The European scientific action committee advises the President, the Board and the Executive Committe on the IEJP’s scientific and cultural priorities.
Composed of European specialists in the field of garden and landscape, its aim is to initiate various actions across Europe.
🇧🇪 Nathalie de Harlez de Deulin, coordinator
Nathalie de Harlez is a garden historian of Belgian origin, and a graduate doctor in History, Art and Archaeology from the University of Liège (2015). Her thesis was published with the title, Le Jardin Anglais Evolution du goût et passion botanique sous l’influence des Lumières dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège, 1761-1827 (The English landscaped garden - Evolution of botanic tastes and passions under the influence of the Enlightenment, in the southern Netherlands and the principality of Liège, 1796-1827), published by the Royal Academy of Belgium, 2021. Coordinator of the inventory of historic parks and gardens of Wallonia (published in nine volumes, 1993-2008), she is the author of a review on the history of historic parks and gardens in Wallonia, integrating - in particular - a dictionary of garden creators from the 18th century to the present day (published by the Wallonia Heritage Institute, 2008). As coordinator of studies on historic gardens, she conducted the preliminary study and restoration of the Villa Medici gardens in Rome, together with other historic and documentary studies prior to the restoration of the gardens of the Villa Demoiselle in Reims; the Château d’Annevoie and the Château de Freÿr in Belgium. A lecturer at the Haute Ecole Charlemagne, the University of Liège (Agro-Bio Tech faculty) and the University of Mons (Polytech), she is involved in the specialised interuniversity Master’s Degree in the preservation and restoration of built cultural heritage. Since 2021, she has been conducting a research project on the study and valorisation of biodiversity in historic parks and gardens. She is a member of the ICOMOS international committee on cultural landscapes (since 2012), a member of the René Pechère literary prize jury (Brussels) and the Fondation Signature (Paris) garden art prize. Since June 2024, she has acted as vice president of the Walloon CRMSF (royal committee on monuments, sites and archaeological excavation - sites section).
🇫🇷 Marco Martella
He founded and supervises publication of the Jardins themed magazine, published yearly and offering an opportunity to explore the philosophical and poetic dimensions of gardens via contributions from artists, landscapers, gardeners, writers, art historians and sociologists. He has also published a number of books, from essay to fiction, translated into Italian, Spanish, German and Croatian. From 2002 to 2018, he was in charge of the promotion of green heritage for the Hauts de Seine Council, and organised international colloquiums on the art of gardens: ‘L’héritage d’André le Nôtre’ (André Le Nôtre’s legacy) - 2013, ‘Les jardins d’artistes en Europe au XIXe siècle’ (19th-century artists’ gardens) - 2015, ‘Que deviennent les jardins historiques ?’ (What has become of historic gardens?) - 2017, in partnership with the European Institute of Gardens and Landscapes and ICOMOS-France.
🇩🇪 Iris Lauterbach
After studying History of Art and Romance philology at the Universities of Mayence, Pavia (Collegio Ghislieri) and Paris (Paris IV), Iris Lauterbach obtained a PhD, presenting a thesis on French formal gardens at the end of the Ancien Régime. After working for Berlin’s Museums, the University of Fribourg en Breisgau and the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, she has - since 1991 - joined the research department of the Central Institute for Art History in Munich. She also teaches garden history at the Technical University of Munich. An art historian specialising in the history of gardens, she is a member of the historic gardens circle of the German Society for Garden Art and Landscape Culture (Arbeitskreis Historische Gärten, DGGL) and the Association of Orangeries in Germany (Arbeitskreis Orangerien in Deutschland e.V.). Her fields of research include the history of European gardens from the 16th to the 20th century, architecture and urban planning in the national-socialist period, and post-war reconstruction and cultural policy.
🇵🇹 Cristina Castel-Branco
Cristina Castel-Branco is a Portuguese landscape designer, doctor of the history of gardens, who teaches in foreign schools and universities. In 1985, she obtained a degree at the Instituto superior de Agronomia of Lisbon, and in 1989 a Master of landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts, completing with the Design school at Harvard University. She restored the botanical garden of the National palace of Ajuda between 1994 and 1997 while being responsible for the 1998 Universal exhibition. She is also a specialist in the restoration of historical gardens and ecologic design. In 1991, she created the Portuguese agency ACB Arquitectura Paisagista, specialising in botany, art of gardens and urbanism. Since 2006, she is a member of the Scientific Committee of cultural landscape of Unesco (ICOMOS). She has translated the fictionalized biography of André Le Nôtre by Erik Orsena in 2003. He wrote the preface of her book Félix de Avelar Brotero – Botaniste Portugais 1744-1828 in 2004.
🇬🇧 Peter Goodchild
Peter Goodchild’s professional training was in Horticulture, Landscape Design, and Conservation Studies. The latter was in the form of a one-year mid-career course at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies (IoAAS, University of York, UK). In the 1970s and 80s, he was closely involved, through the Garden History Society (now the Gardens Trust), ICOMOS-UK, and the IoAAS, in promoting and establishing the national Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England and its equivalents in Wales and Scotland. Later, he was the Director of the Historic Landscapes and Gardens Option in the mid-career MA in Conservation Studies at the IoAAS. In addition to being a member of the Committee of the Institut Européen des Jardins & Paysages from its beginning, he is a member of the Cultural Landscapes and Historic Gardens Committee of ICOMOS-UK and acts as its representative on the Steering Group for the Studley Royal with Fountains Abbey World Heritage Site, which is in Yorkshire in the North of England. He has also served on the International Conservation Board (ICB) for the 'Muskauer Park Muzakowski transnational World Heritage Site (Germany/Poland) and the Schloss Branitz (Germany)'. More locally, he is a Vice-President of the Yorkshire Gardens Trust and a member of its Conservation Committee. Currently, his main interest is in promoting Supplementary Education on the appreciation, understanding, conservation, and care of local environments including, of course, gardens, parks and landscape settings of historical interest.
