Dr. Gabriela Debrunner

Research area

Gabriela Debrunner has a PhD in geography and environmental social sciences with a focus on spatial planning and political urbanism. She works as a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development IRL at ETH Zurich. She is associated at the Chair of Spatial Development and Urban Policy SPUR (Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann). In her research, Gabriela Debrunner deals with the overarching question of how socio-economic inequalities in an era of green transition in cities can be reduced and governed. She deals with four main research areas in depth:

• Densification as a current challenge for policy making 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 works on all four research fields from the perspective of urban governance: the question of how actors can strategically influence spatial development e.g. through the targeted activation of spatial planning instruments or property rights. Her point of departure is that densification (also called urban transformation, internal settlement development) per se does not necessarily lead to sustainable outcomes in terms of social inclusion or energy efficiency. Rather, how it is planned, implemented, and governed by the actors involved is what matters. In her projects, she seeks to politicize densification and to understand the various socio-political structures that try to prevent rivalries among competing groups and unsustainable outcomes, such as discrimination, housing unaffordability, or displacement. 

For her work, Gabriela Debrunner received the Faculty Price of Geosciences of the University of Bern for the best doctoral thesis in environmental sciences in 2021.

Selected published work:

• Debrunner, G. (2024): The Business of Densification. Governing Land for Social Sustainability in Housing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49014-9

• Debrunner, G., Hofer, K., Wicki, M., Kauer, F. & Kaufmann, D. (2024): Housing Precarity in Six European and North American Cities: Threatened by the Loss of a Safe, Stable, and Affordable Home, JAPA, DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2023.2291148   

• Debrunner, G.; Kaufmann, D. (2023): Land Valuation in Densifying Cities, Land Use Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106813

• Gerber, J-D.; Debrunner, G. (2022): Planning with power. Implementing urban densification policies in Zurich, Switzerland, Land Use policy, 123, 1-13.

• Debrunner, G.; Jonkman, A.; Gerber, J.D. (2022): Planning for Social Sustainability. Mechanisms of Social Exclusion in Densification through Large-Scale Redevelopment Projects in Swiss Cities, Housing Studies.

• Debrunner, G.; Hartmann, T. (2020): Strategic Use of Land Policy Instruments for Affordable Housing – Coping with Social Challenges under Scarce Land Condi- tions in Swiss Cities, Land Use Policy, 99.