1. Emma Laura Finchelstein - 3rd year
2012-2013 - Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du Paysage - Blois
Romania
“Back to curiosity”
2. 1st chapter Presenting the office
Starting with: Introduction
Office Concept
Office Members
Continuing with: Projects
Contests
Workshops
Research
Ending with: Conferences
Publications
Exhibitions
2nd chapter My internship
Starting with: Introduction part 2
Snagov Permaculture
Emerald
Bragadiru
Site rpr_
Unirea Hotel
Continuing with: Ploiesti
Bratului
O.A.R.
Pestera
Ending with: How to work with...friends
Architecture Studip’s Night
3rd chapter Conclusions
Starting with: Working at rpr_ what it
meant for me
Continuing with: Working at rpr_ what it
meant for me - continuation
Ending with: last words
3. Before starting to present my 11 weeks internship, I would like to thank to rpr_, represented by:
Ioana Tudora,
Diana Culescu,
Mihai Culescu,
and
Bogdan Gyeman Selin
for accepting me to do my internship at their office. Also, I am grateful to Ioana Streza who was there for
me if I needed any help.
And of course, the last but not least, I want to thank to Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du
Paysage for receiving me as an ERASMUS student for one whole year.
thanks.
4. introduction
One of the commune characteristics of an ERASMUS student is the curiosity. That is one of main reasons
why students leave their university to study abroad for one or two semesters. You want to take advantage
of this status and travel, visit nearby cities or just nearby pubs, try to stay as long as possible with the
people from the hosting country to find more about them, to learn more about their culture and habits, to
observe the differences between you and them, which eventual becomes „us” because you get along with
people and you integrate in their lives; one way or another you find yourself being just like any other stu-
dents, working side by side with them (of course, still having the needed foreigner’s privilege)... Yes, this is
how enthusiastic you become if you know how to really enjoy your ERASMUS status.
When I found out I can to do my internship anywhere I wanted to,
I immediately thought “Let's go far! Out of Europe! Japan, I love
Japan!”. But I couldn't go there. Finally, after I encountered some
trouble I had to choose between the ultra-famous capital of France,
Paris and my well-known-by-me city, the capital of Romania, Bucha-
rest. Both agencies were responding to my expectations and neces-
sities, they both had already done great projects and they both were
promising interesting tasks and challenges (or at least that is what I
imagined). I thought “Everybody avoids going back to their country
before the ERAMUS placement is finished. I am curious why...Let
me be the one trying something new!” So I chose my birthplace,
Bucharest, for the internship. This way I was able to see how an EN-
SNP student would feel at a Romanian landscape agency, however
in plus I already had friends waiting for me to come back.
And so I made the decision, that I will never regret, to come to rpr_birou de studii contemporane for 11 weeks of internship.
5. Founded in 2010 by Ioana Tudora, Diana Culescu, Bogdan Gyemant-Selin and Mihai
Culescu, rpr_ is the office that redefines the relationship between landscape, architec-
ture and urbanism, the R&D of the office are catalyzed by the cultural platform and the
natural environment of each context. The rpr_ project has the cultural landscape as the
generating shaft.
“The landscape is the way the man makes the nature work in his rhythm.” – M. Eliade
(Romanian writer)
The horizon, the mineral and the vegetal, the agricultural and industrial prints, the soil,
the hydrography, the urban dynamics, the nature’s show, the logic of the seasons, the
geologic print, the force of infrastructures, the forests, a mix of phenomena where the
artificial and the natural cohabits at a large scale to compose everything that surrounds
us: THE LANDSCAPE.
Considering that the landscape needs an holistic approach, the office is based on an
interdisciplinary team specialized in landscape, architecture, urbanism, sociology and
anthropology.
The team’s interest revolves around landscape integration and rehabilitation, urban de-
velopment and integrated architecture projects.
The purpose is to redefine and organize the dialogue between the built environment
and the natural one; to integrate the architecture, the urbanism and the landscape in the
wide frame of public space.
For this regard rpr_ elaborates plans, projects and strategies, theoretical studies and
land-art installations, organizes colloquies, workshops, seminaries, courses and confer-
ences, coordinates and participates at fundamental and applied research in landscape
and territory field projects.
office concept
Bucharest
Romania
6. office members
Ioana Tudora – is a lecturer at the Faculty of Landscape within the University of Agronomic Science and
Veterinary Medicine, Bucharest. She activated as guest teacher at architecture Faculties from Ghent and
Louvain, Belgium and at the Landscape Faculty from Gembloux, Belgium. She studied Architecture and a
Master in Urban Planning at the Architecture University Ion Mincu, Bucharest. Later she got specialized in
urban socio-anthropology in Brussels, where she attended the Master and started her PhD.