🇪🇸 Monica Luengo
Mónica Luengo Añón is an art historian and landscape architect. She is the former President of the International Scientific Committee of Cultural Landscapes ICOMOS-IFLA and former Director of the Master Course on Cultural and Natural Heritage: innovation, research and development option at the Andalucía International University. She is also a member of the Instituto de Estudios Madrileños. Her field of expertise is linked to theory and practice in the assessment, inventory, conservation and management of cultural landscapes and in the research, restoration, conservation and management of historic gardens and parks. She has also worked as a World Heritage Consultant. Over the past 15 years she has organised seminars, exhibitions and has given lectures across the globe on historic gardens and cultural landscapes. She is the founder and director, since 1999, of the ATP Arquitectura Territorio y Paisaje landscape agency, and has conducted restoration projects for heritage landmarks such as Real Monasterio de Guadalupe, Palacio de la Mosquera, Madinat al-Zahra, etc. Other projects she has undertaken include management and conservation plans for cultural landscapes, parks and urban spaces and public and private historic gardens. Mónica Luengo Añón’s publications include books such as Jardines Históricos de España, Jardins d’Espagne, El Capricho de la Alameda de Osuna and articles published in Historic Gardens and Climate Change, Parámetros del jardín español, Mediterranean gardens, Revitalización de centros históricos, Agua y paisajes culturales, Valor cultural del Paisaje rural, Palacio de Liria, etc.
🇫🇷 Bénédicte Duthion
Her qualifications associate three fields: gardens and landscapes, the environment and cultural heritage. Her early research focused on the relationship between art and nature. From 2000 to 2002, she directed the Cluny Museum of Art and Archaeology (Saône-et-Loire). As such, she paid a particular interest to the history of medieval gardens. Since 2003, she has worked in the Normandy Regional Council’s Inventory and Cultural Heritage department, as project leader and research officer. In her capacity as project leader, she is a member of inter-regional scientific committees for museums, is in charge of the scientific and technical partnership with the Giverny Museum of Impressionisms (a public cultural cooperation establishment) and of the European Cultural Route of Impressionism. She also accompanies historic monument restoration campaigns and initiatives in the study of intangible cultural heritage. As research officer, her missions initially involved the subject of high schools (publication of Du collège des jésuites au Lycée Corneille de Rouen, 2015). With the reunification of Normandy, its missions now fall fully within the remit of the Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel (General Inventory of Cultural Heritage), this ‘adventure of the mind’, in the famous words of its founder, André Malraux. Her research focuses on public gardens (19th-20th centuries), and since 2019 she has been a member of the regional working group for the Remarkable Garden label. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
🇮🇹 Margherita Azzi-Visentini
Margherita Azzi-Visentini, a literature graduate and doctor in history of art, teaches history of architecture, gardens and landscapes at the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan). She has written over 250 publications. She has focused, in particular, on Palladio and on his influence in the Anglo-Saxon world, on the architecture of Venetian villas and gardens from the early modern period, on the British colonies in America and on the Borromean Islands, on the sources used for Italian garden study and on travel across the Alps. She has worked in partnership with CISA, Vicence ; Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, Trévise; the Rome Study Centre on Culture and Image; Archivio del Moderno, Mendrisio (Switzerland) and other institutions. She was President of the Jury for a dissertation on gardens “Verbania Editoria & Giardini”, member of the jury for “Il Parco più Bello”, member of the AIAPP, of Ateneo Veneto, of the Istituto Veneto di SS.LL.AA, of the ICOMOS International Council on Monuments and Sites and senior member of the SAH, Chicago. She has acted as invited professor at Dumbarton Oaks and at the CASVA in Washington and the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven. A monograph on the relationship between the villas of Venetia and landscape, Paesaggi di villa. Architettura e giardini nel Veneto (in collaboration with M. Cunico and G. Rallo) was published in 2015.
🇮🇹 Alberta Campitelli
She is an art and garden historian, whose career was spent in the Municipality of Rome. She retired in 2016 as Director of Historic Villas and Parks, after having overseen major restorations of gardens and buildings in several villas. In 2023 she was Chair of the Commission of the Ministry of Culture for allocation of EU funds in the PNRR project (Restoration of Historic Parks and Gardens). She is currently Professor of “Museum and Cultural Heritage Management” at the Luiss University, Advisor Member of ICOMOS-ISCCL, Vice-President of the Italian Parks and Gardens Association; in the Ministry of Culture President of the Technical Scientific Committee for Museums, Member of the Superior Council for Cultural and Landscape Heritage and Advisor in several educational cultural projects for the Heritage School Foundation; Member of the Scientific Council of the Gardens of Ninfa, of Monza Park and Member of Garden Study Center of San Quirico d'Orcia; Co-Director of the “Gardens and Landscape” series of the publisher Olschki, Member of the Board of the journal Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes and Member of the Jury of Campiello prize – Section Green story-telling. Among the several volumes published we can mention “Villas and Gardens of Italy. Paths in Time and Places between Nature and Artifice” and “Gli Horti dei Papi. I giardini Vaticani dal Medioevo al Novecento”. In 2022 she was curator, with Tiziana Maffei and Alessandro Cremona, of the exhibition and catalog of “Fragments of Paradise. Gardens in Time at the Royal Palace of Caserta.”