Located next to Antwerp’s emblematic central station, Astridplein is both the entrance to the city and a complex intersection of mobility. By compacting the chaotic traffic flows, the project creates space for a central park zone: integrating shaded areas and water features. It transforms the square into a comfortable, multifunctional space for commuters, tourists and locals.

Year: 2024-2029
Client: City of Antwerp
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets – Origin – TPF Engineering
In collaboration with: Erik De Waele, Common Ground, Hydroscan, Radiance35, Pieter Vermeersch, Vectris, Widnell Europe

Bureau Bas Smets’ project “Building Biospheres” has been selected for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial 2025. Based on a decade-long conversation between Bas Smets and neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, this exhibition examines how a better understanding of the natural intelligence of plants can create a new relationship between nature and architecture. The pavilion serves as a prototype where plants create a microclimate by activating rain, wind, and light.

Year: 2024-2025
Commissioned by: Flanders Architecture Institute
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets – Stefano Mancuso
In collaboration with: Erik De Waele, Lisa De Visscher, Veronique Patteeuw, Kathy Steppe, Dirk De Pauw

The reconversion of Genk’s former ‘grand place’ into a ‘green place’ replaces 30% of the hardscape with an urban forest. Although surrounded by lush landscapes, the city center had become a concrete desert, creating a heat island during the summer. Now, surrounding terraces are planted with trees, providing 40% canopy cover. In the heart of this urban forest, a playground for children is flanked by two generous benches. The center has once again become a place where people gather.

Year: 2021 – 2026
Client: City of Genk
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, Atelier Ruimtelijk Advies
Photographs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5): Stad Genk
Photographs (6, 7, 8): Michiel De Cleene

The gardens of the Baumanière domain in the South of France, renowned for its 3-star Michelin restaurant, were refurbished to create a sequence of atmospheres that accompany visitors from their car to their table. A new scenic road highlights the beautiful rocky Alpilles landscape upon arrival. A large limestone staircase leads to a central plaza where Judas trees provide shade. A pergola tunnel with jasmine climbers leads the visitor along a garden filled with the fragrances of Provence towards the restaurant.

Year: 2022
Client: Private
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs (1, 2 ,3 ,5 , 6) : Michiel De Cleene

In the heart of the French Luberon lies the beautiful domain of Les Davids. A promenade passes through a woodland, across a valley, and over a plateau, allowing visitors to discover sculptural trees and hidden sources along the way. An elegant railing, painted in the same fluorescent green as the abundant lichen, gently shows the way. An amphitheater was built against a natural hillside, using only local stones dug out from the surrounding agricultural fields.

Year: 2021-2024
Client: Private
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The transformation of Vilvoorde’s Heldenplein transforms a congested, double roundabout and parking area into a ‘Green Gate’ into the city. Large sidewalks provide seating areas around newly planted trees. Below the pavement, a continuous structural soil allows roots to grow freely. Over time, their large canopies will produce a cooling microclimate. This project is part of the ‘Ringtrambus’ infrastructure, offering a dedicated 30km bus lane in the northern region of Brussels.

Year: 2016 – ongoing
Client: De Werkvennootschap
Design Team: Tractebel – Ney & Partners – Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The project rethinks the emblematic public spaces around Notre-Dame as a sequence of climatic atmospheres. Compressed and imbricated around the Cathedral, these spaces frame new views towards Notre-Dame, establish a new relationship with the Seine and offer multiple activities in the centre of Paris.

Year: 2021 – 2027
Client: Ville de Paris
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: GRAU, Neufville-Gayet Architectes, Ingérop, Franck Boutté Consultants, Les Eclaireurs, BLD Waterdesign, Cronos Conseil
Images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6): Studio Alma

The semi-desert climate of the former industrial railway yard is transformed into a Mediterranean climate by accelerating what nature would have done over time. Planted with more than eighty thousand trees, shrubs and plants the park is made with the species of the three surrounding biotopes and connects all the buildings of the new art centre of the Luma Foundation.

