BAS SMETS
Bas Smets has a background in landscape architecture, civil engineering and architecture. He founded his firm in Brussels in 2007 and has since completed more than 100 projects in more than 15 countries with his team of 21 architects and landscape architects. These projects vary in scale from territorial visions to infrastructural landscapes, from large parks to private gardens, from city centres to film sets.
His realised projects include the Parc des Ateliers in Arles, the park of Thurn & Taxis in Brussels, the public space around the Trinity Tower in Paris La Défense, the urban forest of the Part-Dieu station in Lyon, the Sunken Garden and Mandrake Hotel in London, and the Himara Waterfront in Albania. In 2025, he had the honour of representing Belgium at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Several of his major projects are currently under construction, including the public space around the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, for which he won the international competition in 2022, the Nieuw Zuid development in Antwerp, and a large art park in Amagansett, New York.
Each of these projects is part of an interrelated research into the role and ambition of landscape architecture today. The aim is to invent “Augmented Landscapes” by working with the logics of nature. These augmented landscapes generate new microclimates while creating distinct atmospheres. Collaboration with artists and scientists plays a central role in this ongoing research.
Bas Smets received his master’s degree in Architecture and Civil Engineering from the University of Leuven and a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Geneva. In 2023, he was appointed Professor in Practice at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. With his design studio, he explores new ways of transforming the city into an urban ecology capable of producing cooling microclimates to respond to climate change.
A first monographic exhibition of his work was presented in 2013 at deSingel International Arts Centre in Antwerp, and the Arc-en-Rêve Centre d’Architecture in Bordeaux. In 2025, a second exhibition, Climates of Landscape, was presented at LUMA Arles, offering an immersive experience into his practice and research.
Bas Smets has received numerous honours and awards, including the Award for Urbanism and Public Space from the French Royal Academy of Architecture, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and the Ultima for General Cultural Merit in Flanders. In November 2025, he was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.
CURRENT COLLABORATORS
Project Managers:
Eva De Meersman
Ines Langlois
Philippa Lankers
Maud Sitar
Sarah Van de Velde
Project Leaders:
Justin Campolucci
Luka Cockx
Thomas Poullaouec-Gonidec
Zita Van Den Bosch
Berten Vanparys
Project Assistants:
Martina Balzarini
Claire Clement
Lavinia De Carolis
Antonin Gasquet
Lilian Marchand
Matteo Marciano
Maria Vittoria Massi
Sofia Paganelli
Emiel Smets
Anneleen Verstraeten
Rien Veulemans
Consultants:
Art Direction : Eliane Le Roux
Financial Expertise : Julien Smets
CREDITS WEBSITE
Text: Bureau Bas Smets
Graphic Identity: Eliane Le Roux
WebDevelopment: www.from-scratch.fr
2025
Award: Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters
Project Completed: BBS070 Paris La Chapelle International
Project Completed: BBS195 Antwerp Nieuw Zuid Courtyard Block 22-25
Project Completed: BBS259 Lyon Part-Dieu
Project Completed: BBS365 Muharraq Sh Hamad Avenue
Project Completed: BBS438 Philadelphia Fishtown Urby
Project Completed: BBS456 Genk Sint-Martinus Gardens
Project Completed: BBS468 Roma Villa Medici
Project Completed: BBS490 Washington DC Urby
Project Completed: BBS507 Venice Architecture Biennial 2025
2024
Award: Les Victoires du Paysage, Grand prix du jury
Award: Flanders Ultima Award 2023, General Cultural Merit
