AT talks to…landscape architect Bas Smets, curator of the Belgian Pavilion “Building Biospheres” at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.
What is your pavilion about and how does it respond to the title of Intelligens: Natural. Artificial. Collective?
The climate crisis questions the relationship between architecture and nature. Building Biospheres investigates how the natural intelligence of plants can be used to produce an indoor climate.
Throughout time, we have built shelters to protect ourselves from the weather’s unpredictability: temperature swings, wind, rain and snow. What began as rudimentary protection evolved into highly controlled microclimates, separating the indoor from the outdoor conditions. Today, most buildings have a completely artificial climate that responds to the needs of their users.
In nature, the desired climate for humans is most closely approximated in the subtropics, characterized by warm summers, mild winters and an almost constant temperature. Based on plants from this climate zone, Building Biospheres envisions a future where buildings evolve into dynamic biospheres. Plant behaviour is monitored with precision and the harvested data is used to activate irrigation, lighting and ventilation. This produces a new symbiosis between what the plants need, what the building can handle and what people desire.
What do you want your pavilion to achieve and what do you hope people take away from it?
The pavilion is a prototype to test the capacity of plants to produce indoor climate and by that, have an active role in architecture. We hope people will be triggered by this idea and that architects will be inspired to incorporate this into their buildings.
What other pavilions have been a highlight for you?
We have been so busy with setting up our own pavilion that we haven’t had the chance to visit others yet.
What else are you excited to see?
The Arsenale, the exhibition curated by Carlo Ratti.
If you were a student coming to the Biennale for the first time, what would be your advice to them?
Visit the exhibitions, but also take the time to visit the amazing city of Venice, to be impressed by humankind who built this city on a swamp.
What else are you working on at the moment?
The Notre Dame project, with the works starting in the beginning of next year, the Jardino di Limoni in Villa Medici and the exhibition ‘Climates of Landscape’ happening beginning of July in Arles.
The exhibition “Building Biospheres” is accompanied by the catalogue of the same name, edited by Bas Smets, Bart Decroos and Dennis Pohl. With contributions by Stefano Mancuso, Bart Decroos, Véronique Patteeuw, Kathleen Grey, Lydia Kallipoliti, Daniel Barber, Kathy Steppe and Dirk De Paul, Erik De Waele, Lisa De Visscher and Petrus Kemme, Bas Smets, Dennis Pohl.Â
The Belgian Pavilion “Building Biospheres” and the Venice Architecture Biennale will run from 10th May until 23rd November 2025.Â
