Dr. Bas Smets

Biography

Bas Smets is a Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design specializing in Landscape Architecture. With a background in landscape architecture, civil engineering, and architecture, he founded the Bureau Bas Smets in Brussels in 2007, where he has completed over 50 projects across more than 12 countries. His firm consists of a team of 25 architects and landscape architects focusing on various project scales, from territorial visions and infrastructural landscapes to large parks and private gardens. Notable projects include Parc des Ateliers in Arles, the park at Thurn & Taxis in Brussels, public spaces for the Trinity Tower in Paris La Défense, and the Sunken Garden at the Mandrake Hotel in London, as well as the Himara Waterfront in Albania. In 2022, he won an international competition for the public space around Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. With large projects currently underway, such as the construction of an urban forest at Part Dieu station in Lyon and the Nieuw Zuid project in Antwerp, Bas is dedicated to researching the potential roles and ambitions of landscape architecture. He aims to invent ‘Augmented Landscapes’ that utilize the logics of nature to create new microclimates and atmospheres, often involving collaboration with artists and scientists in his research. Bas has also taught at institutions including École d’Architecture La Cambre in Brussels, Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, and Technische Universität Graz. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Award for Urbanism and Public Space from the French Academy of Architecture and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

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