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Cristina Castel-Branco

Researcher and Landscape Architecture

Email: cristina.castelbranco(a#t)acbpaisagem.com

CV: Descarregar

Cristina Castel-Branco is graduated in Landscape Architecture (1985) by the Higher Institute of Agronomy. She was a Fulbright–ITT grant holder and completed her Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts in 1989 having studied at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University in 1988. She completed her doctoral degree in Garden Art History in 1993, and is Professor with Aggregation status since 2006.

She began lecturing at the ISA in 1989 in the fields of the History of Art in Gardens and Vegetal Materials, before expanding her specialist teaching fields to include Landscape Ecology and the Restoration of Landscape Heritage.

Currently, Cristina Castel-Branco lectures on the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture subjects on the graduate degree program and the Project and Landscape Criticism and the Cultural Landscape Restoration and Management subjects on the Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture. She chaired the ISA Landscape Architecture Board throughout ten non-consecutive years and was on the ISA Board of Management from 1993 to 1995. As a guest lecturer, she has taught post-graduate courses at universities in Madrid, Manchester and Tokyo.

In 1995, in association with Francisco Castro Rego, she founded the Centre for Applied Ecology "Prof. Baeta Neves" at ISA, where she has been coordinating the research area of Landscape Architecture and Ecology Design.

In 2008-2009, with Helena Freitas and Teresa Andresen, Cristina Castel-Branco launched the LINK - Doctoral Degree Program in Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology, in partnership with the Technical University of Lisbon and the universities of Coimbra and Porto thereby launching the third Bologna cycle in this field. She ran the Lisbon Doctoral Degree Program during the 2009-2010 academic year.

Cristina Castel-Branco oversaw the restoration of the Ajuda Botanical Garden (1994-1997) and was the garden’s director between 1997 and 2002. She was the lead Landscape Architectural consultant to EXPO’98 and project director of the Garcia de Orta Garden project on the EXPO’98 site.

She was elected a voting member of the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes, ICOMOS, and World Heritage — UNESCO, in 2006 and has since contributed towards various cultural landscape evaluation missions on behalf of the world heritage list. A founding member of the Portuguese Association of Historical Gardens and Sites, which Cristina Castel-Branco lead from 2003 to 2009, that, in partnership with the other founding members Ana Luísa Soares and Teresa Chambel, keeps defending and promoting historical gardens in accordance with European policies and programs, such as EEA Grants, which financed the restoration of twelve gardens in Portugal between 2007 and 2010.

Elected vice-president of the Comité des Parcs et Jardins d’Europe and the representative of Portugal in 2009, Cristina Castel-Branco was also nominated a member of the international jury founded to select the best plants for the Domaine de Courson Journées dês Plantes within the framework of ornamental plants for Southern Europe, in 2011. In 1989, she founded, in partnership with Teresa Andresen, the ACB — Arquitectura Paisagista atelier. She actually leads the atelier with award winning performances.

She is the author of several books on Landscape Architecture history, art and theory in addition to a series of articles published in specialist journals in Europe, the United States of America and Japan.

Mesquita, S., Carine, M., Castel-Branco, C & Menezes de Sequeira, M., 2022, Documenting the flora of a diversity hotspot: Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) and his botanical exploration of Madeira Island. Taxon, 71 (4): 876–891.

(doi: 10.1002/tax.12661.)

Mesquita, S., Castel-Branco C. & Menezes de Sequeira, M., 2022, Biographical notes on Mary Young and Caroline Norton, illustrators of Madeiran plants for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in the 19th century. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 39 (2): 379-402.

(doi: 10.1111/curt.12422.)

Castel-Branco, C., Azambuja, S. T., 2019, Die Kunst der Azulejos in portugiesischen Gärten (engl., “The Art of Azulejos in Portuguese Gardens”) Keramik in historischen Gärten - Decorative and fragile – Ceramic in historical gardens. Garden History Conference Stiftung Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau, Germany, 15th November 2019.

Soares, A.L., Azambuja, S.T, Castel-Branco, C., 2019, The role of the botanic garden of Ajuda in the affirmation of the new profession of landscape architecture in Portugal. In GAO, Lei & EGOZ, Shelley (Eds.). Lessons from the past, visions for the future: Celebrating one hundred years of landscape architecture education in Europe, pp. 145-147). [Download]

Soares, A.L., Simões, A.R., Azambuja, S.T., Castel-Branco, C., 2018, Paisagem e ecologia em ruínas e terrenos vacantes. In Cavaco, C., Santos, J.R., Brito-Henriques, E. (ed.). Ideias para intervenção em espaços urbanos abandonados: experiências na Lisboa Ocidental e Barreiro. Lisboa: Academia de Escolas de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de Língua Portuguesa, pp. 40-49. ISBN: 978-989-20-9015-3.

Castel-Branco, C., 2017, Rexistro de Camelias no Século XVII en Portugal antes de Georg Kamel. Xornada Internacional 2107 – Camelia e Paisaxismo. Pazo de Rubíans, 2-3 March, Vilagarcía de Arousa, Pontevedra, Spain. (Oral presentation).

Castel-Branco, C., 2016, Monet et Burle Marx. Colloque Jardins d’Artistes. Palácio Fronteira, 19 May, Lisboa, Portugal. (Oral presentation).

Castel-Branco, C., 2014, Le couvent des Capuchos et Kingscote. Revue Jardins 5, Éditions du Sandre, Paris.

Castel-Branco, C., 2012, Is Landscape Architecture a Useful or dispensable profession? Verdant Network Magazine, Novembro/Dezembro, pp: 13-17.

Castel-Branco, C., 2012, Le temps des jardins est un temps sans âge. Revue Jardins 3, Éditions du Sandre, Paris, pp: 85-93.

Castel‐Branco, C., 2012, Is Landscape Architecture a Useful or dispensable profession? Network in Progress, Verdiana Network 11:13-17.

Castel‐Branco, C., 2012, Le temps du jardin est san sâge. Jardins 3: 85-93.

Castel‐Branco, C. (Coord.), 2011, Arquitectura Paisagista e Ecologia Urbana. Revista Archinews - Edição especial N.º 1. Ed. Inside city, Sintra, ISSN: 1646-2262. 159p.

Castel‐Branco, C., Soares, A.L., Arsénio, P., Mesquita, S., Mendes, A., Doria, C., Silva, J.S. & Santiago, R., 2011, Método das preferências visuais. ArchiNews ‐ Revista de Arquitectura, Urbanismo, Interiores e Design. Edição Especial/ Special Edition 01: 36‐73.

Steinitz, C., Castel Branco, C., 2011, Mais de trinta ideias influentes em planeamento da paisagem. ArchiNews ‐ Revista de Arquitectura, Urbanismo, Interiores e Design. Edição Especial/ Special Edition 01: 12‐35.

Soares, A. L., Castel-Branco, C., Castro Rego, F., 2007, O valor das árvores na cidade, árvores e floresta urbana de Lisboa. Arquitectura e Vida 85: 76 - 81.

Castel-Branco, C., 2000, A celebration of architecture contribution that landscape architects have made to the history of Expo 98. Landscape Design 295. United Kingdom.

Castel-Branco, C., 2000, Instinctive Culture - the role of landscape architects. Landscape Design 291. United Kingdom.

Castel-Branco, C., 1998, Living botanical history. Landscape Design 271, United Kingdom.

Castel-Branco, C. & T. Andersen., 1993, Heading for a Post-modern landscape -Portuguese trends in the conciliation of environmental quality and landsape planning. Landscape and Urban Planning, 23: 183-194.