Year: 2009 – 2021
Client: SCI AAI, AREA
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Gehry Partners LLP, Selldorf Architects
Photographs (7, 10): Rémi Bénali
Photographs (1, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18): Iwan Baan
Photographs (3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 19): Michiel De Cleene

The former high seawall blocked both the view and the access towards the Mediterranean Sea in this Albanian beach town. Its replacement with several sloped terraces reconnects the town with the sea. The pine trees provide shade and create a new linear forest in front of the buildings.

Year: 2015 – 2017
Client: Atelier Albania
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Son-group
Photographs (1, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15): Michiel De Cleene

The public space around a new skyscraper in the Paris La Défense business district is suspended above an urban boulevard. Alder trees are densely planted to create an urban forest. Their roots grow freely beneath a continuous granite hardscape that gives a robust identity to this plaza surrounded by glass towers.

Year: 2011 – 2020
Client: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Cro&Co Architecture
Photographs (1, 4, 9, 10, 11): Michiel De Cleene

A new floodwall wall along the river Scheldt is integrated in a linear park. Three large openings, located on the footprint of historic canals, connect the city to its river. Their walls become the support for a monument for the Second World War, merging the remembrance of the victims with the memory of the city.

Year: 2021 – 2027
Client: AG VESPA
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Antea, ARA, Endeavour, Gijs Van Vaerenberg, Plant&Houtgoed, Steenmeijer Architecten, Util 
Images (6, 7, 8, 9): Luxigon

Seventeen public plazas mark a pathway that connects many historic buildings enlisted on the UNESCO heritage list. The plazas replace disappeared buildings and introduce a new typology of a shaded public space into the dense maze in the historic city.

Year: 2012 – 2019
Client: Ministry of Culture
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Office KGDVS
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene, Ahmed Al Jishi

The former mineral courtyard of a historical building in central London has been transformed into a lush garden. Measures taken on site revealed a microclimate ideal for the development of large tree ferns. Large stone slabs and a misting system complete this radical transformation, while a Franz West sculpture captures the light.

Year: 2010 – 2011
Client: Private
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs (1, 5): François Halard

The monument is located next to the supermarket where eight people were killed in the last and most terrible terroristic assault of a series in Belgium between 1982 and 1985. The location for the project is an area in between the store and the park, where the memorial finds itself suspended between city and nature. A gradient of polished stones turns from dark red to bright yellow, matching the autumn colour of the eight ginkgo trees planted above. Together, they create a ‘sunrise of hope’, 38 years after the tragic event.

Year: 2021 – 2023
Client: Private
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The city centre of Charleroi was designed as a fortress in the 17^th century. The project transforms its open space into a welcoming interconnecting network of public plazas.

Year: 2015 – 2023
Client: City of Charleroi
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: VK, MDW, Advisors
Photographs (1, 3, 6, 8): Michiel De Cleene
Photographs (10): Charleroi Bouwmeester

One hundred trees have been planted to commemorate the centenary of Victor Horta’s visionary project for the Brugmann Hospital. Ten species have been chosen for their resilience to changes in climate. They prepare the site for the next hundred years by growing into a network of fresh groves throughout the site for both patients and visitors.

Year: 2022-2023
Client: CHU Brugmann
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs (1, 2, 3): Twice.art x CHU
Photographs (4, 5): Michiel De Cleene

Design of the film set of Philippe Parreno’s “Continuously Habitable Zones”. The film depicts the landscape of an imaginary dwarf planet lit by two suns. NASA research imagines the vegetation to turn black due to exposure to a wider range of frequencies. The different interventions are transformed into a continuous landscape in the film.

Year: 2011
Commissioned by: Daimler Art Collection & Fondation Beyeler
Director: Philippe Parreno
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Cinematography: Darius Khondji

The hanging gardens occupy the central courtyard of a boutique hotel in the centre of London. More than five hundred climbers grow in the channel beams of the suspended walkways. The plants bring a unique atmosphere to the courtyard while providing privacy towards the hotel rooms.

