Deni Ruggeri

Biography: 

Deni Ruggeri is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park. His education includes a Laurea in Architettura from Politecnico di Milano, Landscape Architecture, and City and Regional Planning Master’s degrees from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on landscape democracy, participation and co-creation, place identity, attachment, social cohesion, and urban agriculture. He employs research-by-design in Participant Action Research processes to initiate transformations and adaptation processes that benefit individuals, communities, and ecosystems. He serves as the Executive Director of the Environmental Design Research Association and has also been Chair of the Board of Directors. Deni has lectured at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Davis. He has served as an assistant professor at Cornell University, and as a tenured associate professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the University of Oregon. Prof. Ruggeri is the author of 25 journal articles and book chapters. He has co-edited the books Defining Landscape Democracy. A Path to Spatial Justice (2019) and Urban Agriculture in Public Space: Planning and Designing for Human Flourishing in Northern European Cities and Beyond (2024).

Education

• Ph.D., Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, CA

• Master of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

• Master of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

• Graduate Studies in Landscape Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

• Laurea in Architettura, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Professional Positions Held: 

07/2019 -present  
Executive Director and former Chair of the Board, Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)

08/2020-12/2021                  
Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

01/2019-06/2020 
Lecturer, Landscape Architecture Program, University of California, Davis, Davis CA

08/2014-06/2020
Associate Professor, School of Landscape Architecture, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway

08/2010-06/2015
Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

08/2007-07/2010
Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

09/2014-present    
Community Development Consultancy, United States, Norway

08/2005-07/2009
Landscape Designer, Community Development by Design, Berkeley CA

06/2005-08/2005
Landscape Designer, The SWA Group, Laguna Beach, CA

08/2003-06/2007
Graduate Student Instructor, College of Environmental Design, Departments of Landscape Architecture and Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

04/2002-08/2004                  
Landscape Designer, The SWA Group, Laguna Beach, CA

08/2001-03/2002
Landscape Designer, Design Workshop Inc., Denver, CO

08/1998-06/2001
Teaching and Research Assistant, Departments of Landscape Architecture, City and Reg. Planning, Hotel School, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

08/1995-07/1996
Assistant Planner, Comune di Verdellino, Verdellino, Italy

08/1995-07/1996
Teaching Assistant, Dipartmento di Pianificazione del Territorio, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Current Research: 

• Urban agriculture, productive landscapes, and agroecology
• Open Landscape Academy. The OLA Project is partially funded by the ERASMUS+ European Union grant program, under grant no.2022-1-DE01-KA220-HED-000085922.
  https://www.openlandscapeacademy.org/.
• Toward a Solidarity Landscape. In partnership with Consorzio FA, Brignano, Italy
  https://www.consorziofa.it/villaggio-solidale/solidarity-landscape-verso-un-paesaggio-solidale/

Teaching: 

Selected Publications:

Books:

Sirowy, B. and Ruggeri, D. (March 2024). Urban Agriculture in Public Space: Planning and Designing for Human Flourishing in Northern European Cities and Beyond. Dordrecht, NL: Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-41549-4

Egoz, S., Jørgensen, K, and Ruggeri, D. (Eds.). (2018). Defining Landscape Democracy. A Path to Spatial Justice. Glos, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.  ISBN: 978-1786438331

Book chapters:

Ruggeri, D. (2024). Sense of Place. In P. Horrigan and T. Oles, Fieldwork in Landscape Architecture: Methods, Actions, Tools. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781138244337

Ruggeri, D. and Sirowy, B. (2024). Setting the Stage: Urban Agriculture, Public Space, and Human Well-Being. In B. Sirowy and D. Ruggeri (Eds.), Urban Agriculture in Public Space: Planning and Designing for Human Flourishing in Northern European Cities and Beyond. Dordrecht, NL: Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-41549-4

