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 50 projects internationally with his team of 25 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 Sunken Garden and Mandrake Hotel in London, and the Himara Waterfront in Albania. In 2022 he won the international competition for public space around the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

Several his large projects are under construction, such as the urban forest of the Part Dieu station in Lyon, the Nieuw Zuid project in Antwerp and a large art park in Amagansett, New York.

Each of these projects is part of an interrelated research into the possible role and ambition of landscape projects. The aim is to invent ‘Augmented Landscapes’ by using the logics of nature. These augmented landscapes produce a new microclimate while creating new atmospheres. The collaboration with artists and scientists takes a central role in this research.

Bas Smets received his master’s degree in Architecture and Civil Engineering from the University of Leuven and his master’s in Landscape from the University of Geneva. He has taught in various institutions, such as the Ecole d’Architecture la Cambre in Brussels, the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and the Technische Universität in Graz.

A first monographic exhibition was presented in 2013 by deSingel International Arts Centre and Arc-en-Reve centre for architecture in Bordeaux. In 2017 he was appointed General Commissioner for the Biennial of Architecture of Bordeaux. Bas Smets has received numerous honours and awards, among which the Award for Urbanism and Public Space from the French Royal Academy of Architecture and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

In 2023 Bas Smets was appointed Professor in Practice at the Graduate School lof Design of Harvard University. With his design studio he explores new ways to transform the city into an urban ecology, capable of producing cooling microclimates to counter climate change.

CURRENT COLLABORATORS

Senior Project Architects:

Eva De Meersman
Jacopo Fochi
Philippa Lankers
Gaël Richard
Clément Ringot
Maud Sitar
Ken Spangberg
Sarah Van de Velde

Junior Project Architects:

Davide Broggio
Martina Ciceri
Justin Linton Campolucci

Lorraine Iweins
Florian Michel
Romina Totaro

Project Assistants:

Thomas Clavié
Chiara Filippini
Maëva Fosse
Caterina Gini
Mélina Khater
Julie Leysen
Cristiana Martinelli
Zita Van Den Bosch
Berten Van Parys

Consultants:

Art Direction : Eliane Le Roux
Financial Expertise : Julien Smets

FORMER COLLABORATORS

Emmanuelle Agustoni
Charlotte Biesbrouck
Martina Bjorn Petersson
Annabelle Blin
Ema Bozin
Mattijs Brands
Davide Brunetti
Ariane Bruylants
Karel Burssens
Sara Callebaut
Celine Campion
Elise Candry
Luc Chignier
Florent Clier
Margrit Coppè
Barbara Costa
Camille de Chaunac
Justine Chesnel
Bert De Jonghe
Agne Dailidaite
Valentine Dailly
Eva de Hovre
Federica De Leidi
Soutkin de Pourcq
Basil Descheemaeker
Lucie Euvrard

Charlotte Fagart
Gabriellle Fauris
Thibault Feyaerts
Cléo Frachebourg

Bjorn Gielen
Arthur Hardy
Cyril Hervouet
Alessandro Iannello
Jerome Kockerols
Griet Kuppens
Pascaline Lannoo
Lucas Lerchs
Valentine Letellier
Amélie Lhomet
Simon Jean Loyer
Mathieu Lucas
Eva Maloisel
Ana Martinez
Keisuke Matsumiya
Paul Mertens
Simona Nikova
Kléa Ott
Soo Jung Park
Lautaro Pereyra
Gilles Pieters
Catinca Popovici
Bertille Pruvost

Cyndelle Renneson
André Ricardo
Luciano Ricci

Luna Rinaldi
Dries Rodet
Bianca Schifani
Juliette Simeone
Jean Souviron
Philip Stessens
Filipa Teixeira
Pauline Théobald
Valentin Thevenot
Charlotte Truwant
Marie-Sophie Ulian
Victor Vrints
Liesl Vanautgaerden
Kobe Vanhaeren
Ine van Coillie
Nick van Dooren
Dries van Nieuwenhuyze
Pauline Varloteaux
Thomas Willemse
Laura Ysenbaardt
Najiw Zemmouri
Joel Zimmerli

CREDITS WEBSITE

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

2022

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

2021

Award: Landscape and Humanism Award for the project Arles, Luma Parc des Ateliers

Project Completed: Opening of the LUMA Parc des Ateliers in Arles on June 26th

Project Completed: Inauguration of the Monument for the COVID crisis in Kortrijk on June 20th

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 Horta Horizon

2018

Award: AHEAD European Award for Best Landscaping and Outdoor Spaces for the Mandrake Hotel in London

Award: Eero Saarinen Honorary Lecture

Project Completed: BBS275 Chateau Hanare

Award: Brussels Horta Prize for Public Space for the project Brussels Memorial 22/3

Project Completed: BBS214 Parvis de Saint Gilles

Medal: French Academy of Architecture Award for Urbanism and Landscaping

Exhibition: Biospheres at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris

2017

Exhibition: General Commissioner of the Biennial of architecture, urban planning and design of Bordeaux

Project Completed: BBS142 Brugge-Knokke A11 Motorway

Project Completed: BBS234 London Mandrake Hotel

Project Completed: BBS120 Waregem Zuidboulevard

2016

Exhibition: Solo exhibition at Bozar in Brussels

Project Completed: BBS185 Brussels Thurn & Taxis park

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