulevard. Alder trees are densely planted to create an urban forest. Their roots grow freely beneath a continuous granite hardscape that gives a robust identity to this plaza surrounded by glass towers.

Year: 2011 – 2020
Client: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Cro&Co Architecture
Photographs (1, 4, 9, 10, 11): Michiel De Cleene

Located next to Antwerp’s emblematic central station, Astridplein is both the entrance to the city and a complex intersection of mobility. By compacting the chaotic traffic flows, the project creates space for a central park zone: integrating shaded areas and water features. It transforms the square into a comfortable, multifunctional space for commuters, tourists and locals.

Year: 2024-2029
Client: City of Antwerp
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets – Origin – TPF Engineering
In collaboration with: Erik De Waele, Common Ground, Hydroscan, Radiance35, Pieter Vermeersch, Vectris, Widnell Europe

The reconversion of Genk’s former ‘grand place’ into a ‘green place’ replaces 30% of the hardscape with an urban forest. Although surrounded by lush landscapes, the city center had become a concrete desert, creating a heat island during the summer. Now, surrounding terraces are planted with trees, providing 40% canopy cover. In the heart of this urban forest, a playground for children is flanked by two generous benches. The center has once again become a place where people gather.

Year: 2021 – 2026
Client: City of Genk
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, Atelier Ruimtelijk Advies
Photographs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5): Stad Genk
Photographs (6, 7, 8): Michiel De Cleene