Jao Smet

Since Jao’s studies at the academy of Sint-Niklaas and Sint-Lucas in Ghent, art, architecture and landscape have been a constant in his almost always outgoing life. Besides running his own agency [input/output[a of io-architects, he is a part-time design lecturer at the faculty of architecture in Ghent.

As a design lecturer at the Academy of Sint-Niklaas and at Sint-Lucas Ghent and Brussels, Jao’s duties included organising and supervising study tours (Barcelona, Grenoble, Bratislava, New York and Paris). The hunger for experiencing architecture was reaffirmed at planopli during the prospecting trip to Mexico in 2022 and as a facilitator on the tailor-made trip to London in September 2024.

The courses the academy of Sint-Niklaas and at Sint-Lucas institute brought the relationship art and architecture to his attention and have since been woven into Jao’s daily doings which take him past modern and contemporary art exhibitions and fairs, both nationally and internationally.