Teaching and research staff

Simon Bell, PhD
Head of the chair, professor
recreation, landscape and visual impact assessment
CV, publications and creative work
simon.bell@emu.ee
Phone:+372 731 3136, +372 505 6106
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-218

Simon Bell began his career in forestry with a bachelor degree from the University of Bangor, Wales, and then earned a master degree in landscape architecture at the University of Edinburgh. He worked for the British Forestry Commission for over 20 years, specializing in the design of forest landscapes and their recreational uses before moving into academia. He worked in the USA, Canada, various European countries and Russia as a consultant on large-scale forest and recreational landscape projects. Simon's research and project work brought him to the Baltics in the early 2000s. He conducted his doctoral research in Latvia, obtaining his PhD from the Estonian University of life Sciences. He has been teaching and researching in Estonia since 2005. In 2009, he became the professor and head of the landscape architecture department and in 2018 the Chair professor. In 2011, an international master programme in landscape architecture was opened under Simon’s leadership. He teaches courses on large- scale planning and design and supervises many master and PhD students. Between 2012 and 2018 he was President of ECLAS (European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools). Simon has published numerous books and research articles. He also teaches and researches part time at the University of Edinburgh, in the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Mart Külvik, PhD
Professor
Biodiversity and environmental planning. Nature conservation policy and planning.
CV
mart.kylvik@emu.ee
Phone: +372 7313 772
Kreutzwaldi 5-2C18

Biologist, landscape ecologist and conservationist; worked in the Department of Architecture of Tartu City Government as an urban ecologist, in the Ministry of the Environment and acted as an environmental activist (ELF, Green Movement, etc.) and in administrative (Tartu City Council, Estonian Congress) and academic decision-making bodies. Research topics are related to the eco-green network, valuable habitats, management of various aspects of biodiversity, ecosystem services and nature-based solutions.

Mari Nõmmela, PhD
Assoc. Professor
landscaping, historic sites and monuments
CV, publications and creative work
mari.nommela@emu.ee
Phone: +372 731 3135
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-221

Mari Nõmmela has graduated from the University of Tartu as a teacher of history and social studies, specialising in art history. She has defended her Master’s and Doctoral thesis on Estonian art history. She has published books and research articles related to Estonian culture, and written chapters for several collections.
She has been working at the Estonian University of Life Sciences since the speciality of landscape architecture was established, as an Associate Professor from 1998. She teaches subjects related to historical areas and landscape history, composition and form in designing of public space, drawing as an optional subject, etc. She has organised several thematic exhibitions of students’ works and shown her own creations at solo and general exhibitions.

Kadri Maikov, PhD
Lecturer
AutoCAD 2D and 3D, Vectorworks 2D, 3D and landscape modeling, plant design, healing gardens, restoration of historical sites and monuments, garden design.
CV, publications and creative work
kadri.maikov@emu.ee
Phone: +372 7313135; +372 55 598 155
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-221

Landscape architect Kadri Maikov is a specialist of ’healing gardens’. She has published a book in 2011 based on environmental psychology. Kadri has been with the landscape architecture department since 1997, as a lecturer starting in 2000. She has given speciality courses and lectures in Finland, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Lithuania etc universities. Kadri supervises master's thesis and is full member of the Master's thesis evaluation committee. She manages hospital-related collaborative projects. Kadri is also the founder of the Estonian Landscape Architects’ Union. She is also a horticulturist jury member for many competitions. Alongside teaching she has been involved in her own company since 2005. Kadri holds AutoDesk Badge till 1.02.2022. Her creativity work is shown in personal exhibitions. She is also frequently an invited lecturer at public events.

Martti Veldi, PhD
CV, publications and creative work
Junior researcher
martti.veldi@emu.ee

Martti Veldi is a junior researcher on the Modcsapes Estonian team. He is responsible for archival research and all the work connected with GIS and mapping. As the only native Estonian on the team, Martti also takes part in interviewing local people, and analysing the data collected for the fieldwork.
Martti Veldi obtained his BA (2004) and MA (2009) degrees (history and archaeology) from the University of Tartu, Estonia. His MA thesis Centres and Communication in South-Eastern Estonia during the Iron Age in the context of Early Modern Era maps explored the opportunities of interpreting Iron Age communication combined with 17th century maps and data on archaeological sites.
Research interests: landscape and settlement archaeology, GIS, historical mapping, biographical approach to landscape studies, long-term landscape change
During 2007–2011 Martti worked as a senior inspector of archaeological monuments in South Estonia for the Estonian National Heritage Board. Since 2015 he has been employed as an advisor of archaeological heritage at the National Heritage Board.
Martti Veldi is a PhD student of Archaeological Heritage Management at the University of Leiden.

