Team

Anab Jain [Designer, Speculator, Researcher, Facilitator]

Designer, Entrepreneur, TED Fellow and Founder of Superflux, a multidisciplinary design studio based in London, UK and Ahmedabad, India.

Born and brought up in Gujarat, Kutch remains an area close to her heart, and with LiloRann, Anab wants to create a unique opportunity space in a place where the impact of human-induced climate change will be the hardest.

With an ambition to explore the remarkable possibilities as well as the implications of scientific and technological innovations on us and our environment, Anab created the Superflux Lab last year. Seeding a range of projects from public engagement around quantum physics, designing Optogentic experiences for the visually impaired and rapid prototyping artificial pollinators, the Lab has become a unique platform to experiment new ideas, foster constructive partnerships and sustained dialogue, with a hope for social, economic and cultural impact.

Her key honors include the Award of Excellence, ICSID, UNESCO Digital Arts Award, and Grand Prix, Geneva Human Rights Festival. She has presented work at MoMA, New York, London Design Festival, SIGGRAPH, Interactivos Madrid, Tate Modern and Apple Computers Inc. Anab has spoken at numerous conferences including LIFT, WCIT, Epic, PICNIC, Design Engaged and Pecha Kucha London.

Websites: superflux.in , powerof8.org.uk
Twitter: @Superflux

Dr. Shravan Acharya [Planner, Climate Change Expert]

Regional Planner, Climate Scientist, Dean, Faculty of Environment and Climate Change Studies at CEPT University.

Dr. Acharya will bring his knowledge of the area, his expertise in environment and climate change studies, the support of his institution and the enthusiasm of his masters students to the project.

Apart from the Climate Change Dept, Dr. Acharya is also heading the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the Faculty of Planning and Public Policy. He has been conferred the Senior Fulbright Fellowship, ASIA Fellowship, the Shastri Indo Canadian Fellowship and the University Grant Commission Fellowship.

He works on the social, economic and political contexts of development with emphasis on environment, urban planning, regional planning and community empowerment. He has also worked on the redevelopment and marginalization issues in emerging Asian cities like Beijing, Hanoi, Ahmedabad and the declining cities of the US. Understanding the political economic development issues in the mountain communities in the Eastern Himalayas is his passion.

Field investigation, urban trekking and photo documentation is his academic hobby.

Website: cept.ac.in

Jon Ardern [Designer, Technologist, Maker]

Designer, technologist, maker and co-founder of Superflux, a multidisciplinary design studio based in London and India.

For the LiloRann project, Jon will bring his knowledge of resilient design and prototyping, and understanding of climate change and sustainability.

Jon has a first class honors in Fine Art Sculpture from the University of Leeds and an MA with distinction in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, London. His thesis, which gained him a Distinction, explored the idea of emergence as it relates to social technologies and the networked world.

Jon’s work is often situated at the intersection of art, science and technology and is provocative in nature. His project Ark-Inc, a superfiction that presents itself as an investment company asking people to invest in a post-crash civilisation, was shown at the Design and Elastic Mind exhibition at MoMA New York. He has has exhibited at the V&A, London, Crypt Gallery, London Design Festival, Treehouse Gallery and LongNow Meetup London. His work won the UNSECO prize from Design 21, the Social Design Network, New York.
Websites:  jonardern.com / superflux.in
Twitter: @jonardern

Ferdinand Ludwig [ Architect, Founder Baubotanik ]

Assistant Professor, University of Stuttgart/ Architect and Expert in Living Plant Constructions.

For the LiloRann project, Ferdinand would like to explore the possibility of creating ‘living barriers’ against ecosystem degradation, structures which could be much stronger than normal plants and could offer other uses.

Fredinand is an architect who has been working with ‘Living Plant Constructions’ since 2004. He realised the first prototype of such a construction called ‘Living Skywalk’ in 2005, and went on to win the Archiprix International Award for the same.

He then received the German Environment Foundation Scholarship to develop this work further through a PhD. He is also a core member of the research group ‘Baubotanik – Living Plant Constructions’ at the University of Stuttgart. Their work has been widely acclaimed, some press articles here and here

Apart from teaching at the Institute for Basics of Modern Architecture (IGMA), University of Stuttgart, Ludwig continues to explore new ways to breathe life into architecture.

Website: baubotanik.de
Twitter: @FerdiLudwig

Christina Agapakis [Synthetic Biologist, Biotechnologist]

Synthetic Biologist, Medical Student at Harvard, Advisor on iGEM, Science Blogger, Fiber Artist.

For the LiloRann project, Christina will bring her expertise in bioengineering to exploit the potential of invasive plant species and increase biodiversity.

