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.

CREDITS WEBSITE

Text: Bureau Bas Smets
Graphic Identity: Eliane Le Roux
WebDevelopment: www.from-scratch.fr