About us
MKBT initiates and facilitates local development and regeneration processes. We use a long-term, interdisciplinary approach, working at the grassroots level, through participatory action, connected to local needs, aspirations, and opportunities. Our goal is to build the best home for the residents of the cities we are active in.
We always start from a deep understanding of the place and communities we work with. We act with patience and perseverance to build trust, which is essential in systemic urban regeneration processes committed to long-term goals. We love being on the ground, immersing ourselves in problems, and have the curiosity to meet people and understand distinct realities.
At the same time, we explore the interdependence of local and global challenges; we pay attention to international best practices and leverage local knowledge and resources to address the multiple crises and challenges of our generation, such as demographic changes, climate change, social inequality, sustainable economic development, and access to natural resources.
Main challenges we approach
Romania has undergone one of the most radical experiments in urbanization in the post-socialist space: the urbanization rate of 27.2% in 1956 nearly doubled (to 54%) by 1992. The scale of the urbanization ideal led to the development of corresponding infrastructures, the abrupt transformation of the urban landscape, and changes in social structure. Thirty-five years after the fall of the communist regime and the transition to a market economy, mostly small and medium-sized cities face the challenges of deindustrialization and local economic restructuring, demographic decline, growing social inequalities, and difficulties related to managing the built environment. These are challenging places where urban regeneration processes are necessary and important.
For us, urban regeneration is a systemic effort to reposition and reaffirm the latent assets of the city, the local community, and the cultural, natural, and social heritage as potential elements and fundamental catalytic dimensions for development and transformation.
In this context, the main challenges we address in our work include the following:
Access to safe and decent housing
Housing first—more than just a policy we work with—it is also the conclusion we have reached after many years of working in areas affected by poverty and urban marginalization across the country. Access to decent and safe housing is the basic condition for every individual to have the opportunity and hope to address other needs such as education, health, personal fulfillment, civic engagement, etc.
Sustainable (re)use of the built environment
Our country is full of abandoned, unused, or underutilized spaces, due to pronounced demographic decline and the economic restructuring shock in small to medium-sized urban and rural areas. We reflect and act upon sustainable development of abandoned or underutilized land reserves in cities, while avoiding uncontrolled development on the urban peripheries. How do we reuse latent built assets, whether with or without cultural heritage value, for the benefit of the community, to improve local economic conditions, or for sustainable tourism?
City & Nature: Bridging the divide
How do we strengthen communities for climate change and energy transition? Firstly, through avoiding to separate the built anthropic environment from the natural environment. Cities are not isolated entities, disconnected from nature, but are integrated into larger ecological contexts, and preparing communities for inevitable future transformations depends on this profound understanding. Natural resources within or near cities—forests, meadows, terrain, watercourses, biodiversity—can enhance people’s quality of life simply through their proximity. In the urban regeneration processes we facilitate and support public authorities and communities to realize the value of these resources and integrate them more effectively into urban circuits.
Where we work. How we work.
Since 2014, we have worked in all regions of the country, serving both urban and rural communities at the local, county, and extended territorial levels. We are committed to long-term engagements, initiating and pursuing systemic processes of regeneration and local economic development in Reșițaa (Banat Mountains area) and Făgăraș (southern Transylvania area), where we also have branches.
Our team
+ We are an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in territorial planning, local economic development, urbanism and urban engineering, anthropology, and community facilitation. We combine professional experience, supported by fieldwork, in direct engagement with local communities, with strong academic training in Romania and abroad. In addition to the core MKBT team, we involve collaborators with complementary expertise (communication and community development, heritage, etc.) in our projects.
+ So far, we have worked in over 30 communities in Romania and other Eastern European countries, with local and international governmental institutions (World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, Council of Europe, etc.).
+ Among the founding members of MKBT are Anamaria Vrabie, Mihai Alexandru, Cătălina Ioniță, and Alexandru Gotcă.
+ We keep alive the memory of our friends and colleagues, MKBT co-founders Mihai and Cătălina, who lost their lives in the Colectiv fire on October 30, 2015. Their dedication and passion continue to inspire and give us courage.
Marina is a co-founder of MKBT and coordinator of the organization. She loves field work, discovering people and places, building networks and facilitation. She is an economist at the core with a MA in urban economics and local economic development from The London School of Economics. She has two boys and loves spending time together in nature.
Mihai co-founded MKBT in 2014, and is an engineer with a specialization in urban engineering and regional development, dedicated to using technology to serve local communities. With a broad interdisciplinary experience spanning urban engineering, GIS, strategic planning, strategic planning, risk assessment, community engagement tools, regional development, and participatory interventions, Mihai brings a practical skill set to address established urban challenges using emerging spatial approaches. A graduate of the Technical University of Constructions Bucharest (UTCB), he is also a PhD in civil engineering, with technical involvement in national and international research and development projects. Mihai loves winter sports and hiking.
