Team

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  Sarah Cowles

  Director

  Sarah Cowles, ALSA, is founder and director of Ruderal LLC. Her inventive approach comes from 20 years of international experience and a localized understanding of place. Recognized as a thought leader in the field and a critical advocate for landscape architecture in Georgia, her projects address geopolitical realities to forge new relationships between ecology and culture.

  Cowles brings insight and optimism to the urgencies of climate adaptation, applying expertise at regional, urban, and residential design scales. Her projects are global: landscape planning and master plans for cultural institutions, ecological rehabilitation of industrial, natural disaster, and mining sites. Notable works include the Shuamta Gateway Tourism Master Plan and Mtatsminda Afforestation Plan in Georgia, US Consulate in Guangzhou, and the large-scale urban redevelopment of Treasure Island and Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco.

  In 2019, she was named US Fulbright Specialist in Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. She is a member of UN Global Compact and works collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams in support of sustainable development. Landscape Architecture Magazine featured Ruderal on the cover of the April 2023 issue noting that the practice in Black Sea region is “in the thick of a global crossroads’ rebirth.”

  A compelling public speaker, Cowles lectures and serves on juries across the United States and Europe, taking up potent questions of urban-wild interfaces, forests, and the place of humans in an increasingly uncertain the natural world. She exhibited at the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Her critical writing appears in many publications, including Landscape Architecture Magazine and Art Papers.

  Cowles received a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She’s taught at The Ohio State University, University of Southern California, and Sam Fox School of Art and Design.

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  Giorgi Nishnianidze

  Architect

  Giorgi Nishnianidze is an architect and studio director at Ruderal. He leads development of new technologies for landscape architecture—software tools that aid visualization and modeling of green infrastructure, complex topography, and climate-adaptive landscapes.

  Adept at innovating system-based methods for design, Nishnianidze believes that technology optimizes problem-solving and allows for generative design processes, and offers clear spatial understanding of ecological systems. This is clear in Ruderal’s Sighnaghi Panorama Hotel in Kakheti, where Nishnianidze is project manager and site architect.

  His experience includes master planning, large-scale office and residential buildings in London, Moscow, Vilnius, and Tbilisi, and international landscape for corporate and cultural clients. He collaborated on invited competitions for The Museum of the 20th Century, Berlin and the Kaunas Science Museums and was part of the Ruderal team given the 2020 Landezine International Landscape Award Special Jury Prize.

  Nishnianidze is a lecturer in architecture and urbanism at the VA[A]DS program at the Free University in Tbilisi. He received a Master of Architecture degree from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and a bachelor’s degree from Tbilisi Academy of Arts. He is fluent in Georgian, English, Russian, and French, and skilled in coding and scripting for parametric design software.

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  Ben Hackenberger

  Landscape Architect

  Benjamin Hackenberger directs research at Ruderal, bringing an encouraging, pedagogical approach to the studio. He manages landscape training and develops critical writings that reflect Ruderal’s site-responsive landscape philosophy.

  With a deep understanding of ecological and historical context, research underpins his design process. He is interested in how digital tools can aid the design of complex landscapes and foster collaboration between disciplines, demonstrated in Ruderal’s Betania Forest Garden, the Mtatsminda Afforestation Plan in Tbilisi, and the Bodbe Hotel in Sighnaghi, Georgia.

  His expertise comes from his background in environmental analysis and scholarship on groundwater systems in Southern California and Soviet-era urban landscapes in Georgia. Hackenberger has been published in the Journal of Urban History and Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture. He presented Ruderal’s research at the 2023 Digital Landscape Architecture Conference.

  Hackenberger received a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design and an undergraduate degree from Pomona College. Prior to joining Ruderal full-time, he was the studio’s inaugural Community Collaboration Fellow and was awarded Global Academic Fellowship at New York University Abu Dhabi. He was part of the Ruderal team given the 2020 Landezine International Landscape Award Special Jury Prize.

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  Ana Petriashvili

  Architect

  Ana Petriashvili is an architect with experience in urban planning, hospitality design, and GIS. At Ruderal her work includes the Poti Forest Park, Dighomi Meadows Park, an urban biotech campus, and hospitality projects in various ecoregions. Previously, she was a GIS planner at Georgraphic, where she led projects such as the Tbilisi Cable Car Alternatives Feasibility Study, the Spatial Planning of Kazbegi Municipality, and the Concept of Kutaisi City Master Plan. She also has experience preparing construction documentation for commercial projects using REVIT software. Petriashvili holds an M.Arch from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) in Kaunas, Lithuania, and a B.Arch from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.

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  Nino Ivanidze

  Landscape Designer

  Nino Ivanidze holds a Master's degree in Interior Design from the Georgian Technical University's IDS program. Before joining Ruderal, Nino was a designer with Artstudio Project where she gained experience working on projects of different scales.

