Alyaksandra Danilava (nee Papova) was born in Gadzyach, Poltava region, Ukraine. She graduated in architecture from Kyiv Institute of Engineering and Construction in 1951, proceeding to work at the design institute Vitsebskgramadzyanpraekt in Vitebsk. She would stay at the Institute for her entire professional career, moving from a regular architect to workshop head and design team leader. Danilava and her husband Vital Danilav, whom she met as a student at Kyiv Institute of Engineering and Construction, became Vitebsk prominent architects, working across the “Stalinist” neo-classical and late-modernist periods. 

Danilava designed the buildings of the College of Public Service (1956) and the College of Communication (1957), buildings along Kirov Street (1953-1958) and Victory (Peramogi) square (1974), the square of the 1000-years of Vitebsk, microdistricts Yubileyny (1976) and Poudzen-6 (1980) in Vitebsk, as well as microdistricts in other cities of Belarus, including Navapolatsk and Orsha. She participated in the design of masterplans for Polatsk and Novapolotsk (1964), Vitebsk (1966), and Orsha (1968). She was awarded the prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the project of Vitebsk eastern industrial complex (1971, with Ivan Nekrashaevich) and the title of distinguished architect of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus in 1970.