Brezoi Living Lab kickoff with Planetary Gardeners
In April, the TERRRA Living Lab in Brezoi, Romania, launched a new phase of collaborative work exploring how local ecological knowledge can shape more sustainable futures. Bringing together local stakeholders, researchers, students, and practitioners through the School of Planetary Gardeners, the initiative explored the ecological, cultural, and social value of Brezoi’s traditional landscapes. These exchanges laid the groundwork for nature-based solutions that reconnect people with their environment while reimagining the future of local orchards, pastures, and public spaces.
A pause in the orchard during a tour exploring the NBS-by-design interventions at TERRRA during the School of Planetary Gardeners.
We started with a stakeholder meeting facilitated by our partners at Brezoi City Hall to introduce the INNATURE project, gauge local interest, and build initial connections. From there, we conducted 1:1 interviews across the community including touring Brezoi with the vice mayor to learn about local ecological priorities, meeting with the director of Parcul Național Cozia, and speaking with the vice-principal of the local school, Liceul Teoretic “Gheorghe Surdu”. In parallel, we continued discussions with Brezoieni through our existing networks.
These ground-level insights fed into and were enriched by another edition of the School of Planetary Gardners, organized by aaa and Gilles Clément. The event brought together international and Romanian researchers including Gilles Clément, Véronique Mure, Cristian Mihai Adamescu, Geneviève Michon, Cosmin Ivașcu, Mirela Iancu, Indra Gleidze (MyVillages / Rural School of Economics), Nina Hourdin & Vladimir Slonska (Le Temps de La Terrre), with members of the TERRRA network (Doina Petrescu, Constantin Petcou, Maria Alexandrescu and Silviu Medeșan) as well as Alin Șuldac (Vice Mayor of Brezoi), to discuss Brezoi's challenges and opportunities. Bringing together a variety of disciplines and experiences across ecology, ethnobotany, ethnobiology, biology, cultural heritage, traditional ecological knowledge, art, and gardening, this edition involved seminars, discussions, workshops, and walks through Brezoi.
The School of Planetary Gardeners brought together local and international researchers and students to think through Brezoi and its landscape.
Out of these exchanges, a primary theme emerged: the critical role of Brezoi’s traditional forest-pasture-orchard system. Historically central to self-provisioning and local identity, this cultural landscape holds significant potential for the area's ecological and economic future.
The exchange established an important direction for our demo case: revitalizing the local ecological knowledge tied to this landscape to introduce situated Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) rooted in New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles. In parallel, Nina Hourdin and Vladimir Slonska of Temps de la Terre, demo case partners, completed a residency to map out the overall landscape integration of the NBS prototypes.
This work covered both the TERRRA site and an additional public site suggested by City Hall along the Lotru River, which we are working with local partners to transform into an Ecoparc. Le Temps de la Terrre also completed the integration of a rainwater pond, intended to increase biodiversity and preserve rainwater on site.
USAMV students worked with Nina and Vladimir from Le Temps de la Terre to create a pond as an NBS prototype.
In parallel TERRRA hosted a practicum week for 2nd-year landscape architecture students from USAMV Bucharest, along with their teachers Alex Axinte and Anca Strugariu. The students learned and applied ecological principles by helping build the pond and an access path. They also applied their landscape sociology training by speaking with local residents around the future Ecoparc site. To conclude their week, the students organized an exhibition of their work for students from the Liceul Teoretic “Gheorghe Surdu” and their teachers, Diana Predușel and Luiza Maria Botă, laying the groundwork for an ongoing partnership with the school.
USAMV students presented an exhibition of what they did and learned during their time in Brezoi to students from Liceul Teoretic “Gheorghe Surdu.”
Author of the text and pictures by Maria Alexandrescue, Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée.
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