Neli’s work focuses on urban regeneration, shaping places with a strong sense of identity, community, and public space through housing, education, and cultural architecture. She explores how contemporary interventions can be thoughtfully integrated into historic settings, ensuring a sensitive balance between past and present.

Neli has led design teams through large projects involving multiple stakeholders, project partners, and consultants. With expertise in working within existing environments, she excels at managing large-scale information flows and visually communicating complex spatial relationships.

Before joining ZHA, Neli worked with architectural practices in the UK and Norway, including Acme, A-Lab, Adjaye Associates, and Grimshaw. Her portfolio includes an inner-city regeneration project, residential projects in the UK, and urban growth proposals for Oslo Fjord and Lillestrøm Station. At Grimshaw, she was part of the team that delivered the Euston Overstation Development.

Neli completed her Master of Architecture at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy (UACG) in Sofia, including a year of exchange at ENSAP Bordeaux in France. She earned her Master of Arts in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) in London, focusing on representation in architecture, memory politics, and urban transitions. In recent years she has taught urban design and regeneration at the University of Nottingham.

Neli grew up in Bulgaria during its rapid transition in the 1980s and 1990s, which shaped her design philosophy of forming new ideas upon the old, rather than demolishing entirely. Beyond work, she enjoys rock-climbing and walking in mountainous landscapes. She also has a passion for reading and collecting books on history, sci-fi, and fairytales.