Diana Culescu - graduated from the Faculty of Horticulture Landscape Architecture Department
of the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Bucharest and got the Master of
Integrated Urban Development in 2008, the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu"
Bucharest. In 2008 she became a member of the Association of Landscape Architects Romania -
ASOP and the European Federation of Landscape Architects (EFLA) and is one of the founders of
ASOP – the Bucharest branch.
Mihai Culescu - graduated from the Faculty of Horticulture Landscape Architecture Department of
the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Bucharest, including a semester at
the ISIA Huy – Gembloux. He graduated the Master of Anthropology in the Faculty of Political
Science SNSPA. In 2008 he became a member of the Association of Landscape Architects Roma-
nia - ASOP and the European Federation of Landscape Architects (EFLA).
Bogdan Gyeman Selin – graduated architecture at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism
of the University of Geneva and the master in Architecture and Landscape at the same institute.
In 2007 he became a member with a signature right, at the Order of Architects of Romania.
Ioana Streza - graduated from the Department of Landscape Horticulture Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, Bucharest in 2011 and architecture at Spiru Haret University, Bucharest in 2013.
8. projects
The purpose of the intervention was to sensitize and in the same time to improve the interaction between the neighboring communities
and the neutralized zone of the gravel pit next to the Arges River. The chosen objects made of concrete were placed in key-spots with a
well-defined role – to invite the people and to make them feel comfortable in that new area. The chosen material for these objects has
been the concrete, most of it made of local aggregates.
title – signaling objects in the area of the former gravel pit Lafarge Fusea-Matasaru
date – September 2011- July 2012
technical details
presentation
theresult
10. contests
title – The rehabilitation and the development of the “Johannes Honterus” court from Brasov, Romania.
date – November 2011
Second prize
The Honterus Court is a court of both greatness and
modesty and simplicity, which is normal, considering it's
history but also the values it represents. This duality of
the space will be highlighted by the series of spaces –
the Courts – generated within the project.
The future courts will create a series of perimeters that
emphasize the Black Church. Within this court, starting
with the general role played by the Protestant Church and
the particular role of educational development played by
Johannes Honterus, they proposed a series of elements
which, besides the practical character at the urban mar-
ket, should have an educational and evocative character:
boxes with aromatic and medicinal plants and inscrip-
tions about J. Honterus on the flagstone that delineates
the schoolyard. Basically the market furniture isn't made
just for the design, but to become an entire informational
and educational system for children and adults.
presentation
churchdetail
11. contests
continuation
It was proposed a personalization of the two courts, without really separating them. This distinction lays in the pavement and also in the
creation of the huge flagstone. By this it is market the different spatial uses: the recreation zone of the schoolyard and the area ancillary
to the church.
one court... 7 courts
section
12. workshops
We believe that a high quality space is then achieved
when future generations can still benefit of it.
The AIM of our project: to actively involve the stakeholders in a de-
cision-making process oriented on future sustainable high quality
spaces.
“A tree is a long term investment” (Nico Vermeulen)
The environment where there are trees is far better than that
where there are none. Trees not only release oxygen, moisture,
but bring life, diversity and certain motion to a landscape. They
do that trough growth, seasonal display, light-shadow effects.
Trees will be planted and taken care of by the companies present
in the Donau City. Each will manage a sector from the forest, where
the workers are invited for a relaxing picnic or workout. The forest
becomes a new icon, a meeting place, and thus a community gen-
erator.” (Carmen Toma and Christian Voinescu)
title – DC-Waterfront Rehabilitation/ Copa Cagrana: A people centred approach
date – March 2011
„We propose a human scale and human needs oriented de-
sign, focusing on social, environmental and aesthetic lev-
els, all combined to generate a high quality open space that
is to be embraced by DC-users, dwellers and Viennese.
We see place-making as a dynamic and continuous process. The
landscape itself is on the move. Landscape is not static.
