BIOGRAPHY
Dr Orna Rosenfeld is an internationally recognised housing expert, urban strategist, advisor and author whose work focuses on one of the defining challenges of our time: how to make housing and cities work better for people in a period of profound economic, demographic, environmental and technological change.
For nearly 30 years, she has worked across 56 countries, helping shape the policies, institutions, investment approaches and urban strategies through which housing and cities are planned, financed and delivered. Her work moves between the global and the local—connecting international policy and investment frameworks with the realities of governments, cities, places and communities.
Dr Rosenfeld has advised and worked with many of the world's leading institutions concerned with housing and urban development, including the European Commission, European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, World Bank and United Nations, alongside national governments and more than 40 cities across Europe and North America.
At the centre of her work is a systems view of housing. Housing is shaped not by a single policy or institution, but by the interaction of governance, land, finance, planning, construction, infrastructure, climate objectives and social change. Her expertise therefore extends from social and affordable housing, housing governance and investment to urban regeneration, land and property strategies, integrated urban development, sustainable construction and renovation, climate transition, equality and inclusion.
This perspective has placed her at the intersection of some of the major shifts in European and international urban policy. Her work has contributed to the Urban Agenda for the EU, New European Bauhaus, Just Transition, EU Cohesion Policy and the UN New Urban Agenda, among other international initiatives. Across these contexts, she has worked from research and policy formulation through to investment strategy, programme design, evaluation and implementation.
Her international advisory work is underpinned by direct experience of delivery. Earlier in her career, she contributed to the planning and delivery of more than 6,000 homes and approximately 100 hectares of development land. She has since evaluated or assessed more than 400 projects and initiatives, giving her an unusual perspective across the full trajectory from individual projects and places to national and international housing systems.
Dr Rosenfeld holds a Ph.D. in Urban Regeneration and Development from the University of Westminster, an M.A. in Planning Research and Theory from the University of Sheffield, and a B.Arch. (Hons) from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Today, her work is increasingly concerned with the future of housing systems: how governments, cities, investors and communities can respond to growing affordability pressures, demographic and societal change, climate transition and technological disruption while creating places that remain inclusive, liveable and capable of adapting over time.
INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTION & INFLUENCE
For nearly three decades, Dr Orna Rosenfeld has contributed to how housing and urban challenges are understood, debated and addressed internationally. Her work brings together evidence from different countries and cities to identify what can be learned across housing systems—and what must remain grounded in particular institutional, economic and spatial contexts.
She is the author of more than 20 strategic and scientific publications on housing and urban development, including major comparative research for the United Nations and European Commission. Her work has examined the evolution of social and affordable housing, governance and finance, investment, regulation, urban transformation and the changing role of public institutions. Its reach extends beyond publication: her research and recommendations have fed into European and international policy processes and have been translated across Europe and internationally.
A defining feature of this contribution has been her ability to connect knowledge with decision-making. Dr Rosenfeld has contributed to international expert groups, advisory processes and policy dialogues bringing together governments, European institutions, UN bodies, development banks, cities, researchers and practitioners. Her work has helped bridge perspectives that are too often considered separately: housing and urban development; policy and investment; international frameworks and local implementation.
She has carried these conversations into the international public arena through more than 120 keynote, speaking, chairing and moderation engagements. From ministerial meetings and the United Nations to the European Parliament, World Cities Summit, Smart City Expo World Congress and ISOCARP, her role has increasingly been not only to present evidence, but to frame questions, connect perspectives and facilitate dialogue around the changing future of housing and cities.
Education has been another dimension of this contribution. For more than fifteen years at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Westminster, she connected international practice with academic enquiry, bringing contemporary housing and urban challenges into the education of future policymakers and urban professionals.
Her contribution has been recognised internationally, including through her selection as a World Cities Summit Young Leader and the British Council Study UK Alumni Award for Social Impact, awarded at both European and Global level.
Across research, policy and international dialogue, a consistent question runs through her work: how can knowledge generated across different housing systems and places be translated into better policy, better investment and ultimately better outcomes for people and cities?
AWARDS
SOCIAL IMPACT & INCLUSIVE URBAN FUTURES
Dr Orna Rosenfeld’s commitment to social impact, equality and inclusion extends beyond her advisory practice.
Earlier in her career, she contributed to international humanitarian and philanthropic initiatives supporting emergency response, housing and education, working with international charitable networks and participating in fundraising and advocacy initiatives across Europe and the United States.
Today, this commitment is advanced through Inclusive Urban Futures, the non-profit organisation she founded to strengthen the place of justice, equality and inclusion in the future of cities globally. It brings together international perspectives from policy, research, practice and lived experience to explore how urban transformation can expand rather than constrain people’s opportunities and agency.
Through international dialogue, research, convening and the Inclusive Urban Futures podcast, the initiative creates space for perspectives that are often separated across disciplines, institutions and geographies—connecting questions of housing and cities with wider debates about inclusion, leadership and societal change.