Speaker

Bas Smets, born in 1975 in Belgium, is a landscape architect whose multidisciplinary background informs a distinctive approach to the urban environment. He founded his Brussels-based practice in 2007, which has since realised over one hundred projects internationally, including the LUMA Parc des Ateliers in Arles, Tour & Taxis Park in Brussels, the Sunken Garden in London, and the Himara Waterfront in Albania. In 2022, he won the international competition to redesign the public spaces surrounding Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and in 2025 he represented Belgium at the Venice Architecture Biennale. He introduced the concept of “Augmented Landscapes”, which reveals and amplifies the existing forces and natural processes of a site to generate new microclimates. His projects transform the built environment into urban ecologies. He regularly collaborates with artists and scientists to develop this interdisciplinary approach. In 2023, he was appointed Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he leads a research studio exploring how cities can enhance their resilience to climate change through a fundamental rethinking of the urban environment as a medium for nature. His work has been widely exhibited in leading architectural institutions internationally.