Ar. Ashim Manna is a doctoral researcher at the International Centre of Urbanism at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research analyzes the overlaps of rapid urbanization, receding ecological resilience, and climate impacts in the Garhwal Himalayas and is supported by the KU Leuven, Stichting DAIDA, and the JN Tata Endowment Fund. As an experienced urban infrastructure and landscape planning expert, Ashim has a decade of multi-disciplinary experience in smart cities, public-realm infrastructure, spatial analysis, and planning projects with multi-disciplinary planning firms, including AECOM, BDP, and collaborations across India. Ashim is trained in spatial planning from KU Leuven on a VLIR-OUS scholarship, Urban Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He has previously taught at Jamia Millia Islamia’s Faculty of Architecture in New Delhi. Ashim, a founding principal at Ekatra, a collaborative design-research practice, oversees My Liveable City’s research and outreach initiatives.
Ar. Hannah John is an architect hailing from Bangalore. She completed an M.Sc in Conservation of Monuments and Sites from the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, KU Leuven in 2021. Her previous experience includes heritage awareness and documentation. She has been associated with Dharatal since December 2021 as a Conservation architect. She is involved in a myriad of projects that are closely associated with rivers and their evolving significance in urban and rural historic landscapes such as Orchha, Gwalior and Lucknow. Hannah is also an active member of ICOMOS India.