14. The research was made on Lyon and Rhone and it was written in
French, therefore I will leave it that way as a drop of surprise.
title - Lyone et Rhone/ Reconcilier la ville avec la fleuve
date - July-August 2007
research
Trois éléments portent sur la relation entre une ville et ses cours d’eau; la peur (les crues dévastatrices des cours d’eau), le développe-
ment technique (surtout l’industrie) et finalement l’automobile, Lyon ne faisant pas exception. Commençant dans un premier temps par
des projets ponctuels ayant une vocation limitée on va s’interroger sur le caractère et l’importance de chacun dans le processus de
la conquête du fleuve. Est-ce que le fil conducteur de ce qui se veut un projet urbain à grande échelle, le projet d’aménagements des
berges de la rive gauche du Rhône, permet l’intégration de tous ces projets en un seul, et permet la réintégration du fleuve au sein de
la vie de la ville. Est-ce que le Rhône redevient un axe structurant de la ville, futur levier de développement urbain, ou reste-il encore
une limite entre les deux rives? Est-ce que l’aménagement de la rive gauche peut entrainer par son succès, à la fois, une dynamique
urbaine des deux rives ? Quelle est finalement l’échelle de l’impact que cette reconquête peut avoir ?
16. After being accepted at rpr_birou de studii contemporane, I received the internship convention with the list of activities they wanted
me to work on. Seeing it, I worried a little, not wanting to disappoint anyone. But then, I arrived there, started to work with them and
everything seemed to go by the flow, but of course from time to time with some help from them.
At rpr_ I had the occasion to do as much field work as desk work with some extra activities like representing the office and ASOP at
different gatherings.
Leaving the tattle aside I will start presenting each project I participated and worked
introduction part 2
18. snagov permaculture
By the time I arrived, they already had some projects working on and Snagov Permaculture was one of them.
According to Wikipedia “permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering and environmental design which devel-
ops sustainable architecture and self-maintained agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.”
The client wanted to have a Romanian regional style, named “maramuresean”, for the garden-court where he had two traditional guest-
houses.
I had the chance to share opinions and ideas with Mihai Culescu, who was responsible for this project. My work consisted in searching
for suitable plants considering the theme and the location and to make a some collages with our proposal.
I learned some new tricks in Photoshop and improved my working speed in this kind of editing programs. Also, I had the occasion to find
out more about the “maramuresean” style and the indigenous plants.
19. emerald
Emerald project represents a balcony from an apartment building. The main requests were to be something simple, contemporary and
easy to maintain, because the clients didn’t want to spend a lot of time on this. One of the facts we had to take in consideration was the
open space which was producing a strong wind.
My job here was to...well, to do almost
everything. From planning the terrace to
searching for suitable plants and neces-
sary accessories. It was perfect, because
I was always attracted to this style and
this was my occasion to study what I was
considering as suitable plants and to ex-
press my ideas. It’s true, I split the work
with Ioana Streza and everything went
according to the plan and I learned how
to collaborate with someone and keep in
touch constantly so no one does anything
unnecessary or duplicates something al-
ready done.
20. bragadiru
The work done for the first proposal was
not in vain, I am still glad I practised plan-
ning another garden, it was like a mini-
project they gave me to handle. Again I
searched plants, this time with the theme
“Spanish Garden” (which is almost impos-
sible considering the temperature here
and the one in Spain) and made some
sketches for the garden-plan.
This presentation sounds very subjec-
tive, but the experience was unique until
now and I still have it fresh in my mind,
next to my thoughts about it. Thanks to
them, I learned that the opinion of a spe-
cialist and the good communication aren’t
enough if the person you are speaking to,
is already a “specialist”.
In the end rpr_ refused working with
them.
Sometimes I wonder why do landscapers exists, when some clients already have all the necessary knowledge in their DNA.
Of course, I’m being ironical. Why I said that? Because I also had the opportunity to interact with a couple of clients whom, after discus-
sions and proposals, they ended by telling us how to “decorate” their garden and used us just for searching some suitable but dreamlike
21. site rpr_
I was always curious how to edit a site, but I never asked even if I had the occasion. Maybe I wasn’t actually that curious.
The rpr_’s site needed an update for “Sibiel”, one of the contests they participated at and won a mention. This was my chance to finally
find out how it works. I had to select some photos and a text for the presentation and also to upload it and arrange it.
My conclusion, after learning how to do this was: “I should be ashamed I didn’t know these basics earlier, it’s quite simple!”. But I’m not.
22. A place that reminds of what was here before. A place with visual impact that offers the visitor a nice perspective. A transit zone.
These were the main demands for a square over an underground parking. What made it so special? Emotionally speaking, the nearby
presence of the Civil State Office which makes us think of all the happy couples getting married and all the great photos they want to
have with their families and friends. From a challenging point of view, we had to use at least the same number of trees that was there
before making the underground parking. The difference from then and now is the depth of the soil, which decreased until 1m. (the solu-
tion for these small-depths soils are the plants with “pulled roots”)
Our solution was to combine the transit zone with the good looking perspectives.
By making a natural amphitheater with terraced soil, we wanted to answer the question “We are married. Where should we take the
pictures with everyone here?”