Ana is an urban planner and co-founder of MKBT, bringing to the team her passion for participatory processes and her experience in community activations. She loves that her job always engages her curiosity about places, people and the ingredients that make communities come alive and work together. She has a background in strategic planning and public policy, and has been at the center of several projects that have brought together people, institutions and initiatives that might not otherwise have sat at the same table: on topics around livability, appropriation of abandoned cities and spaces, resilience and urban co-governance. She likes to ride her bike and is always thinking of forests and mountains to explore.
Alexandra joined the MKBT team in 2023 after collaborating on a project guiding municipalities to make informal settlements safe. Her background is in anthropology (London School of Economics) and development (Institute of Development Studies) but she keeps revolving around topics around access to the city and its resources. She has done research on marginalization and spatial segregation (World Bank), access to healthy food in low-income neighborhoods (IDS), the lives of the urban elderly (SFAT: Intergenerational Dialogue on Sustainability), access to culture and young people’s relationship with their cities (F-SIDES Cineclub, De-a Arhitectura). What she likes most about MKBT is that she can look at urban development as a basket that has to hold all the bits and pieces of our lives (who we see, where we live, what we do with our free time, how we keep our head and body healthy) safe and protected. Since working at MKBT she’s been on a train at least once every few weeks, and that makes her happy.
Cristina este juristă cu diplomă în Managementul Proiectelor, de la ASE. Lucrează part-time la MKBT de doi ani și este expertă în consultanța pentru accesarea fondurilor nerambursabile și management financiar. Este co-fondatoare a Bookstore&Tea Mangalia și are experiență în organizarea de evenimente culturale. Cristina este președinte al Asociației Youth Vision for Society, unde coordonează proiecte civice și culturale, și manager la Improvision, oferind consultanță pentru IMM-uri și ONG-uri. Colaborează și cu Asociația Curaj Înainte și alte organizații pe proiecte de management financiar și consultanță. Deși numele ei e Cristina, cam toată lumea îi spune Mia. Mia îi are pe Gică-cățel și pe Sică-pisoi în viața ei, e pasionată de fotografie și de plimbări.
Maria has been an MKBT contributor since 2023. She studied communication and brand management (SNSPA, Bucharest) and is pursuing a master’s degree in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Berlin (Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin), where she also lives with her small family. She works on overall company comms. and assists in project development and execution. Trained in nature pedagogy (Blattwerk Berlin), she is not necessarily keen on practicing her degree, but would enjoy bringing people closer to the forest and a less comfortable and commodified life. She likes to debate about taken-for-granted things and make up scenarios for better lives.
Edi joined our team in 2025, after an internship @MKBT in 2024. He studied International Relations and International Public Affairs @The Bucharest University. During his studies realised he was passionate about local development and grassroots work. He’s thrilled to explore hidden gems in the places he visits and keeps himself busy with ideas and projects he’s passionate about.
Interventions & services
As an interdisciplinary team, we operate at the intersection of multiple competencies: spatial planning, local economic development, urbanism and urban engineering, anthropology, community facilitation; only in this way can we respond to complex challenges with solutions that make sense on the long term and facilitate systemic transformation.
Research, Analysis, and Technical Studies
- Qualitative research, documentation, and statistical and spatial data processing, field research;
- Participatory processes for data collection and input from citizens/local actors;
- Interdisciplinary processing, diagnostic analyses;
- Deconstruction of concepts into materials, campaigns, and awareness platforms addressing documented issues;
Participatory Strategic Planning
- Development/revision of public policies and strategies for local, regional, or national levels, for public or private organizations;
- Facilitation of participatory processes for vision setting and strategic planning;
- Facilitation of strategic, multi-sectoral partnerships;
- Application into legislative proposals and advocacy efforts;
Program Design and Implementation
- Facilitation of co-design processes for programs/projects addressing local, regional, national challenges;
- Design and implementation of urban regeneration and local development programs;
- Technical assistance in implementation;
- Knowledge transfers: learning experiences and training (field visits, workshops, etc.), design of guides and working methodologies.
We implement a mix of the above actions in projects or tracks that make long-term sense and create incremental, systemic impact.
Operating as a non-profit entity (MakeBetter Association), we access non-reimbursable funding alongside/for the partners and communities we serve. We also provide services through our consultancy division (SC MKBT Habitat SRL) when requested support aligns with thematic relevance, expected impact, and our areas of expertise and action.