Year: 2014 – 2017
Client: Newman Assets
Architect: Manolo & White
Photographs: Adrien Fouéré, David Grandorge

The dike of the left bank of the Scheldt needs to be raised because of rising water levels. These infrastructural works become the opportunity to rethink the left bank as a linear park of more 7km. The park allocates more space to both nature and recreation, connected by continuous meandering pathways.

Year: 2021 – 2027
Client: City of Antwerp
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: ARA, AGT, Plant&Houtgoed, Billie Bonkers, Vectris, Rebelgroup, Equator

Five continuous lines in blue stone reveal the beautifully curved façades of this plaza. The daily market and the outdoor terraces are organised in the resulting bands made with reused blue stone pavers from the former sidewalks. A collection of trees brings colour, shade and fragrance to the plaza. 

Year: 2013 – 2018
Client: Municipality of Saint-Gilles
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The former industrial railyard in the centre of Brussels is transformed into large park, imagined as a river valley. The ballast of the former tracks is stored underground to retain rainwater, while fast-growing pioneer trees on its banks start the ecological succession of this park in constant evolution.

Year: 2012 – ongoing
Client: Nextensa
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs : Michiel De Cleene

Thirty-two trees have been planted around a stone circle in a natural clearing of the Sonian forest. The trees and stones of the memorial isolate a circular area in the forest as place to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels of 2016.

Year: 2016 – 2017
Client: Brussels Capital Region
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The central business district along the Part-Dieu railway station is charactereised by high rise buildings. The project looks for fertile soil to plant as many trees as possible to create a new green horizon amid the sky-scrapers.

Year: 2015 – 2021
Client: Lyon Part-Dieu
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Urbanist: l’AUC
Photograph (5): Thierry Fournier
Photograph (6): Laurence Danière

The refurbishment of the courtyard of the old prison is centred around four existing trees. A series of large circular benches provide generous seating opportunity in their shade, while giving their roots more place to grow.

Year: 2021
Client: The Jockey Club CPS Limited
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Beau Architects
Photographs : Leon Xu Liang

A series of seven monuments, dispersed over the Belgian territory, remembers the victims of the Covid crisis. Each of them is a mutated variation of a broken circle. Together they form a family of interconnected places for solace and silence. In Gent, the monument is a first act in the gradual transformation of a former field into a biodiverse forest.

Year: 2021 – 2022
Client: Moving Closer & Kunstwerkt
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs (1, 2, 3): Michiel De Cleene
Photographs (7, 8): City of Gent

The green buffer between a motorway interchange and a residential area is made by the plantation of one thousand trees. Different species are planted according to different grids, creating an accessible arboretum.

Year: 2011 – 2012
Client: City of Antwerp
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

A pedestrian promenade connects the city hall with a new library, bridging a height difference of four meters. Two large staircases planted with trees provide access and light to the parking garage underneath, while water jets become a new destination on the promenade above.

Year: 2010 – 2017
Client: City of Waregem
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Robbrecht&Daem, Goedefroo+Goedefroo
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Set in the park of Tour & Taxis, this monument celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The thirty articles are written in four languages on thirty different natural stones, creating a contemporary obelisk surrounded by eight evergreen pine trees.

Year: 2018
Client: Brussels Capital Region
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The main market square and station plaza lie on either side of a canal running through the city. Both are refurbished to become part of a single platform spanning the valley. A specific choice of hardscape, vegetation and urban furniture creates a new centrality in the urban sprawl the marks the region.

Year: 2007 – 2020
Client: Municipality of Ingelmunster
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: 360 Architects
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Transformation of the former industrial site into a new neighborhood in the south of Antwerp.

Year: 2013 – 2028
Client: Triple Living nv
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architects: Robbrecht en Daem, Vincent Van Duysen, Office KGDVS, David Chipperfield Architects, Shigeru Ban, Max Dudler, Stefano Boeri,  Nordlander, etc.
In collaboration with: Secchi-Viganò
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

A total of 290 planters have been installed in front of the windows of this apartment building as part of the ‘Reinventing Paris’ programme. The passionflower climbers create a living façade that locally cleans the air, lowers the temperature, and filters the light toward the living spaces behind.