The focus of her scientific work in graduate school has been in developing new platforms for synthetic biology, working with electron transfer proteins and electrogenic bacteria to design novel energy sources, and engineering relationships between cells of different species for the design of synthetic ecologies greater than the sum of their parts.

Christina wants to investigate how engineering approaches can be used to better understand the principles underlying biological systems and how the unique properties of biology can be used to inform better engineering design. She is interested in collaborations between scientists, engineers, and designers that lead to new sustainable technologies.

She is a collaborator at the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) and on the Synthetic Aesthetics Project.

Website: agapakis.com Blog: scienceblogs.com/oscillator/
Twitter: @thisischristina

Geoff Lawton [Permaculture Expert]

A consultant, designer and teacher, Geoff holds a diploma in permaculture design and has specialized in permaculture education, design, implementation, system establishment, administration and community development.

He will bring immense knowledge and expertise in ecological systems, food cultivation and permaculture to the project and advise the team on strategy.

Geoff is most famous for his project in Jordan called ‘Greening the Desert’. Since 1985, Lawton has undertaken a large number of jobs consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in over thirty countries around the world. Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-governmental organizations and multinational companies. In 1996 he was accredited with the Permaculture Community Services Award by the permaculture movement for services in Australia and around the world.

Lawton’s aim is to establish self-replicating educational demonstration sites. He has currently educated over 6,000 students in permaculture worldwide. Lawton’s ‘master plan’ is see aid projects being replicated as fast as possible to help ameliorate the growing food and water crisis. He also founded and continues to lead work at the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia.

Websites:  wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Lawton

Noah Raford [ Scenario Planner, Futurist]

Urban planner, Specialist in sustainable development and Futurist.

Noah brings his expertise in large scale scenario planning and knowledge of sustainable development to the project.

He currently practices in the London office of GBN, working on a range of long-range regional futures and sustainable development projects. He is a member of the International Futures Forum, co-founder of the strategy facilitation boutique Sensitive Dynamics, an advisor to the board of the urban economics group Design Economics Partnership, the former North American Director for the design think-tank Space Syntax Limited and a Senior Research Advisor to the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.  He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics Complexity Programme, a fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, an external advisor to the USC Anneberg Scanrio Lab and a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society.

Noah is an expert in crowd-sourcing and collective intelligence approaches and is currently developing large scale participatory futures systems for his PhD in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.

Noah’s married with two children, is a semi-retired techno DJ, likes real ales and is the host of the semi-regular Nerd House podcast.  Google it.

Website: news.noahraford.com
Twitter: @nraford

Candy Chang [Artist, Graphic Designer, Community Planner]

An architect, artist, designer, urban planner, community developer with expertise in creating thoughtful public spaces, engaging with local people and providing fun and practical solutions to everyday issues of community life.

Candy will bring her participatory design expertise to create tools and methods that engage with the local community for the Lilorann project.

She’s a TED Fellow and has worked in Johannesburg, New Orleans, Vancouver, Nairobi, and New York City on collaborative projects with residents, community organizations, and local government. She co-founded Civic Center, an organization that champions civic engagement through stories, services, products, and public installations. Thanks to synthesizers and nerdy software she performed music in NYC, Detroit, and Grenoble and co-founded a design studio called Red Antenna. Her projects have been on the streets of NYC, Johannesburg and Helsinki and featured at the National Design Museum, the Center for Architecture, and an airport in Russia.

Website: http://candychang.com/
Twitter: @candychang

Mark Selby [Interaction and Product Designer]

Product and Interaction designer, PhD student at Nottingham University’s Horizon, and Mixed Reality Lab, co-founder of LAB, a Nottingham based collective for open, collaborative creative practice.

Mark will bring his expertise in designing and prototyping hardware, digital technologies and making to the project.

He studied product design and went on to do his MA in Design and Critical Practice at Goldsmiths, London. He has worked for a number of design studios in a variety of roles from hand-making bespoke products to web usability. More recently he worked with Microsoft Research on the Technology Heirlooms project.

Mark’s work focuses on how emerging and future technologies might mediate our perceptions of the world, our experiences within it, and our encounters with the artefacts of personal memory. He enjoys writing and making useful things from waste stuff he collects.

Website: markmakedo.co.uk
Twitter: @mark_selby

Superflux Lab (London, UK and Ahmedabad, India)
Website: superflux.in/work/lab

Faculty of Environment and Climate Change Studies (CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India)
Website: cept.ac.in

Art, Architecture, Design India Centre (AADI, Ahmedabad, India)