Award: Schelling Architecture Award, Audience Prize
Award: DNA Paris Design Awards, Landscape Design
Project Completed: BBS182 Muharraq Pearling Pathway
Project Completed: BBS454 Baux-de-Provence Baumanière
Project Completed: BBS446 Brussels (M)onument
Project Completed: BBS230 Vilvoorde Heldenplein
Project Completed: BBS437 Viens Les Davids
Project Completed: BBS441 Leuven (M)onument
Project Completed: BBS450 Brussels Handbook Public Space
Competition First Prize: BBS499 Antwerp Astridplein
Competition First Prize: BBS504 Gent Pocket Garden
Competition First Prize: BBS507 Venice Architecture Biennial 2025
Competition First Prize: BBS523 Milan Unicredit HQ
2023
Award: Premio de Sanctis, Europe Edition – Senza Confini
Award: Knighthood in the Order of the Star of Italy
Award: Brussels Architecture Prize, Extra Muros
Project Completed: BBS153 Brussels Saint-Lazarus
Project Completed: BBS185 Brussels Tour&Taxis Ponds
Project Completed: BBS239 Bordeaux Brazzaligne
Project Completed: BBS260 Charleroi Ville Haute
Project Completed: BBS423 Aalst Memorial 1982-1985
Project Completed: BBS465 Chaumont-sur-Loire La Forët du Futur
2022
Project Completed: BBS221 Oostende Crematorium
Project Completed: BBS339 Utoyakaia National Memorial 22/7
Project Completed: BBS445 Gent (M)Onument
Project Completed: BBS447 Lommel (M)Onument
Project Completed: BBS448 Aarschot (M)Onument
Competition First Prize: BBS442 Paris Les Abords de Notre-Dame
Competition First Prize: BBS428 Antwerp Loodswezen
Competition First Prize: BBS459 Rome Grande MAXXI
Competition First Prize: BBS434 Ottawa Parliament Block 2
Competition First Prize: BBS460 San Vito Lo Capo Tonnara
Competition First Prize: BBS452 Genk Grote Markt
Competition First Prize: BBS414 Brussels A201
2021
Award: Landscape and Humanism Award from the National Horticulture Society of France
Project Completed: BBS088 Arles LUMA Parc des Ateliers
Project Completed: BBS Kortrijk (M)Onument
Competition First Prize: BBS401 Brussels Pentagon
Competition First Prize: BBS400 Antwerp Scheldeboorden
2020
Project Completed: BBS158 Harelbeke Dock
Project Completed: BBS171 Paris Trinity
Project Completed: BBS329 Paris Lafayette
2019
Award: Aga Khan Award for the Revitalisation of Muharraq in Bahrain, which includes the Pearling Pathway project
Award: Big See Architecture Award for Landscape and Urban Space for the project Himara Waterfront
Award: AHEAD Global Award for Best Landscaping and Outdoor Spaces for the Mandrake Hotel in London
Project Completed: BBS311 Brussels Horta Horizon
2018
Award: AHEAD European Award for Best Landscaping and Outdoor Spaces for the Mandrake Hotel in London
Award: Eero Saarinen Honorary Lecture
Award: Brussels Horta Prize for Public Space for the project Brussels Memorial 22/3
Award: French Academy of Architecture Award for Urbanism and Landscaping
Project Completed: BBS275 Chateau Hanare
Project Completed: BBS214 Parvis de Saint Gilles
Exhibition: Biospheres at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris
2017
Project Completed: BBS142 Brugge-Knokke A11 Motorway
Project Completed: BBS234 London Mandrake Hotel
Project Completed: BBS120 Waregem Zuidboulevard
Exhibition: General Commissioner of the Biennial of architecture, urban planning and design of Bordeaux
2016
Project Completed: BBS185 Brussels Thurn & Taxis park
Exhibition: Curator of The Invention of Landscape exhibition at Bozar in Brussels
2014
Exhibition: Solo exhibition at arc en rêve in Bordeaux
Exhibition: Solo exhibition at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Charleroi
2013
Exhibition: Solo exhibition at deSingel in Antwerp
2011
Project Completed: Conception of the film sets for Philippe Parreno’s film Continuously Habitable Zones
2010
Project Completed: BBS103 London Sunken Garden
2008
Award: Biennial French price for the best young landscape architect
2007
Foundation of the Bureau Bas Smets in Brussels