Year: 2017 – 2020
Client: NFU + Loftissime
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Manuelle Gautrand
Photographs: Michiel de Cleene

A temporary installation shields the Bozar entrance from the adjacent construction site. The existing slope of the street is transformed into five horizontal terraces that converge in a curved amphitheatre at the entrance of the Centre for Fine Arts.

Year: 2017– 2019
Client: BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene, Yannick Sas

Design of the integration of a 12 km new motorway in the polder landscape. The project for the motorway becomes the opportunity to reinforce this man-made landscape, using its vocabulary of dikes, canals and alignments.

Year: 2011 – 2017
Client: Via Brugge on behalf of Via-Invest
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Zwarts & Jansma
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene, Via Brugge

A series of monuments offer a place for consolation to remember the victims of the Covid crisis. Each of these monuments consists of a perfectly horizontal circle, broken by a natural force. In Kortrijk the monument is positioned in between a cemetery and a natural reserve, separated by a gully.

Year: 2020 – 2021
Client: Moving Closer & Kunstwerkt
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

A sequence of terraced platforms connects the site with the Mediterranean Sea. Their curve follows the breaking of the waves, as if they had been eroded over time. During the day the platforms are ideal for sunbathing while at night they become an amphitheatre framing the setting sun.

Year: 2015 – 2017
Client: Private
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: YTAA

The grounds of a former abbey have been transformed into a private park. The landscape project reveals the main three landscape figures:  the central lawn, the dense forest, and the fruit orchard. Specially designed lamp posts and bridges are painted in an abstract white colour and rhythm the walk through the park.

Year: 2011 – 2015
Client: Wivina bvba
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: De Vylder Vinck Taillieu
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The former railroad tracks on the right back are transformed into a public walkway. Lying on an old dike of the river, the elevated path has splendid views over the river and its two banks.

Year: 2016 – 2022
Client: Bordeaux Metropole
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Ingerop, Simethis

A series of distinct gardens sequences the discovery of the landscape on this private island, from the dense jungle to a floating deck with a splendid view over the Caribbean. The deck has been made of white marble of Carrara and creates an outdoor living space surrounded by vegetation.

Period: 2011 – 2012
Client: Private
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Eliane Le Roux
Photographs (2, 3, 8): François Halard

The lower story of an existing house has been refurbished as the main living floor. The difference in elevation with the rear garden is mitigated by an incline planted with wildflowers. A natural stone wall and a washed concrete wall frame this sloped garden.

Year: 2009 – 2012
Client: Private
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Office KGDVS
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

The organisation of the parking spaces at the periphery of the site liberates space for a park in between two new office buildings. The parking spaces are organised as a series of planted plateaus, while the sloped park reveals the natural valley.

Year: 2008 – 2012
Client: Voka & Intercommunale Leiedal
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Office KGDVS, Bureau Goddeeris
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

In the 1970’s a housing project was constructed in an abandoned tree farm, formerly producing wood for the mining activity. The existing pine trees have been thinned out selectively to transform the homogenous and dark forest into a lush and active park.

Year: 2007 – 2012
Client: City of Genk
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

A series of platforms transform the steep, unused space into a central square. A hardscape in red pavers thoroughly changes its identity. Planted with mulitstem trees and provided with benches the public space acquires a new, strong identity.

Year: 2012 – 2021
Client: Sint-Joost Municipality
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Bgroup Greisch
Photographs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6): Michiel De Cleene

Development of a territorial vision for the metropolitan agglomeration of the city of Bordeaux.

Year: 2012 – 2014
Client: Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Transsolar, l’AUC, Office KGDVS, NFU, VUB-ESSC, Cafsa, Lams, Sébastien Marot

The different functions of a residential care centre are constructed around four enclosed gardens. Each of them is made with the same set of materials but appealing differently to the senses of the residents. Together, these gardens form one continuous landscape, connected by the built volumes of the building. 

Year: 2006 – 2012
Client: OCMW Lommel
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: 360 Architects
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Design of the gardens and fields surrounding a listed “château”, based on an 18th century tapestry of the estate. Hedges are planted on the contour lines of the fields, halting erosion and creating an intriguing labyrinth.

