Assistant Professor of Planning and Housing (PLANH)

Academic Profile

Gabriela Debrunner, Dr. sc. nat., is Assistant Professor of Planning and Housing at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), Institute of Geography and Sustainability (IGD). She holds a PhD in Geography and Environmental Social Sciences from the University of Bern, with a focus on spatial planning and political urbanism. For her dissertation, she received the Faculty Prize in Environmental Sciences (2021) for the best doctoral thesis at the University of Bern.

She previously served as Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development (IRL), Chair of Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR, Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann), at ETH Zurich. She has also undertaken research stays at Stockholm University (Department of Human Geography) and at the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) in Copenhagen.

Gabriela holds additional qualifications including a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Urban Management from the University of Zurich and a federal teaching diploma for secondary level II (gymnasium) from the Bern University of Applied Sciences.

Research Interests

Gabriela's overarching research question is: How can socio-economic inequalities be reduced and governed in an era of green transition in urban areas and beyond?

Her work explores this question through four main research areas:

Densification as a current challenge for policymaking and planning.
Socio-environmental sustainability, equity, and justice of urban and housing development.
Active land and housing policy and strategic spatial planning.
Experimental and collaborative planning as well as process design thinking.

She examines these themes through the lens of urban governance: how actors strategically influence spatial development via planning instruments, property rights, and policy design. Her starting point is that densification (also called urban transformation or internal settlement development) does not automatically lead to sustainable outcomes such as social inclusion or energy efficiency. What matters is how it is planned, implemented, and governed. Her projects therefore aim to politicize densification and analyze the socio-political structures that seek to avoid negative outcomes such as discrimination, unaffordability, or displacement.

Research Projects

Gabriela has played a leading role in several large-scale projects, including:

Densifying Switzerland (2021–2025, SNSF), ETH Zürich
Dense and Green Cities (Future Cities Lab Global Program), ETH Zürich
ReHousIn (HORIZON-CL2-2023-Transformations, with nine European partner universities), ETH Case/Wohnforum

She is also a collaborator in:

The Responsible City (SNSF, University of Zurich)
NFP81 – Building Culture - Soft densification instead of redevelopment (ETH Zurich, SPUR)
NFP 82 - Biodiversity and Ecosystem services (WSL)

Planning Practice

Alongside her academic work, Gabriela has gained extensive professional experience in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. She has worked for:

the planning office IVO Innenentwicklung AG
the Regional Planning Office of the Zurich Metropolitan Area (RZU)
the City Planning Office of Winterthur
the Swiss Association of Mountainous and Rural Areas (SAB)

Since October 2022, she also works as an independent advisor through her office People, Policy, and Planning, supporting multiple mandates in spatial development.