Delve into the future's terrain with Bas Smets
Bas Smets, a renowned landscape architect, has made a significant impact on the world of landscaping with his innovative designs and deep understanding of the natural environment.
Smets' journey began in Paris, where he spent six years working for the office of landscape architect Michel Desvigne. This period laid the foundation for his unique approach to landscaping.
One of Smets' first commissions was for a small private garden titled the 'Sunken Garden' in central London. He used microclimate analysis in this project, creating a warmer and lush, leafy retreat.
Smets' thinking involves intense measuring and a deep comprehension of a site's natural environment. This approach is evident in his work on the Luma Foundation's Parc des Ateliers in Arles, France. Transforming an industrial wasteland into a lush and biodiverse ecosystem, the park now houses more than 80,000 trees, shrubs, and flowers, and is home to over 55 new species of birds.
Landscape, for Smets, is not just a physical construct but a philosophy. He believes that it is a mental construction, a way of organizing the elements of the 'land'. This philosophy is reflected in his collaboration with artist Philippe Parreno on the work "Continuously Habitable Zones." The project, part of a Fondation Beyeler show in Switzerland in 2010, involved creating a black garden on an imaginary planet with several suns.
Smets' work extends to real-world landscapes as well. In 2019, he won an international competition for the redesign of the surroundings of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral following the fire. A first phase of his Notre Dame project, a small plaza directly outside the cathedral's entrance, was completed in 2024, marking the monument's reopening. His winning scheme includes an open plaza paved with striated Burgundy stone slabs that will be covered with a thin film of water daily for evaporative cooling.
Smets is also working on a riverside park in Antwerp that draws on the city's old canal system to create a dyke against rising sea levels.
Bas Smets' partner and associate, Eliane Le Roux, serves as the studio's creative director. Together, they continue to push the boundaries of landscaping, proving that art plays a key role in the creation of landscapes.
The word "landscape" was first used in the 16th century by painters from the Low Countries. Today, Bas Smets continues this tradition, creating not just beautiful spaces, but also thought-provoking works of art.
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