Toomas Muru, MSc
Manager of the chair, junior researcher
spatial planning, landscape planning
CV, publications and creative work
toomas.muru@emu.ee
Phone:+372 731 3139, +372 506 7931
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-225

Toomas Muru is a landscape architect who obtained his landscape architecture education at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Wageningen University and Eesti Maaülikool. He also has a forestry education form Estonia. He worked as a private consultant at an Estonian planning company and then for the last 25 years as the landscape architecture study program developer and teacher at Eesti Maaülikool. He has also been teaching in HÄMK and on different international courses in Estonia and abroad, he is a co-author of the Estonian guidebook for comprehensive planning, founder of Estonian Landscape Architects’ Union and member of the landscape architecture professional qualifications committee of Estonia. His professional focus is on spatial and landscape planning, landscape analysis of rural areas and forest landscape planning and design.

Chief Specialist and PhD student
CV, publications and creative work
friedrich.kuhlmann@emu.ee
Phone: +372 509 0881
Kreutzwaldi 56/3 -219

Dipl.-Ing. Friedrich Kuhlmann is a landscape architect from Berlin living in Tartu. He worked in different design offices in Germany, taught and researched at TU Berlin, Rostock University and Boku Vienna and also founded freelance businesses for planning and consulting. Since 2005 he worked as an extraordinary associate professor and since 2009 as an appointed professor at our department. His professional interests encircle contemporary landscape theory, urban space design and social sustainability.
He teaches courses about urban planning and design, contemporary landscape theory and supervises bachelor and master students.

Peeter Vassiljev, MSc
Lecturer and PhD student
CV, publications and creative work
peeter.vassiljev@emu.ee
Phone: 731 3139
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-225

Peeter Vassiljev has been a landscape architect since 1999. He is a lecturer in planning of residential areas and landscape construction. His research interests are in the field of forest recreation and environmental psychology. He takes great interest in computer graphics and 3d simulation and is responsible for running the Virtual Landscape Theatre at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. He is among the founding members of the Estonian Landscape Architecture Students' Organisation and Estonian Landscape Architects' Union.
He teaches courses on spatial and landscape planning, construction and environmental psychology.

Gloria Niin, MSc
CV, publications and creative work
Junior researcher and PhD student
gloria.niin@emu.ee
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-220

Gloria Niin is a lecturer and a PhD student at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. She is teaching basic courses at bachelor level, for example General Course in Landscape Architecture, Drawing and Public Space Design. Her research with urban forest recreation and management, focusing on the improvement of environmental, social, economic and legal aspects of urban forests in Estonia. Also she has a position as a landscape architect of the university focusing on providing better opportunities for different user groups and making the outdoor space more resilient and diverse by changing the green space management practices. In her free time Gloria is an urban activist and she has a NGO together with her fellow landscape architects.

Jekaterina Balicka, MSc
CV, publications and creative work
Peasepetsialist
jekaterina.balicka@emu.ee
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-220

Jekaterina Balicka is a Latvian landscape architect and is currently a researcher and teacher at EULS. She has work experience in Landscape Architecture offices in Riga and Berlin. Jekaterina was a project coordinator at EULS for the GreenMan project, dealing with management issues of green urban spaces. Together with colleagues she has also initiated and participated in the DrainForLife, dealing with sustainable urban drainage systems in Estonia and Latvia. Currently Jekaterina is researcher for the BlueHealth project, which is dealing with the link of blue infrastructure and people's health in the European cities. Her research and professional interests are temporary use of open spaces in Baltic cities, urban landscape analysis and presentation graphics in Landscape Architecture.
She is teaching in courses involving drawing, presentation graphics, urban landscape analysis and several landscape architecture studio courses.

