In this article, we introduce our company’s landscape architect, Eszter Gáll, who combines her artistic vision and engineering knowledge to create harmony between nature and the built environment. Learn about her professional journey, her inspirations, and the approach that defines her work.
Eszter began her studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts of the West University of Timisoara as a textile designer, and then continued her studies at the Department of Landscape Architecture of the Banat University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. Her work has always been defined by art, and her works usually explore the relationship between humans and nature. Although she grew up in a metropolitan environment, during her childhood she spent a lot of time with her parents and grandparents in the countryside, in the mountains, in nature, which developed a special duality in her vision. This contrast inspired her to find balance and harmony between the artificial and natural worlds. So it is no coincidence that she settled in an area where these two worlds meet and combine. Currently, as a specialist in green roofs, she is working to bring back the displaced nature into the lives of people in the metropolis, through green infrastructure. She is convinced that in a harmonious world, the built and natural environment can exist side by side.
“We cannot live exclusively among artificial, angular forms; we must create spaces that are in harmony with our nature and our soul.”
In her work as a textile artist and landscape architect, she often encounters the question of how to balance these two fields of expertise, since while one is an artistic, free field, the other requires precision, engineering, urban planning and botanical knowledge. In her opinion, the key to the question lies exactly in the relationship between humans and nature. This is a timeless subject that has inspired many artists and is also at the center of her creative thinking.
Her artistic works often feature motifs that are also reflected in her landscape architecture projects: organic forms, patterns inspired by nature, the diversity and textures of the flora. This interdisciplinary approach provides her work with a special freedom and creates an opportunity to explore the connections between the two fields and their harmonious intertwining. In her view, art and landscaping are not far from each other, as both are a creative process that intervenes in our environment and adds value to it.
„In the modern world, humans are increasingly moving away from their natural roots. In a space dominated by machines, factories, artificial infrastructures and virtual realities, we need to breathe, to find unity with the nature from which we actually come, of which we are an integral part. The Earth, Nature, is our true home and the real source of our being. The urbanization of the modern world, the energy crisis, the formation of urban heat islands and the decline in biodiversity are problems that landscape architecture and art can both reflect on: they can help raise people’s awareness and consciousness and rediscover their connection with nature.”
She was greatly influenced by artists who explored the relationship between nature and art. She drew inspiration from representatives of the land art movement, such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who drew attention to environmental and social issues with their monumental landscape installations. The romanian installation artist Ana Lupas can also be mentioned here, who expressed strong social criticism against modernization efforts. In the field of architecture, the ideas of Le Corbusier and Hundertwasser also had a significant impact on her work. According to Le Corbusier, the built environment should also provide space for nature. He treated the roof of buildings as the fifth facade and advocated the creation of green roofs. Hundertwasser rejected rigid, angular forms, emphasizing that the human soul is also round, not linear, and was the first architect to use buildings covered with vegetation.
Eszter believes that the modern built environment should not only be aesthetically pleasing, but also actively contribute to sustainability and the preservation of ecological balance. Urban green infrastructure, the support of biodiversity, and sustainable design principles are essential to making the cities of the future more livable and environmentally friendly.
Her work is kind of a bridge between art and urban planning – a path that allows for the restoration of harmony between man and nature in an increasingly digitalized and urbanized world.
