Project cooperation
Regenerating Eastern Europe’s communist-era housing estates through perceptions, ecosystem services & nature-based solutions.
- Looking for partners to join a project
- CUE topic 1 – Resilient green and social infrastructure
Author
Anna Wilczyńska
Researcher, PhD
Riga Stradiņš University
Riga, Latvia
9 profile visitsParticipant
PhD researcher & landscape architect with 15+ yrs in sustainable urban regeneration, bridging design, ecology, sociology & human–nature research.
My organisation
The Social Sciences Research Centre at RSU advances cutting-edge research to address the profound social, political, and economic challenges facing Latvia, Europe, and beyond through excellence in collaborative, transdisciplinary social science. In our team, we combine landscape design and sociological research to study human–nature interactions, urban regeneration, and sustainable transitions. Our expertise includes participatory GIS, living labs, citizen science, and qualitative/quantitative social research, with a strong focus on community engagement, just transition, and inclusive planning. We are especially interested in projects on urban brownfields, green and blue infrastructure, circular urban economies, and 15-minute city concepts, where design and social sciences can be integrated to co-create transformative, future-proof solutions. We have experience in both European and national funding projects, publish actively on urban and rural landscape issues, and maintain an extensive international network. We are also organisers of the upcoming European Society for Rural Sociology Congress (ESRS 2025) in Riga.
About me
I am a PhD researcher and landscape architect working across design, ecology, and social sciences, with interests in sustainable urban regeneration, cultural landscapes, and human–nature interactions. I have 8+ years of experience in Estonia on design for health and well-being, blue/green infrastructure, and ecosystem services perceptions.
In Poland, I researched urban wastelands and their development scenarios, contributed to regeneration projects, and was part of the competition team designing one of Warsaw’s largest parks with nature-based solutions. I have also been active in participatory design and bottom-up activism, including the protection of the Jazdów neighbourhood in Warsaw, and in foodscapes initiatives in Tartu.
Currently, I focus on multispecies justice in planning and design—especially in conflict situations such as wild animals in cities—and on post-crisis reconstruction, studying temporary wooden housing estates from the 1940s in Poland. My approach bridges research, participation, activism, and design practice to co-create transformative solutions.