ELENA MIHAI
PORTFOLIO
ELENA MIHAI
RESUME
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT/PLANNER PROFESSIONAL SKILL SET
GOALS Who are you? I am a young Landscape Architect, creator of gardens, the one that shapes the landscapes. The scope of my work is to bond people with nature and bring joy to communities. My name is Elena and I’ve been working in the UK and abroad in residential schemes or single houses, parks and schools/universities. In the UK I’ve been focused mostly on residential schemes or individual gardens/ house farms. It was both about economic projects and high range projects.
It started with two things: drawing and gardening(edible vegetables and flowers, vineyards and orchards, endless fields and green hills. It continued with education and then career. I do not have retirement plans, I take inspiration from architects and landscape architects who profess even in the 80s and I would like the same.
Knowledge and experience of landscape assessment and design Speaks English, French, and Spanish Familiar with BIM Level 2 Creative approach to design Report and presentation skills Commercial awareness Strongly self-motivated and organized, excellent planning capability Familiar with NBS, Cost estimations, and communication with other professionals(planners, engineers, architects, arboriculturists).
SOFTWARE LANGUAGE Romanian-Native English -Proficient Professional Level French- Intermediary Spanish -Beginner
AutoCAD Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Indesign SketchUP Pro Lumion MS Office ArchiCAD
VOLUNARY WORK: WORK EXPERIENCE Landscape Assistant/Architect, Bowles &Wyer, Tring, UK August 2016-Present Projects: Residential: 97-ST John’s Wood Terrace, King’s Road Residential Scheme,41 Frognal luxury residential property in London,New’s End, Water End GA(and many others),Schools/ Colleges:Eton Willbrook College, Oxford College Gardens, Edge Grove School Watford, Parks: Crescent Park(London) Landscape Architect Manager, PoojaCrafted Homes Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India, May 2015 – July 2016 Projects: First Leaf, Hyderabad. Wonderful World, Hyderabad True Winds, Bangalore Magic Breeze, Hyderabad Landscape Architect, Urban Garden Connections, Romania, Feb 2014 – May 2015 Team Co-ordinator, Green Infrastructures, Nürtingen-Geislingen University, Germany, Oct 2014 – Feb 2015 Proposal of designs that meet the principles of GI CAD Drafting Technician, Planning Association Victor Verbinsky, Bucharest, Oct 2008 – April 2009
Practice in Zurich and Basel Switzerland, March 2008 – April 2008 On-site documentation of residential buildings, work exchange visit in Arch. Mario Botta’s Office, work exchange visit in Arch. Santiago Calatrava’s office, on-site documentation in the Architecture Factory – Vitra, Germany.
EDUCATION: Masters of Landscape and Territory, The University of Architecture and Urban Planning Ion Mincu, Bucharest, Romania, Oct 2012 – Sep 2014 Bachelors Urban Planning and Management, The University of Architecture and Urban Planning Ion Mincu, Bucharest, Romania, Oct 2006 – Jul 2012
AWARDS: • International competition Boston Living with Waters- 1st phase • 1st prize in Regional drawing and painting competition Marin Sorescu-Craiova • Stage designer in Foreign Language Festival, Craiova 2006 • Design process of reshaping the city of Breaza, Prahova, Romania
HOBBIES:
Reading novels, Horticulture, Travelling
GLEBE HOUSE
RESIDENTIAL
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Glebe House came as a refurbishment of a property situated in a conservation area. My contribution was producing presentation materials and studying the pattern of shadows along the year in order to take the best decision regarding the levels of terraces, keeping certain trees, what areas would be in shadow at what time and what would happen at various times during the year. At this moment project is under construction.
FROGNAL
LONDON
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GALLOWAY HOUSE
RESIDENTIAL
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BARLEY END/GROVE ROAD
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FIRST LEAFT
MULTIPURPUSE COURT
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT Multipurpose Court
Sports Ground Section
Children’s Play Area The project conceived for an Indian developer for upper-middle-class people. It comprises 30 villas. My role was to develop the entire landscape, which means: the entrance(gate), leisure(seating areas), clubhouse, sports ground, parking, front gardens for villas, decks, patios, backyards from the consultancy stage to detailed drawings. Because the client was looking for both attractive designs, easy to execute and maintain I had chosen simple but strong colors or contrasts.