  Nino's expertise covers a range of design areas, including historic reconstruction, landscape, architecture, and interior design. Her notable projects include the reconstruction of Melik Azariantsi's house, the Tbilisi Dendrological Park, the rehabilitation of Gudiashvili Square, the Tbilisi Dry Port, and the interior design of the ibis Styles hotel.

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  Eka Khomeriki

  Architect

  Eka Khomeriki is a recent graduate from the architecture program at VA[A]DS, Free University of Tbilisi. Before joining the Ruderal team full-time in 2023, she began working in October 2022 as part of an internship for her bachelor's program. Her interest in landscape architecture emerged from her thesis project, which addresses the micro-scale environmental challenges of the 21st century in a mixed-use complex and public park in the Hidromsheni settlement on the edge of Tbilisi. While working at Ruderal, she studied landscape architecture ideas, concepts, and techniques, continuing to expand her knowledge.

  During the internship, she contributed to developing concepts and visuals for various projects, including the Lyon Shoah memorial, Dobrich City Section, Rustavi Floodplain, and Narikala Ridge forest. Transitioning to full-time at Ruderal, she currently is supervising the construction stage of projects like Bodbe Hotel in Sighnaghi and other residential projects.

  In 2022, she worked as a teaching assistant at Free University of Tbilisi, and then in 2024, she started working as a Lecturer of Media-Cluster I. She has completed workshops in heritage conservation in the Svaneti region, parametric modeling, and the industrial heritage of Tbilisi.

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  Nini Oragvelidze

  Architect

  Nini Oragvelidze is a graduate from the architecture program at VA[A]DS, Free University of Tbilisi. Before joining the Ruderal team full-time in 2023, she began working in October 2022 as part of an internship for her bachelor's program.
  She believes landscape design plays an important role in architecture as it balances the built environment and surroundings.

  During the internship, she contributed to developing concepts and visuals for various projects, including the Lyon Shoah memorial and Rustavi Floodplain. Transitioning to full-time at Ruderal, she focused on the construction stage of projects like Lopota planting in Kakheti, Bodbe Hotel in Sighnaghi and other residential projects.

  Her thesis project,[Re] Weaving Urban Fabric, centered on Didi Dighomi, a residential suburb of Tbilisi, blends single- and multi-family housing to create a "village" in the city. She has participated in workshops on heritage conservation in the Svaneti region of Georgia with Froh! and the Heinrich Boell Foundation Tbilisi.

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  Ejvind Spence

  Landscape Architect Intern

  Ejvind Spence is a landscape architecture student at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. His research on plant communities, particularly the stories and possibilities inherent in ruderal vegetation, has led him to develop planting designs, plants, and models at Ruderal, where he also leads the internal training program in planting and ecology.

  Alongside his internship, Ejvind is writing his Bachelor's thesis on vegetation in abandoned or ruined landscapes. His focus is on storytelling through vegetation and design and ecological restoration through natural succession.

  In 2023, Ejvind planned and attended a panel discussion about the importance of young voices in architecture in the climate crisis at UIA2023CPH.

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  Andreas Jensen

  Design Intern

  Andreas Hassinggaard Jensen is currently a student at The Royal Danish Academy, where he specializes in Furniture and Spatial Design. At Ruderal, he designs furniture and architecture for outdoor settings, His interest in aesthetics and form is grounded in material exploration.

  At Ruderal, Andreas develops elements for exhibitions and builds the visual language of the studio through rigorous experimentation. He is investigating local materials to create new methods of constructing landscape elements, including "The Biggest Room in The House," a hybrid inside-outside garden for a residence outside Tbilisi.

  His research includes the reaction of the weathering and deposition of mineral waters in constructed springs throughout Georgia. This research extends his work on "metaxis," where the interplay between nature and culture creates something new, and his interest in building objects and systems that facilitate intimate connections between people, nature, material, and place.

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  Iveta Chxikvadze

  Architect

  Iveta Chxikvadze joins Ruderal from the 2020 Summer Training Program, where she developed a deep interest in plants and ecological relationships. Before coming to Ruderal she had experience working in the field of architectural and urban design at local firms in Tbilisi, contributing to such projects as the Mziuri Park Reconstruction and the rehabilitation project and the plan for the development of the village Mukhrani. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the Tbilisi State Academy of Art.

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  Zizi Adamia

  Landscape Designer

  Zizi is a recent graduate of the Interior Design program at VA[A]DS Free University of Tbilisi. At Ruderal Zizi focuses on visualization and formal experimentation in site design.

  Before joining Ruderal full time, Zizi participated in the European Architecture Students Assembly 2022 program “Whispers” in Călărași, Romania. She was also a participant in the 2020 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial “Mood Workshop”. Zizi first joined Ruderal as an intern in Spring 2020.