European Architects: Julien De Smedt   Tags: architect, architecture, europe, jds architects, julien de smedt  

Image Source: All rights reserved. National Library Board, Singapore, 2010.

Julien De Smedt (b. 1975, Brussels, Belgium) first gained his diploma in architecture from the Superior Architecture Institute Saint Luc in Brussels, in 1995.  He went on to study at the Architecture School of Paris-Belleville in 1997, before moving onto the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, in 1998. 

In between 1997-1998 and 2000-2001, Julien De Smedt worked for OMA in Rotterdam. Co-founding PLOT with Bjarke Ingels in 2001, the two eventually parted ways in 2006.  The Belgian-Danish architect went on to found JDS Architects, which today is a multidisciplinary firm specialising in architecture and design and has offices in Copenhagen, Brussels and Oslo.

Julien De Smedt is the recipient of the Henning Larsen Prize in 2003, the Eckersberg medal in 2005 and the prestigious Rotterdam-Maaskant prize for Young Architects.  Many of his projects has also won international acclaim: among them are the Stavanger Concert Hall which was named the World's Best Concert Hall at the Venice Biennale, the Maritime Youth House which won the Mies van der Rohe award and the AR+D award in London, as well as the Holmenkollen Skijump project in Oslo.  In 2008, JDS Architects won the Kalvebod Brygge competition in Copenhagen.

Julien De Smedt is also a frequent speaker in a diverse range of locations or events, e.g. the Sendai Mediatheque in Japan, the Architectural Association of Ireland, the Tate Modern in London, the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, the Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris, the McGill University in Montreal, Yale University in New Haven, Harvard University in Cambridge, both the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc) and University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and also the SIA-organised ArchiFest 2010 Forum at the National Library, Singapore.