Green lawns, open space for intense pedestrian presence and lots of trees and shrubs were the proposed solutions for a square on tiles.
unirea hotel
23. My role here was to make a good presentation with general references, examples of plants during the whole year and a collage with
one of the main spots in the future square.
unirea hotel
continuation
24. The Ploiesti project is a solution against the powerful wind near a national road. Basically, the agency that hired rpr_ wanted a green
curtain to enclose their private space, to help the ecosystems and to be protected against the wind.
The surface was about 1760 square meters, representing an almost straight line with one of the ends reaching a national route.
The proposed solution represents from 5 to 8 rows of trees and shrubs, planted in accordance with the wiring and canalization plan
they gave us. In order to give a long term solution, one of the rules we fallowed was to not plant anything at least 50cm away from the
canalization and underground wire-system.
“Armed” with two hundred of pegs, a couple of rulers and a couple of hammers, Mihai and me started marking and blotching the extremi-
ties of each row so that it will come in hand for the workers to follow the plan for planting them. This was just a task to ease their work
and to make sure everything will go according to the original plan.
ploiesti
25. bratului
Bratului garden is a private little garden, around 5×10m, located in a nice quiet neighbor near the capital’s center. Besides their desire
to “refresh” the garden with some dainty plants, they requested a solution for their walking path which had a very narrowed part, caused
by a storing area placed on it. The green zone already had two margins marked with natural river stones and one of them was delimiting
the green zone from the path. We took advantage of this and used extra stones to transform that margin in a path.
When I arrived at the internship all I could have done was to help with the field work. We planted some Parthenocissus quinquefolia
to climb on an empty part of a wall that was already covered with Hedera helix. We prepared the terrain for a playhouse (that we rec-
ommended them to buy, after searching on the internet, thru various models and sizes,, which was the most adequate for that space)
straighten it, planted a part of it with some Vinca minor and seeded the other part with grass.
The final result was a little garden, with green walls, a decent path to walk on and a surprise for their little daughter, the playhouse she
received for her birthday.
26. The Order of Architects headquarter has a garden, opened for the public where they can enjoy a drink and relax.
The rpr_ office was assigned to rearrange this garden, in a natural style and to cater for the fact that people will come there to enjoy a
pleasant time.
The proposed project kept the green oasis ambient like it was before but included different key elements to make a connection between
the proper garden and it’s function, for example a small are of the garden was allocated to aromatic plants they could use for the bar.
This is where I first had the occasion to work with other laborers that were under my surveillance and helped me by representing the
“strong arm”.
Basically what I did here, was to cut the vine in a specific way so that it will grow larger and offer more shadow in the hot summer, to
anchor on the walls a Parthenocissus that will give in the future a splash of color to the garden and to show the workers where to plant
according to the project.
In the end, I managed to participate at only 2 days for this fieldwork.
o.a.r.
27. pestera
Bran is a city from Romania, known for the castle, named Bran Castle, where Vlad Tepes, also known as Dracula, lived. The sights are
indeed lovely and the castle rises at the expectations of a simple, misterious home.
Near Bran was the Pestera project where I had another opportunity to make some field work.
All I am tempted to say here is about the great view I had and about the summer house of a Romanian architect. He wanted something
simple so the house is highlighted but in the same time integrated into the landscape. The final landscape project represented 24 Pinus
mugo, 16 Juniperus planted naturally upwards the fence and 6 Parthenocissus next to the walls to climb on.
It was quite hard to dig in that soil because the first 15 cm were with gravel and many of the planting spots were on an inclined area. I
must say, the guys from the OAR project would have been a great help here.
28. Another important activity for a landscape architect/engineer is to participate at conferences, gatherings and all sort of things that allows
him to expand his connections with others with whom he may collaborate in the future and of course with people from other fields than
it’s own.
Being and intern at rpr_ allowed me to participate to this kind of meetings. Dream Catchers Romania is the first Romanian fund-raising
agency and they organized, at Microsoft Romania, Bucharest headquarter a course titled “How to work with...friends”. Because the
people here are very joyful, they succeeded to give the others their optimism even by adding the word “friend” in the title, even if actually
it was about communicating with different agencies and media (television, radio, press etc). It was an interactive course with games for
two so that we interact with the others, but mainly there were representatives from all these media and agencies I was speaking about.
how to work with... friends
29. how to work with... friends
continuation
My role there was to represent ASOP and the latest thing they were working on within the campaign “Together we are cultivating the
future!”. This “thing” is a mini green space made of saplings kept in a biodegradable support, which later can be cut so that each sapling
can be planted with the support. This activity’s aim is to raise awareness on landscaping heritage and to cultivate plants meaning that
they want to give the people these mini-spaces and teach them what to do with them so they live and increase the vegetable “back-
ground”.
