This study aims at promoting the research methodologies applied in landscape studies in all their quasi-natural, urban anthropogenic and cultural and historical components and on all research scales (at a macro-territorial, mezzo-territorial, or detail level). The study materialized in a series of case studies decrypted as being evolution research that focused on the serious issues of the loss and destruction of the cultural landscape heritage and of the decrease of green areas, of public spaces, and of valuable urban landscapes in Bucharest, Romania, especially in the context of historical evolution, including the communist and post-communist, transition period.
The project was conducted by studying historical records from the past until the present day, by using a transdisciplinary and multicriteria approach (Crăciun Metode de Abordare si Cercetare Exploratorii in Urbanism si Peisagistică. Epistemologia și Transdisciplinaritatea – Instrumente de cercetare a Peisajului Natural, Antropic și Cultural [Exploratory methods of approach and research in urban planning and landscape studies. Epistemology and transdisciplinarity – instruments in researching the natural, anthropogenic and cultural landscape], “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture Publishing House, Bucharest (2012)) and by overlapping historical, urban, and architectural layers and elements, by overlaying genius-loci and material and immaterial cultural landscape elements and by converging social, demographic, legislative, anthropological, linguistic, and archival components.
The research is based on the study of historical gardens that have totally or partially disappeared and that have a symbolic value and a coagulating function within the urban space and within the immaterial cultural landscape (traditions, general and local customs, etc.). The project highlights the expansion, development, and especially the decrease, destruction, and elimination of the landscape heritage and green areas, as well as of the urban-community areas in the last decades, by analyzing what has existed until present times with the purpose of achieving a balance in the time/space relationship within the landscape.