Established in 2010, RPR Birou de studii contempornane is a planning office that defines the relationship between landscape architecture, architecture and urbanism. Considering that the landscape needs a holistic approach, RPR office developed an interdisciplinary team with an activity that gravitates towards landscape rehabilitation, urban development and sustainable, integrated architecture. RPR aims to redefine and organize the dialog between the built and the natural environment, in order to integrate architecture, urbanism and the landscape in the vast realm of public space. In its activity, RPR generates masterplans, projects and strategies, theoretical studies, organizes workshops, discussions, courses and conferences, coordinates and participates in fundamental research projects applied in the field of landscape architecture.
“Landscape is man’s way of making nature work at its own pace” – Eliade
The horizon, the mineral and vegetable, the agricultural and industrial footprints, the soil, the hydrography, the urban dynamics, the spectacle of nature, the logic of the seasons, the geological footprint, the force of infrastructures, the forests, a mix of phenomena in which the artificial and nature cohabit on a grand scale to compose what surrounds us: Landscape
Believing that landscape requires a holistic approach the office is based on an interdisciplinary team specialising in landscape, architecture, urbanism, sociology and anthropology.
RPR’s team’s interest revolves around landscape integration and rehabilitation projects, integrated urban and architectural development.
Their aim is to redefine and organise the dialogue between the built and the natural environment, to integrate architecture, urbanism and landscape into the wider framework of public space.
To this end RPR develops plans, projects and strategies, theoretical studies and land-art installations, organizes colloquia, workshops, seminars, courses and conferences, coordinates and participates in fundamental and applied research projects in the field of territory and landscape.
About Diana Culescu
Diana Culescu holds a Graduate Degree in Landscape Architecture and a Master Degree in Integrated Urban Development. She acquired her PhD title in Horticulture field based on the thesis “Development of a quality assessment method for urban green spaces”. Her professional activity, mainly carried out within RPR Bureau of Contemporary Studies company, is focused on landscape design, landscape maintenance and management of sustainable inclusive cities. In 2016, Diana Culescu became the President of the Romanian Landscape Architects Association (AsoP). Within the national professional organization, she is involved in projects and activities that aim to establish, protect and promote the Landscape Architect profession and the Landscape Architecture field in Romania.
Furthermore, her active involvement since 2005 in the Romanian NGO sector, through projects, workshops, conferences and other activities, is yet another mean to attract public awareness towards landscape and environmental issues.
Mental frontiers and communication gaps
The image of the landscape architecture in Romania remains vague and imprecise. Often if you say you are a landscape architect, people ask if you can paint them a beautiful painting … “Monet-like”. In more fortunate cases, people understand that landscape architects have something to do with flowers and gardens. In this context, the Romanian Landscape Architects Association (AsoP)’s primordial purpose was to promote the landscape architect profession as well as opening multiple dialogues. From community projects and collaborations with other NGOs to inter-professional cooperation covering areas ranging from architecture or arts to urban anthropology, the involvement of AsoP members in individual projects or the implication of the professional association managed to overcome mental boundaries that kept this profession in the shade. Although not completely out in the light, a series of legislative projects in recent years demonstrate that landscape architects are no longer seen as those who are supposed to paint nicely or plant small flowers in public spaces, but they begin to find their natural and needed place in the design and planning of our everyday spaces.
About Mihai Culescu
Mihai Culescu is a tree inventory specialist. In 2007, he obtained his BA in the landscape architecture field from the Faculty of Horticulture within the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest. His professional activity is carried out mainly within the RPR Birou de studii contemporane and it is focussing on landscape architecture design and landscape management. Also, its active involvement in the NGO sector since 2007, through projects, workshops, conferences and other activities, is another mean of drawing the attention of the general public to landscape and environmental issues.
