Graduated in Architecture from the Royal Polytechnic of Turin in 1938, Ada Bursi became the first woman to register with the Order of Architects of the Province of Turin in 1940.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Bursi served as a temporary special assistant at the Faculty of Architecture in Turin, supporting both instructional and design-related tasks. In 1945, she was the only woman to join the group of Modern Turin Architects “Giuseppe Pagano.” The following year, she worked alongside Amedeo Albertini and Gino Becker as a designer for modular furniture for an exhibition promoted by the Women’s Pro Culture Association. This work, aimed at mass production, sought to contribute to a new lifestyle in housing and to create more adaptable domestic spaces that better responded to the daily responsibilities women carried at the time .
From the late 1930s to the early 1940s, she was an assistant to Giovanni Muzio and subsequently worked at the Technical Office of the City of Turin for over three decades. There, she designed residences, schools, and actively contributed to the city’s development in the 1970s through the restoration of historic buildings and participation in architectural competitions.
Committed to advancing women’s empowerment, she was also involved in AIDIA – the Italian Association of Women Engineers and Architects, helping to expand the potential of professional support networks for women.
Her dedication and innovative vision are evident in her design of school environments focused on the well-being of children. She was among the first to design based on the idea that children are users with their own needs, not simply future adults, and this perspective informed her methodological innovations

The carreer of Ada Bursi stands as an important chapter in the history of women’s participation in architecture and public design.