Arild Ericksen, Ruggeri, D., (2024). Urban Agriculture and the Right to the City: A practitioner’s Roadmap. In B. Sirowy and D. Ruggeri (Eds.), Urban Agriculture in Public Space: Planning and Designing for Human Flourishing in Northern European Cities and Beyond. Dordrecht, NL: Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-41549-4

Ruggeri, D., (2024). From Prescription to Adaptation in the Future Productive City: Classroom-Inspired Principles for Design and Planning of Urban Agriculture. In B. Sirowy and D. Ruggeri (Eds.), Urban Agriculture in Public Space: Planning and Designing for Human Flourishing in Northern European Cities and Beyond. Dordrecht, NL: Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-41549-4

Ruggeri, D. (2023). Taking strolls in Google Streetview: from context photography to the search for a ‘stranger’s path’. In A. Godfrey (Ed.). Active Landscape Photography: Diverse Practices. New York: Routledge Press. 

Ruggeri, D. (2021). The agency of place identity and attachment in the contemporary co-production of community. In L. Manzo and P. Devine-Wright (Eds.). Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods, and Applications. New York: Routledge. ISBN 976-0-367-22349.

Journal articles:

Silvert, C. J., Warner, L. A., Diaz, J., Taylor, N., & Ruggeri, D. (2024). A call for water conservation research interventions informed by community engagement and input:“There was no going back after my trust in it turned.” Frontiers in Water, 6, 1395414.

Ruggeri, D., Harvey, C., and Bosselmann, P. (2019). Perceiving the livable city. Cross-cultural lessons on virtual and real-life experiences of urban environments. In G. Hack, T. Banerjee, M. Southworth (Eds.), Journal of the American Planning Association 84(3-4), p. 250-262. ISSN: 0194-4363

Ruggeri, D., and Young, D. (2016). Community in the information age: Exploring the social potential of web-based technologies in landscape architecture and community design. Frontiers of Architectural Research 5(1), p. 15-26. ISSN: 2095-2643

Ruggeri, D. (2014). My Mission Viejo. A Photovoice investigation of place identity and attachment in master planned suburbia. Journal of Urban Design 19(1), p. 119-139. ISSN: 1357-4809

Ruggeri, D. (2009). Revisiting urban design utopia in Irvine, new town. Die Alte Stadt 2, p. 247-262. ISSN: 0340-3688

Ruggeri, D. (2008). Learning from suburbia: urban design lessons from America’s largest new town. Rassegna di Architettura e Urbanistica 12(126), p.75-88. ISSN 0392-8608

Book reviews:

Ruggeri, D. (2024). The Shape of Utopia: The Architecture of Radical Reform in Nineteenth-Century America: Irene Cheng. (2023). University of Minnesota Press, 376 pages. $35 (paperback). Journal of the American Planning Association, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2383159

Keynotes:

Ruggeri, D. (2024). Co-creating Transitions for Greater Climate Adaptation Through Agro-ecology and Co-creation: The Case of the Solidarity Landscape in Northern Italy’s Lombardia. CEB-ASC - 16th International Conference on Environment-Behavior Studies. Nanjing, China 11/9/2024 (online)

Ruggeri, D. (2022). Landscape democracy and its role in multi-level governance. Landscape Forum Emilia Romagna. Rimini, Italy 4/27/2022

Ruggeri, D. (2022). When climate change adaptation meets social justice: Landscape architecture as agent of change in the San Francisco Bay area. International Bioclimate Change Symposium, - Atatürk University. Erzurum, Turkey, 3/25/2022

Ruggeri, D. (2016). Toward more livable winter cities. sustainable urbanism and the challenges and opportunities to live ‘under the weather. International Winter Cities Symposium - Atatürk University. Erzurum, Turkey, 11/02/2016

Ruggeri, D. (2012). Public virtues, private vices? Lessons for the sustainable future of new towns. European New Town Platform General Assembly. Basildon, UK, 10/13/2012

Ruggeri, D. (2009). Constructing identity in master planned utopia: The new town of Irvine, CA. European New Town Platform General Assembly. Figueres, Spain, 10/1/2009