Having worked on their obsessions in parallel worlds for several years, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava joined forces through their blog airoots/eirut in 2006. They have since written extensively on urban themes and engaged in projects involving planning, pedagogy, technology and activism. They are part of a collective that organized Urban Typhoon in Koliwada-Dharavi, Mumbai, where they are currently setting up a design cell. They co-operate participatory systems such as dharavi.organic and URBZ. Their ongoing joint ventures include a graphic novel, an essay on the natural city, and regular publications in Mumbai based publications such as Indian Architect and Builder and Art India.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Matias Sendoa Echanove studied Economics at the LSE in London and Urban Planning at Columbia University in New York. At present he is researching information technology and participatory urban planning at the University of Tokyo. His research involves street-markets, the informal economy, architectural landscapes, unplanned settlements, participatory politics, and information technology in Bogota, Geneva, New York, Tokyo and Mumbai. He coordinated the Urban Typhoon workshops in Shimokatzawa and Koliwada in Tokyo and Mumbai respectively. He is the author of several essays, articles and reports that are concerned with cities, new technologies, creativity and participatory politics. He is based in Mumbai, Geneva and Tokyo and is the initiator of Urbanology.

Rahul Srivastava has studied social and urban anthropology in Mumbai, Delhi and Cambridge (UK). He taught at Wilson College, Mumbai for seven years and worked as the first Director of PUKAR, Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research, Mumbai, a research collective set-up by Arjun Appadurai, an anthropologist based in New York. Since then he has done research and consultancies in Mumbai, Delhi, Georgetown-Penang, Kolkata, Tokyo, Nara (Japan) and New York. He has a fortnightly column on urban issues for Mumbai Mirror, a Times of India publication in Mumbai, writes fiction for young readers and screenplays. His previous publications include an ethnography of urbanized nomads around Mumbai, a novel published by Puffin, Penguin India and essays on urban anthropology, and popular culture. He is based in Goa and Mumbai.