Year: 2005 – 2013
Client: Dennis Piel & Elaine Merkus
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets
In collaboration with: Martin Basdevant

Concrete tiles have been removed from a blind wall to expose the underlying wooden lattice structure. Climbing plants attach themselves to the wooden elements and create a vertical landscape.

Year: 2008 – 2013
Client: Les Ballets C de la B & LOD
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: De Vylder Vinck Taillieu
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene, Filip Dujardin

Urban study for the transformation of a region marked by urban sprawl.

Year: 2009
Client: City of Watou
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen

The project for the lock re-establishes the relationship between the canalised river and its historic trace. The dead arm was reconnected to create an island. At its far end a lower plaza has been constructed. A bench beneath two weeping willow trees allows new views on the lock, the river and the city.

Year: 2011 – 2020
Client: Consortium LeieLand
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Zwarts & Jansma architects
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

On the roof garden of the PMQ design centre in Hong Kong an urban jungle is created with different types of bamboo. The vegetation protects the terrace from views of the adjacent buildings and offers a suspended moment of calm in the chaotic city centre.

Year: 2013 – 2014
Client: PMQ
Landscape Architect: Bureau BAS Smets
Architect: Thomas Chow Architects

A series of horizontal platforms are carved out of a sloped forest. Planted with a dense grid of trees they organise the outdoor facilities of the sport centre such as the entrance, parking, and storage. The platforms demarcate the usable area, while the trees frame the natural forest.

Year: 2010 – 2015
Client: Ministère de la Communauté Française
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Baukunst
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Urban masterplan for the reconversion of the public spaces along the industrial canal crossing the region of Brussels Capital.

Year: 2017 –  2019
Client: Perspective Brussels
Design Team: Bureau Bas Smets – ORG squared

The design creates a horizontal platform for outdoor exhibitions, concentrating the landscape in a series of concrete steps that mitigate the elevation difference. Rows of poplar trees are planted in between the steps, integrating the site into its surrounding landscape.

Year: 2008 – 2010
Client: XPO Kortrijk
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Office KGDVS, Bureau Goddeeris, Joachim Declerck
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Spontaneous vegetation and a network of lakes characterise this site of a former Russian army base. Two new ponds integrate the lakes into a performing hydraulic system, while a large grid of trees organises the arrival sequence and frames views on the existing landscape.

Year: 2008 – 2014
Client: Estonian Ministry of Culture
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: DGT Architects
Photographs: Takuji Shimmura

The garden is located in the middle of one of Europe’s largest tree nurseries. The nurseryman’s favourite tree species have been planted in groves to create an arboretum with a rich variety of atmospheres.

Year: 2007 – 2010
Client: Private
Lanscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

A large public plaza is created in front of the railway station. The columns of the railway bridge are integrated in a graphic pattern that organises the functional elements of the plaza. The platforms of the adjacent bus terminal are planted with high plane trees.

Year: 2009 – 2018
Client: Eurostation & City of Roeselare
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Urban masterplan for the public spaces of the development of the former industrial site of Josaphat.

Year: 2016
Client: SAU
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Urbanist: MSA

Design of the outdoor spaces of a former brewery into a new neighbourhood. Lying along two waterways the project creates a park of seven hectares space in between the new buildings.

Year: 2009 – 2018
Client: Ertzberg
Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets
Architect: Stéphane Beel & Xavier De Geyter

A concrete platform concentrates and organises all the outdoor facilities of a hospital, such as car access, bicycle racks and covered pedestrian walkways. Beyond the platform, the open space is transformed in a large public park that incorporates an existing waterway.

Year: 2009 – 2012
Client: C.P.A.S. & A.Z. Turnhout
Architect: Osar Architects
Photographs: Michiel De Cleene

Study for the construction of a new neighbourhood on land won on the sea in the south of Incheon Seoul.

Year: 2009 – 2010
Client: Songdo Landmark City
Architect: REX Architects