Bas Smets' Water Garden opens at Vitra Campus as climate resilience strategy

Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets has unveiled 'Water Garden' at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, on 17 June 2026, during Art Basel. The project is part of a long-term ecological masterplan to make the campus more climate-resilient. Located near Frank Gehry's Vitra Design Museum, the garden features a large pond surrounded by trees and aquatic vegetation, selected to enhance biodiversity. It follows Smets' earlier proposal in 2024 to plant 8,000 trees in 'micro-forests' based on Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki's principles. The earth excavated for the pond was used to create a berm. Three ceramic sculptures by Hella Jongerius from her 'Angry Animals' series will be installed as fountains. A fish-shaped bench by Balkrishna Doshi and a prefab house by Jean Prouvé are also placed nearby. Vitra chairman emeritus Rolf Fehlbaum noted that the project marks a shift in the campus's relationship with architecture and nature, following earlier efforts like Tadao Ando's conference building (1994), the Oudolf Garden (2021), and landscape plans by Günther Vogt. Smets described the collaboration as an opportunity to 'prototype a landscape,' something cities rarely allow. Future steps include reducing paved surfaces and planting more Miyawaki forests.