30. During my internship I participated at “Architecture Studio’s Night” within the event called “Romanian Design Week” with my guest office
rpr_.
What was the mission of this event? Let’s find out directly from the source!
“Our main objective is educating and encouraging educational dialogue. Our second objective is to gather under the Romanian Design
Week umbrella creatives that not only have never had the chance to get to know each other, but most of them have never paid too much
attention to what is happening in other connected industries. Thursday, 23rd of May, from 6pm to 10pm, 20 architecture studios and
architectural workshops will open their gates and invite friends and enthusiasts to visit their headquarters or join in to a great party, to
get to know the team and their activity.”
architecture studio’s night
31. architecture studio’s night
But rpr_ thought “Why presenting our projects in the office, when we can present directly AT one of our current work?”. And so we had
the doors opened at an almost finished but still under construction house. The project is called “Vespa” and is a modern office building,
made mostly of concrete, with simple lines and exposed concrete on the exterior and interior. In fact, it is a test building, to see if the
used materials, mainly concrete and scoria, make it self-sustainable, helping to keep warm during the winter and chill in the summer, by
“breathing” with the exterior.
Here, Diana, Mihai and Bogdan presented rpr_’s most interesting projects from all over the country and guests could serve home-made
juice and beer from Perroni as sponsor.
32. Emma Laura Finchelstein - 3rd year
2012-2013 - Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du Paysage - Blois
Romania
“Back to curiosity”
33. working at rpr_ - what it meant for me
First of all conclusions that I am happy I came here for my internship. The location, the attic of a one-floor office building, offers a familiar
and cozy atmosphere. The people are very natural, optimistic but most of all friendly. Their working style is a very well organized one,
from the first pictures made to the way of managing and storing the files and all their work. While being an intern there I felt like working
at a french comfortable place, with people with healthy-Danish lifestyle and food habits and with a Romanian friendly-character. And I
was a Romanian half-Jewish student coming from France for my internship. I love the internationalization!
All the work I had to do there, implicit made me improve my skills. I haven’t tried any new logistic programs, but I definitely improved my
Photoshop, AutoCad, InDesign and Microsoft Office – Excel skills. All the plant research I made, for different projects at different loca-
tions helped me gain more knowledge about the main subject in our field: plants of all kind! If I had to give someone an advice about
studying plants, that would be: “Using them for a real project where responsibilities are involved is more practical and easy to learn than
studying for a school exam”.
34. working at rpr_ - continuation
What is better than working without stress? Being and intern at rpr_ was indeed an opportunity to easy develop myself and my working
skills. If I encountered problems I had three persons willing to help me anytime with anything, each of them with what they were best at.
(I mentioned three out of five because I came in a period where two of them were almost all the time gone) I had sleepless a couple of
sleepless night to finish my work in time, but comparing with the general enjoyable atmosphere from the office, I have nothing to com-
plain about. I am sure, if I was a foreigner they would have recommended me places to visit and maybe even let me leave earlier if I had
something to catch-up, but because I already knew the town I stood there to learn more things from them.
With the same number of projects like the office work I just presented, the field work represented an important part of my internship
without which my internship wouldn’t have fully responded to my expectations.
Even though my arrival in Romania meant not to take advantage of a foreign country and to practice French language anymore, how-
ever, my coming here for my internship gave me the opportunity to deepen the landscape language. By this, I wish to refer to various
meetings with people from the same field, with clients or with other interesting people. All this helped me to see things through the eyes
of both client, landscapers and people working in the media or simple citizens. They helped noticing thinking and reactions that maybe
I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t done both office work with conveyances and fieldwork through which I had the opportunity to interact
with another group of people.
35. A little something I consider worth mentioning is that I always had something to hear from Diana or Mihai. Diana always shared her
experience, making me feel like being there with her in each story. She had great memories from all the places she visited, I even have
a favorite one from India. Mihai was always making me feel like I never saw a movie... He knew a lot of great movies I knew I had to
see(but never did) and always gave me the impression he is up to date with all the interesting news. And the last but not the least, is
Ioana, which whom I haven’t spoke so much from the beginning, for no good reason...Maybe because she was working hard and I never
wanted to disturb her, unless she started the conversation. However, lately we started interacting more and I confirmed my thoughts that
she is a very pleasant and funny person.
P.S. The color used for this chapter’s layout is pink because I wanted to share the same good feelings I have when speaking about my
experience at rpr_.
last words