This is the presentation drawing for the multipurpose court/park which has 3 main features: playground, children’s play area and a space for elders.
Project size: 2 hectares. Population:120 Role: Project Landscape Architect
General Plan-Sports Ground and Park
FIRST LEAFT
ENTRANCE GATE
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT
Side View of the Entrance
The entrance is supposed to grab the attention of the visitor. In Hyderabad, the entrance is the pride of the project. The main challenge here was to follow a simple to understand the pattern, use hardy plants and come up with something new. I was restricted by the existence of the underground utilities, so opted for Palm trees, Thunbergia mysorensis, agave and Euphorbia million. Apart from this, I wanted to take advantage of the existence of the boulder stones, therefore I transformed them into directional boulder lights.
FIRST LEAFT
CENTRAL MEDIAN
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT Overwiew-General Plan
Central Median -First Proposal
Central Median -Second Proposal
The central median has 12 pockets of the plantation. Even though the general purpose is a parking, the beneficiary wanted a view of a park. I thought to transform this space into an open event space with the occasion of holidays. Proposed to place 12 metal boxes in the central median pockets. These boxes are opened at the top, so whenever there is a holiday people can place lights inside them.
Central Median-Third Proposal
FIRST LEAFT
TOT LOT
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT
Tot Lot-Plan
The Tot Lot is part of the entrance. Has mainly the function of leisure. The dimensions of the Tot Lot are 84 feet x 26 feet, in which 3 concrete planters were accommodated along with a plywood design element, which is trying to record the main theme of this project, that of leaf found in all areas of the project.
FIRST LEAFT
TERRACES AND DECKS
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT Terrace of a Typcal Villa
Terrace-Day View
Deck-View Terraces, decks, patios, and inner yards were also in my scope of work. While working on these, my thought was somewhere on a terrace in New York, seeing the city and the skyscraper. I could feel the smell of the city, see the lights, the traffic, see the plateau with fruits and the bottle of champagne ready for a party where I was then invited to celebrate something important.
Project size: 2 hectares. Population:120 Role: Project Landscape Architect
Terrace -Top View
WONDERFUL WORLD
ZONING
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LINEAR PARK-RESIDENTIAL AREA Elevation Central Median
Zone 1- Wi-Fi Pavilion
Design Elements in Zone 1 The Wonderful World project belongs to a development of 30 villas for the upper middle class in Hyderabad, India. My role was to develop the landscape concept for the central median which is a micro linear park. Apart from this, I had to give the planting plans and some of the construction drawings.
This is the elevation of the central median. It is a stretch of 9 zones, which have 3 major themes. The first theme is the cottage garden, the second theme is the tropical garden third theme is of a garden that helps in harvesting water because keeping water at the surface in central India is not a very wise idea due to diseases that are spread by mosquitos.
Project size: 2 hectares. Population:120 Role: Project Landscape Architect
Zone 2 -Presentation Plan
WONDERFUL WORLD FEATURES
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LINEAR PARK-RESIDENTIAL AREA
Section in Zone 5
When designing the features you can find in different zones I tried to stay focused on providing shade, a variety of spaces for different types of activities, different types of textures.
WONDERFUL WORLD FRONT GARDENS
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RESIDENTIAL PROJECT-FRONT GARDEN Front Garden
Benches-Construction Detail
Wi-fi Pavillion-Construction Detail Project size: 2 hectares. Population:120 Role: Project Landscape Architect
Shelter-Contrsuction Detail
CERNICA LAKE
WETLAND STRATEGY
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WETLANDS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Side View of the Entrance
Part of my Diploma Project in Landscape Architecture/Planning. The area of the projects was vast enough to cover a whole region of my country. Then it gradually decreased until the student could select one important area and study the main theme in that area. It is similar to international competitions where they offer either a wasteland, or a brownfield, or another type of space to bring ideas for development/sustainability.
