An architect and urban designer by training, Deborah is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at TU Delft and MIT Senseable City Lab. Her research delves into human-nature interaction in urban environments, with a special focus on developing biophilic metropolitan solutions. Supported by local partners such as the AMS Institute, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and the Singapore-ETH Centre, she spearheads the BIO-POLIS project aimed at improving our quality of life and addressing climate change challenges across different biomes.
Through blue and green infrastructure, Amsterdam reveals great potential to become a biophilic city to reach the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Deborah explores the multidimensional benefits of urban nature as an open-air setting, including improvements in mental health, promotion of biodiversity, and mitigation of urban heat island effects, while applying the AMS Living Lab approach and Citizen Science.
Deborah earned her PhD in Architecture and Construction from Sapienza University of Rome, where she specialized in Urban Morphology. Her multidisciplinary background spans across urban science, environmental technology, landscape design, ecology, sociology, smart and informal cities, and sustainability at all scales.
“Nature is the most ecological, economical, and sustainable solution to improve urban livability and enhance climate resilience”