Matias Echanove, and partner, Rahul Srivastava, co-founded urbz.net, an experimental action and research collective specialized in participatory planning and design. urbz works with citizens, organizations and municipalities in Mumbai, Bogotá, São Paulo, Geneva and Seoul. They are interested in user-generated habitats, communication systems and participatory governance. urbz’s work was exhibited at MoMA in New York, MAXXI in Rome, MAK in Vienna, Istanbul Design Biennial, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Sao Paulo Cultural Center, and Bhau Daji Lad City Museum in Mumbai.

Matias and Rahul have been invited to talk at Columbia University, NYU, Princeton, Berkeley, Strelka Institute in Moscow, the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen, the World Bank in New Delhi, the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, and in forums such as TEDx and Urban Age. They regularly write in journals such as The Hindu, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Art India, Oxford University Press, Strelka Press (Moscow), Domus (Milan), Tokyo University Press, and Indian Architect and Builder.

Matias Echanove studied government and economics at the London School of Economics, urban planning at Columbia University, and urban information systems at the University of Tokyo.