CERNICA LAKE
WETLAND STRATEGY
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WETLANDS AND SUSTAINABILITY Multipurpose Court
Alternative Energy Installations
Children’s Play Area The plan which identifies the areas with a different type of Landscape and activities associated with these landscapes. There are main rivers, however, these rivers go through different ranges of landscapes. Appart from mapping the types of landscape, I tried to propose different actions that could ameliorate the current state of the landscape.
General Plan-Sports Ground and Park
CERNICA LAKE
WETLAND STRATEGY
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WETLANDS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Lake Strategy Visualization
BASTIA FARMS
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURES
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT Multipurpose Court
Sports Ground Section
The area is placed along the river Adda, in the south of Lodi town. Milan city is 50 km far away and Lodi town only 12 km. The area is placed inside the Cavenago d’Adda municipality and is located next to the Adda river course. The area is actually inside an old meander of the river and is dedicated to the agriculture production. The context is highly relevant from the different point of views: -for the environment, there are a lot of wetlands, some haunting reserves.
rich river vegetation, beaches, banks, and dikes; -for the economy, high agriculture use directly to cultivate mais and grass for cow farms to produce the milk in the Grana Padano DOP cheese network; -for the culture, there are some old urban villages with churches, villas, mills, and farms. The area is next to the current river course and is submitted to several flooding episodes during all the seasons in case of abundant rain. The area is formed by rural active fields, corn and grass, two farms, for cows and milk, and a private building, which was the old river camp of the municipality.
Name Bastia farms Location Cavenago d’Adda, Lodi Country Italy
Children’s Play Area
BASTIA FARMS
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURES
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LANDSCAPE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT
Side View of the Entrance
The Adda river is one of the main tributaries to the Po, the main river in the north of Italy. The Adda borns in the Alps and crosses all the Lombardia region, passing through the Lecco lake, arrives in the flat area of the Pianura Padana. The Adda river is protected by two regional parks: the North, between the lake and Lodi town, and the South one, from Lodi town to the Po river. The two parks differ in the context the river crosses by and for the river course’s features.
The case study belongs to the South Park area, where the course of the river becomes wider and with a lot of meanders, due to its lower speed across the plain( pic. 1). This part of the plain is dominated by the Adda and the Lambro river courses and by numerous canals for irrigation. The ecologic structure is based on the water courses and on their vegetation areas. (pic.2) The South Park is characterized by a series of dead river branches, beside the meanders; one of the most famous is the
Soltarico branch, originated from the flood in 1976 when the river skipped the Soltarico meander and originated 7 km of a series of wetlands and islands.
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE PLANTING PERSPECTIVES
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INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT INTERVENTION AREAS
Project for Jordan, Amman. Done in a group of 3 students as part of the international seminary-International Perspectives of Planting Design -IMLA -Germany
Pedestrian Bridges, Jordan Amman
VACARESTI PARK
ARBORETUM
WETLANDS-VACARESTI DELTA
The project is situated in Vacaresti Park, Romania, which at the time of the study was an abandoned project form the communist era. During 20 years here a delta has developped. We were a team of 5 people trying to make this space valuable. My role was to design the central area, which we thought of as an arboretum(the one marked with green in the left side).
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BREAZA PROJECT
ADVENTURE PARK
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UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT TYPES OF LANDSCAPES INTERVENTION AREAS
Romanian project done during masters, it mingled a bit of academics with real life experiences.
Pedestrian Bridges, Jordan Amman
KRAKOW
STREET REBRANDING
CITYSCAPE
The different project compared to what I had usually done. It came as a challenge from one of our teachers. The area itself is important, in the heart of Krakow. It has spectacular views to historical buildings, so it came quite naturally to think of rebranding it and create meaningful spaces for people to enjoy the city of Krakow, city that has already many things to offer.
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