Kaja Veddel, MSc
Chair management, international projects MODSCAPES and CO-LAND
kaja.veddel@emu.ee
tel: 731 3924; 56 695 718
Kreutzwaldi 65/3-224

Kaja Veddel obtained a degree in landscape architecture from the Estonian University of Life Sciences in 2018 and has had further training at the University of Genoa in Italy. In her Master’s thesis, which formed a part of the MODSCAPES project, she studied the impact of modernism and modernisation on Estonian landscapes.
Kaja coordinates the project CO-LAND – Inclusive Coastal Landscapes: “Activating green and blue infrastructure for sustainable development of the urban-land interface”, in which the chair is involved and which is funded by the European Union. She also participates in the HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) project MODSCAPES – “Modernist Reinventions of the Rural Landscape”. She manages the daily proceedings of the chair, teaches the general course in landscape architecture and courses in drawing and urban landscape design.

Liina Jürisoo
CV,
Junior researcher
liina.jyrisoo@emu.ee

Liina teaches in the Chair of Landscape Architecture course called "Greenspace management and Woody Plants in urban greening".
Liina Jürisoo graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Agriculture as an agronomist in horticulture. She trained further in landscape design, landscaping, arboriculture, and has been teaching for more than 10 years in several vocational schools. The courses she is teaching at are: Woody plants in landscaping, Maintenance of green areas, Inventory of woody plants.
Her PhD research topic is "Diagnostics and distribution of dangerous fungal pathogens in forest and verdant trees"

Joanna Storie
PhD
Researcher
joanna.storie@gmail.com

Joanna recently gained her PhD with her thesis, "When peace and quiet is not enough: examining the challenges communities face in Estonian and Latvian rural landscapes". Her main interests continue to be the challenges of rural livelihoods and how the migration from rural areas could be reversed. She is also interested in how the urban/rural interface influences the rural landscapes and how a more positive dialogue can be achieved.
In addition to this, Joanna has also worked with a systematic mapping of ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea with the ROSEMARIE project: Blue health and wealth from the Baltic Sea – a participatory systematic review for smart decisions and assembling a database of case studies for BlueHealth. Currently she is working on a systematic review of citizen science projects and the environment with the ENCIVICs project and teaching the Strategic Local Planning course.
Joanna has a diverse background and experience with a bachelors in Pharmacology and Chemistry and a Masters in in Managing Sustainable Rural Development. Her Masters thesis examined the conflict of wild boar management in the area of Latvia where she currently lives. She also spends time working alongside her husband on their alpaca farm, thus experiencing first hand the challenges of rural life.

Alice Närep
Project assistant
Chair management
alice.narep@emu.ee
Phone: +372 731 3924; +372 56 613 311
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-224

Alice has a degree in Environmental Planning and Landscape Design (2019) and is graduating landscape architecture with a master's degree. The master's thesis topic is: "Public participation tools in landscape architecture projects implementation." She has also completed her studies at Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands).
Alice contributes to public participation in landscape architecture, urban and rural planning, sustainable living environment and process of engagement. As a project assistant, she coordinates and manages the activities of the chair. Internationally, she coordinates IFLA Europe and ELASA activities.

Anna Wilczyńska , MSc
Junior researcher
anna.wilczynska@gmail.com
Kreutzwaldi 56/3-224

Anna obtained her MSc in Landscape Architecture at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (WULS-SGGW) in Poland. She subsequently gained professional experience in landscape design in both Paris and Warsaw. Anna is a landscape architect, junior researcher and tutor at the Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU), PhD candidate at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (WULS-SGGW) and a board member of the Miastodwa Cultural Association.
Anna’s focus is on public involvement in landscape planning and design, participatory GIS use, urban activism, sustainable city planning and design, urban wastelands as well as perception of ecosystem services.
In the Chair Anna works on the Blue Health Horizon 2020 project and is responsible for research and illustrations for the forthcoming book on urban blue spaces.
Her doctoral research examines the bottom-up creation of public spaces. Her project is funded by several scholarships and an Estophilus grant administered by the Archimedes Foundation in Estonia.
In January 2019, she was awarded a grant from the Polish National Science fund to study perception and use of blue infrastructure in Warsaw.
She has broad experience in participatory and public involvement projects, exemplified by the Open Jazdów initiative.