The Green Dream with Dana Thomas Designing with Bas Smets
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Apr 25, 2023 
Bas Smets, a Belgian landscape architect who turns urban and industrial sites into ecological public spaces, explains redesigning the area around Notre‑Dame. He talks about shaping microclimates with trees and water, storing stormwater in underground reservoirs, reusing materials, and rethinking visitor flow and planting for a hotter Paris.
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Design Inspired By Notre-Dame Stories
- Bas Smets revisited Victor Hugo and films to understand Notre-Dame's cultural imagery and public meaning.
- He used those views to design landscapes that multiply perspectives and invite walking around the cathedral.
Cities Are Collections Of Microclimates
- Cities are accumulations of microclimates that can be designed with plants, wind study, and shade planning.
- Reworking soil and storing rainwater creates resilient urban microclimates to offset rising heat and drought.
Store Rainwater; Use Thin Water For Cooling
- Store rainwater on site by creating artificial aquifers in redesigned soils instead of quickly draining it away.
- Activate thin surface water flows in summer to trigger evaporative cooling when needed.
