Bas Smets in Venice with a project on climate change
The Belgian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 will celebrate the work of landscape architect Bas Smets, winner of the competition with his Building Biospheres project.
The Building Biospheres project has been selected for the Belgian pavilion at the next Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025. A project presented by landscape architect Bas Smets with bioengineer Valérie Trouet and Italian neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, with whom Bas Smets has been collaborating for years on plant knowledge.
The project, led by Bas Smets, focuses on the impact of plants' natural intelligence on architecture, or "how plant intelligence can drive a building". This exhibition shows how plants actively regulate the irrigation, ventilation and lighting of architectural structures. The aim is to demonstrate that plant intelligence can influence, and even improve, built environments.
"We're installing six- to seven-metre-high trees in the atrium of the Belgian pavilion," explained Bas Smets. "They'll create a subtropical climate of around 20 degrees. Using sensors, we'll monitor what they report to us. In particular, we'll be monitoring sap flow in the bark, soil moisture and leaf temperature. If a drought threshold is reached, it will start to rain. If it's too hot, misting can help to cool the area down. If it's cloudy for a long period of time and there's therefore little photosynthesis, a lighting system will be activated."
Bas Smets' work has been internationally recognised for many years, with projects including the Parc des Ateliers in Arles for the Luma Foundation, the Tour & Taxis park in Brussels and the landscaping of the area surrounding the Notre-Dame de Paris.