Maarten Desmet

Maarten Desmet is a Belgian architect, designer, researcher and social innovator with a deep interest in the relationships between space, society and ecology. His work bridges disciplines – from architectural theory to social entrepreneurship – always with a focus on regenerative futures.

Over the past decade, Maarten has combined academic research, writing and practice-based projects to explore how spatial and material design can support more compassionate, connected ways of living. He is particularly inspired by the Himalayan region, where he has travelled extensively and conducted research into Gross National Happiness as a framework for planning and design. His book Gross National Happiness – Bhutan inspires the world (Lannoo, 2013) translated this vision for a European audience.

Photography plays a modest but meaningful role in his work – not as an end in itself, but as a way to document and reflect on how infrastructures, gestures or materials carry stories of care, continuity or transformation.

His current fascination lies with Thangtong Gyalpo – the 15th-century Tibetan lama, blacksmith and bridge builder – who combined spiritual teachings with radically concrete action. Gyalpo’s bridges were not only functional feats, but also vehicles for spreading a worldview of compassion and interdependence. In 2024, Maarten published Feeling Things Together – A Synthetic Adventure, a small artist’s book for the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, exploring this tension between material invention and relational imagination.

SKU: mail@maartendesmet.be Category: Onboards_25

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This photograph captures a detail of the Tamchog suspension bridge in Bhutan, where five-century-old iron chain links still span the river below. These were forged by the remarkable 15th-century Tibetan master Thangtong Gyalpo – a lama, blacksmith, architect, and visionary. Known as the “Iron Bridge Builder”, he constructed over 50 chain bridges across the Himalayas to serve pilgrims, travelers, and traders. His bridges are among the earliest examples of long-span engineering in the world.

What’s truly astonishing is the quality of the iron: metallurgical analysis in 1978 showed it contains traces of arsenic, rendering it highly corrosion-resistant. Centuries before Europe mastered similar technologies, Gyalpo created tension-based structures that made seemingly impossible crossings not only safe but spiritual. His bridges weren’t just functional – they enabled the spread of Buddhism and its message of compassion, interdependence, and the end of suffering.

Today, iron and steel are no longer symbols of unity, but instruments of division – leveraged in trade wars, extracted unsustainably, and shaped into weapons of influence. Yet the question remains: what are the bridges of today?

In a time of geopolitical fracture and ecological emergency, we must forge new connectors – not of iron, but of empathy. Relationships that span across cultures, classes, and generations. Could circular materials, shared rituals, or public spaces be the new “chain links” of compassion?

Appease the spirits before they turn foes.

Build a bridge before the river swells.

– Thangtong Gyalpo

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