Doruntina Zendeli is an architect and urban planner with interdisciplinary expertise holding an MSc cum laude in Urban Studies and a PhD cum laude in Urban Planning, Design and Policy from Politecnico di Milano. During her master’s studies, she participated in an Erasmus exchange program at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Her research examines the interactions between urban form, climate and health, with a particular focus on urban heat stress, heatwaves and socio-spatial inequities. Methodologically, she operates at the intersection of urban analytics, urban climate science and planning, integrating GIS-based spatial analysis, remote sensing, climate modelling, machine learning and health data to support heat-resilient and equitable urban planning and design. Her doctoral research was conducted in collaboration with the Department of Urbanism, Section of Environmental Technology and Design at Delft University of Technology, where she spent one year as a visiting researcher. During this period, she contributed to joint scientific publications, seminars and involved as an external advisor to the project Improving Public Health through Urban Greening: A Health Impact Assessment of Greening Strategies on Urban Heat Stress and Heat-Related Mortality, funded by the Convergence – Resilient Delta Initiative. Her academic trajectory and experience in practice, spanning North Macedonia, Italy, the UK and the Netherlands, reflecting a strong international orientation and interdisciplinary engagement.
Alongside her academic activities, she has collaborated with professional practices, including ARCADIS SRL in Milan, giving support on urban sustainability and climate-responsive planning and design. She has also served as a teaching assistant in several bachelor’s and master’s level design and planning studios at Politecnico di Milano. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana ‘Fausto Curti’ (LabSimUrb), where she is involved in multiple national and international research projects, including BioDenCity – Reversing BIOdiversity decline in DENsification strategies using innovative sensing, systemic solutions and data driven CITY modelling for transformative change (Biodiversa+ 2025), the Climate Change Adaptation Plan of Politecnico di Milano, Metropolitan Sponge City, F.AIR – Fragile Air, Unfair Health (Fondazione Cariplo, Inequalities 2024 call), Monitoring and Microclimatic Analysis of Temporary Urban Shading Structures in Milan (C40 and Comune di Milano) and , Environmental Inequalities (Triennale Milano 2025 exhibition).
Scopus : https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=58771638900
Google scholar : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=v284v9EAAAAJ&hl=en
ResearchGate : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Doruntina-Zendeli-2?ev=hdr_xprf