Visionary Landscape Architect Used Notre-Dame Cathedral to Inspire AMbitions for Climate Adaptation

By Sally Stevens

Piecing back the broken and charred ruins of iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral has been a process of piecing back the hearts of Paris, France and the global community that were broken when a fierce blaze ripped through it in April 2019.

While the cathedral re-opened in December last year, work is still going on to transform its setting. In a visionary move that exemplifies ‘Build Back Better’ Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets is leading a collaboration to give the historic cathedral the environs it deserves in the 21st century.

In reconfiguring the esplanade that leads to the imposing façade in the heart of Paris, Smets’ design increases vegetation by 36% and incorporates a cooling system in the ground that generates a 5-millimeter-thin sheet of water in summer to lower temperatures in the area by several degrees.

The rear of the cathedral, first built in 1163-1260, becomes a welcoming green area, reaching to the tip of the Île de la Cité in the River Seine.

Smets left a lasting impression on scientists, policy makers and practitioners alike when he addressed them in ECCA2025’s closing guest presentation, capturing the impact of what is possible when society, urban municipality and private business come together – as so many speakers at the three-day conference had been advocating over the past three days.

On his website, Bureau Bas Smets, he describes it as rethinking ‘the emblematic public spaces around Notre-Dame as a sequence of climatic atmospheres … spaces frame new views towards Notre-Dame, establish a new relationship with the Seine and offer multiple activities in the centre of Paris’. Work gets underway in autumn 2025 and is due to complete in 2028.

An already complete example of Smets’ approach is the Arles Luma Parc des Ateliers in Arles, France. Here, his design transformed a redundant industrial area – described as a semi-desert climate – with more than 80,000 carefully selected trees, shrubs and plants to match and support the surrounding biotopes to improve the habitat.

He described the impacts of his approach by saying: “Everything is the same but everything is different. We make much more space for permeable soil and improving comfort levels for people, using vegetation as an agent to help the city become more resilient to climate change.”

Aptly labelled in the ECCA2025 programme as ‘Inspirational Talk’, Smets’ presentation both summed up what climate adaptation can achieve and at the same time, set before the audience, VIPs and speakers alike, a challenge to embrace limitless ambition in what we now set out to achieve.

Image: Bas Smets ©Jade Quintin
The visionary design for the Notre Dame esplanade ©Studio Alma for Team Bureau Bas Smets
Before and after: the transformation of a former industrial wasteland in Arles into the LUMA Parc des Ateliers ©Iwan Baan

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Visionary Landscape Architect Used Notre-Dame Cathedral to Inspire AMbitions for Climate Adaptation

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