OLA Project Team
Germany: HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen (project coordinator) and HSWT Weihenstephan-Triesdorf (university partner)
- university website, Nürtingen-Geislingen University, project coordination and grant holder
- university website, Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, project partner
- Joint IMLA study programme, International Master of Landscape Architecture
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Dr. Ellen Fetzer holds a diploma and a doctoral degree in landscape architecture from Kassel University, Germany. At Nürtingen-Geislingen University she is primarily coordinating the international masters in landscape architecture. Beyond landscape architecture, she is passionate about computer-supported collaborative learning in transnational settings, systems thinking and social innovation. Ellen is currently president of ECLAS (www.eclas.org), the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools.
Motivation for the OLA project: Creating a long-term and global platform for democratic landscape transformation is a lifetime project for me. |
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Professor Sonja Hörster is a landscape architect, founder of the Institute for Participatory Design and professor for Communication & Participation in Landscape Architecture at Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences. She dedicates her work to the development of new forms of design work through design-oriented participation. She brings over 28 years of professional experience in consulting, designing and implementing participation processes, spatial planning and monitoring of community development projects to the project.
Motivation for OLA project: ..OLA is a great opportunity to grow closer together as participateurs of the world. |
USA: University of Maryland (university partner)
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Dr. Deni Ruggeri is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on social and psychological dimensions of landscape architecture and urban design, participatory design, and urban green infrastructure. He has authored 25 journal articles and book chapters and co-edited the book Defining Landscape Democracy. A Path to Spatial Justice (2019). He serves as the Executive Director of the Environmental Design Research Association and coordinated the LED2LEAP Erasmus + project for the LE:NOTRE Institute. Dr. Ruggeri has lectured at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis and has been an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the University of Oregon, and an assistant professor of landscape architecture at Cornell University.
Motivation for the OLA project: OLA is an opportunity to learn how to create a better partnership in advancing landscape knowledge by linking civil society, academia, and the non profit sector in partnership in learning for systemic democratic change |
Hungary: MATE - Hungarian University for Agriculture and Life Sciences (university partner) and KulturAktív (NGO partner)
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Anna Szilágyi-Nagy Anna is a MSc landscape architect. Her areas of expertise are built environment education, playful and experience-based youth participation, and the design and research of analog board games that involve the population in solving landscape issues. Anna is a PhD candidate at the University of Tübingen and president of kultúrAktív Egyesület.
Motivation for the OLA project: The Open Landscape Academy is for me a partnership in which we envision and establish the sustainable future of our planet and a new participatory culture through education and work with communities. |
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Eszter Tóth Eszter is working at the crossroads of education and urbanism, driven by her passion for developing methods, tools, and approaches that support young people to understand and co-create their environment. She is a Ph.D. candidate at HafenCity University and her research interests include built environment education, urban activism, playful participation, and transformative game design. She is the founder of kultúrAktív, an association for built environment education in Hungary, and of urb:engage in Darmstadt, Germany."
Motivation for the OLA project: OLA is an exciting experimental lab for mutual learning |
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Zsófia Földi PhD, Assistant professor, Landscape Architect. She is working at the Department of Landscape Protection and Reclamation (MATE). Zsófia does research in liveable settlement, landscape protection, challenges in science communication. She is teaching and supervising students in Hungarian and international programs of the University from BSc to MSc level. In the last seven years she took part in environmental education programs. She personally attends science-promoting events.
Motivation for the OLA project: OLA is an excellent opportunity to support livable settlements |
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István Valánszki, Ph.D. is a landscape architect, associate professor and head of department at Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Landscape Protection and Reclamation. His researches focus on participatory mapping and cultural ecosystem services. István has also international research experiences (e.g. University of Copenhagen, University of Massachusetts, Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Norwegian University of Life Sciences).
Motivation for the OLA project: OLA is a a good opportunity to learn about participatory approaches and test them into local environment as well as to meet colleagues from other countries. |
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Zsombor Boromisza is a landscape architect, PhD in landscape architecture (2012), associate professor in Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Hungary), Department of Landscape Protection and Restoration, vice director of Buda Campus (Budapest), Rector's representative of botanical gardens, certified landscape and wildlife expert, conservation photographer,
Motivation for the OLA project: OLA is a great opportunity to expand our previous efforts in the field of participatory planning and environmental education, focusing on landscape protection. |
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Eszter Jákli is a PhD landscape architect and associate lecturer at the Hungarian University of Life Sciences. Since 2019 she is one of the coordinators of the Ladder Living Lab, established during the LED2LEAP project with kultúrAktív Association, focusing on school communities and the participatory renewal of school environments. |
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Tayana Passos Rosa Undergraduate in Product Design in Brazil. Masters in Landscape Architecture and Garden Design in Hungary. Currently, Ph.D. Student at the Doctoral School of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Ecology at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) researching Landscape Architecture and Design Processes as pedagogical tools to help improve Environmental Literacy in schools.
Motivation for the OLA project: OLA is an opportunity to contribute to societal transformation for inclusive and empathetic sustainable development. |
Italy: Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (university partner) and Fondazione Flaminia (NGO partner)
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Luigi Bartolomei, Ph.D. in Architectural Composition (2008) at the University of Bologna, is well-known for his research regarding sacred architecture, history of sacred architecture and participatory landscape design. He promoted, in collaboration with the University of Bologna, some preeminent initiatives in the field of religious cultural heritage. In 2019 he promoted the first national summer school regarding the reuse of religious cultural heritage, organizing a ten-day summer camp in Lucca where students were asked to design new functions for the dismissed monastery of St. Augustin. This Experience was then published in a special number of In_Bo, (vol. 12, n.6) and remains one of the fundamental researches on the reuse of dismissed cultural heritage in Europe. In 2022, as a collaborator of "The Pontifical Council for Culture", he has been among the promoters of the International Conference "Charisma and Creativity". He also collaborates with the National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage and Religious Buildings of the CEI – Conference of Italian Bishops, where he has been a tutor for he participatory national lab for new churches.
