Julien De Smedt (born December 3rd, 1975 in Brussels) is a Belgian-Danish architect based in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2006 he founded the architectural practice Julien De Smedt Architects (JDS) based in Copenhagen with offices in Brussels and Oslo. JDS is a multidisciplinary office that works with architecture, urban planning and product design.
After attending schools in Brussels, Paris, Los Angeles and London, Julien De Smedt received a diploma with commendation from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London in 2000. He then went to Rotterdam to work for OMA and Rem Koolhaas.
In 2001 he moved to Copenhagen to set up the architectural practice PLOT together with OMA colleague Bjarke Ingels. The company quickly received significant national and international acclaim for its inventive designs including several commissions and competition wins as well as a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2004 for a proposal for a new music house for Stavanger, Norway. Their first major project to be realized was the award-winning VM Houses in Orestad, Copenhagen in 2005. In spite of the success and attention, PLOT was disbanded in January 2006 and Julien De Smedt founded Julien De Smedt Architects (JDS, first called Julien De Smedt Design), while his former partner founded BIG.
In 2007 JDS won their first major project when they won the international competition for the New Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo, one of the city's major landmarks. Other major competition wins include a residential project in the old docklands of Arhus, Denmark, and a Harbour development project in Copenhagen.
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