Adina Banayan’s expertise spans architecture, hydrology, real estate development, and policy.
As UNU-INWEH, Ms. Banayan conducts interdisciplinary research exploring how the long-term planning and implementation of nature-based solutions can support urban resilience in the era of Global Water Bankruptcy. Her work examines the connections between hydrological conditions, water management, and spatial development, investigating how architecture, landscape strategies, and master planning can complement existing water-management approaches and strengthen water security and built-environment resilience.
Ms. Banayan’s work integrates sustainability into real estate development. Her experience includes architectural design across single-family residential, mixed-use, institutional, educational, and transportation sectors, as well as building retrofits responding to New York City’s Local Law 97. Through Open Air Collective, she advocated for the Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA).
Ms. Banayan holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the City College of New York and is pursuing an MSc in Hydrology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She chairs the American Institute of Architects Westchester + Hudson Valley (AIA WHV) Committee on the Environment and serves on the Board of New York Passive House.