Motivation for the OLA project: The Open Landscape Academy is for me a way to create a responsible community for a global improvement in landscape and architectural design. |
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Lia Marchi architect and Ph.D. in Architectural Technology, is a research fellow, adjunct professor and teaching tutor at the University of Bologna, where she does research on energy transition in the built environment and sustainable design of industrial sites.
Motivation for OLA project: ...designing with and for people |
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Ernesto Antonini, Graduated in Architecture with distinction (IUAV Venice, 1984), PhD in Technology for Architecture (Rome University, 1991), Full Professor of Architectural Technology at the University of Bologna since 2016. He participated in several National and European research projects, mainly focused on socio-technical innovation in building techniques, recycling of construction & demolition waste, and sustainable architecture. He is Vice-President of the Italian Society of Technology for Architecture (SITdA) since 2020.
Motivation for the OLA project: ...OLa is...an aim |
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Veronica Lazzari worked in emergency and development projects in post-conflict countries with various NGOs, and in the communication sector for Oxfam Italy, before joining FAO. In 2011 she quit her job to devote to motherhood and training to become a counselor. Since September 2022 she has been working at CIFLA to manage and write EU projects in the field of technological and social innovation.
Motivation for OLA project: ...OLA is...a challenging idea! |
Greece: Agricultural University of Athens (university partner) and Commonspace (Social Enterprise partner)
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Dr. Angeliki T. Paraskevopoulou is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Ornamental Plants at the Laboratory of Floriculture & Landscape Architecture of the Agricultural University of Athens, originally employed in 2008. She holds a MSc in Vegetal Production from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, and both a Ph.D. and MA in Landscape Design, from the Department of Landscape, of The University of Sheffield, UK.
Motivation for the OLA project: ...disseminating a long overdue methodology for builidng social coherence through "democracy" and securing the development of sustainable and resilient landscapes. |
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Eleni Mougiakou is an Agricultural Engineer with a Diploma from Agricultural University of Athens, with specialization in Landscape Architecture. She completed her Master's Degree in Geoinformatics (NTUA) with Distinction and is currently a PhD researcher in the subject of Landscape Planning at AUA. Her research and work are focused on Urban Green Areas Strategic Planning, assessment of vulnerability of Mediterranean Cities to Urban Heat Island effect and Climate Change. She is leading the “Participatory Lab for Climate Change adaptation” initiative on behalf of COMMONSPACE.
Motivation for OLA project: OLA is an opportunity to practice an open science framework |
The Netherlands: LE:NOTRE Institute (NGO partner)
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Jeroen de Vries is a landscape architect specialised in landscape design & ecology; mission to foster quality of outdoor space by promoting sustainability and ecological quality. Combining professional practice, research and teaching. Partner of DG Groep for strategic and management plans for green areas and open space. Currently director and researcher of the LE:NOTRE Institute with a focus on sustainable food planning, landscape democracy and standards for landscape architecture education.
Motivation for OLA project: OLA is the beginning of a next phase in online, international, inclusive learning |
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Arati Uttur is an architect, turned landscape architect, and still transforming. I have been active as a tutor and explorer of landscapes through seminars like LED2LEAP, Language, Culture, Landscape, Middle East Social Innovation Lab and Community Learning for Local Change offered by the IMLA programme and the LE:NOTRE Institute. I look forward to contributing towards building sustainable landscapes"
Motivation for OLA project: OLA is a a gateway and tool for initiating much needed global transformation in understanding landscapes, respecting landscapes and inspiring individuals to take responsibility and active participation in making their landscapes sustainable for the future. |
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Kristin Faurest, Ph.D., is a public garden professional and landscape architecture instructor, author, and consultant. She holds a Ph.D. in landscape architecture from Corvinus University of Budapest as well as an M.A. in modern European history from the Central European University, Vienna. Dr. Faurest is the co-author of several books, including most recently Community Built: Art, Construction, Preservation and Place (Routledge, 2017). As an affiliated lecturer with the International Master’s of Landscape Architecture Program based jointly in Freising and Nurtingen-Geislingen, Germany, Dr. Faurest has done pioneering work in exploring cross-cultural perspectives on nature. She works at River Heritage Conservancy in Jeffersonville, Indiana, proudly serving as part of the team creating and managing the OLIN-designed Origin Park, the nation’s first fully climate-resilient park.
Motivation for OLA project: The Open Landscape Academy is an opportunity to move theory into practice! |
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Andrea Conti is an engineer, and PhD candidate in Landscape Architecture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Uppsala), executive committee member of European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools – ECLAS. His research interests draw from the field of design theory, addressing educational and material practices as a way to create knowledge.
Motivation for OLA project: The Open Landscape Academy is the avant-guarde for teaching and learning about democratic landscape transformation in graduate and postgraduate education. |
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Roxana Maria Triboi is an PhD architect and urban planner that specialised on sustainable food planning. Currently, she is coordinating the food thematic evaluation of the European Urban Agenda and AESOP4food ERASMUS+, a transdisciplinary and participatory program on sustainable food planning and involved in different programs for LE:NOTRE Institute, French Territorial Food Strategies consultancy and managing a community garden.
Motivation for OLA project: The Open Landscape Academy is a platform of trandisciplinary teaching and research of empowering people in participating in a democratic way in landscape transformation |